Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000Existing studies on crowdsourcing have focused on analyzing isolated contributions by individual participants and thus collaboration dynamics among them are under-investigated…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing studies on crowdsourcing have focused on analyzing isolated contributions by individual participants and thus collaboration dynamics among them are under-investigated. The value of implementing crowdsourcing in problem solving lies in the aggregation of wisdom from a crowd. This study examines how marginality affects collaboration in crowdsourcing.
Design/methodology/approach
With population level data collected from a global crowdsourcing community (openideo.com), this study applied social network analysis and in particular bipartite exponential random graph modeling (ERGM) to examine how individual level marginality variables (measured as the degree of being located at the margin) affect the team formation in collaboration crowdsourcing.
Findings
Significant effects of marginality are attributed to collaboration skills, number of projects won, community tenure and geolocation. Marginality effects remain significant after controlling for individual level and team level attributes. However, marginality alone cannot explain collaboration dynamics. Participants with leadership experience or more winning ideas are also more likely to be selected as team members.
Originality/value
The core contribution this research makes is the conceptualization and definition of marginality as a mechanism in influencing collaborative crowdsourcing. This study conceptualizes marginality as a multidimensional concept and empirically examines its effect on team collaboration, connecting the literature on crowdsourcing to online collaboration.
Details
Keywords
Most theories of entrepreneurship have focused on explaining individual actions, neglecting the extent to which entrepreneurs are embedded in particular socio‐historical contexts…
Abstract
Most theories of entrepreneurship have focused on explaining individual actions, neglecting the extent to which entrepreneurs are embedded in particular socio‐historical contexts that shape both opportunity structures and the interactions that enable particular entrepreneurial responses to opportunities. Evidence from an ethnography of college and university recycling coordinators and programs is drawn on to extend the concept of “collective entrepreneurship” to account for broader social dynamics having to do with the construction of a recycling coordinator occupational identity and resource mobilization oriented towards the defense of that identity. Social marginality and linkage to a wider environmental social movement are argued to be the key conditions that made the collective efforts of recycling coordinators to safeguard and increase the status of their nascent occupation possible.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of peripherality and centrality in relation to entrepreneurial learning and development. Peripherality has previously been…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of peripherality and centrality in relation to entrepreneurial learning and development. Peripherality has previously been considered from a mainly geographical perspective as being remote, loosely connected and marginal. A broader conception of the topic is addressed, asking: in what ways is peripherality relevant to entrepreneurial learning? How can centre-peripheral connectivity enhance this? What are the implications for communities, learners and educators?
Design/methodology/approach
Discourses of entrepreneurship development relating to policy, economics, geography and culture favour the concept of centres, which attract attention, resources, activities and people. Whilst peripherality is an enduring topic of interest in regional studies, it is widened through using the conceptualisation of legitimate peripheral participation in social learning as a methodological lens for the study. A case study of the technology sector in Cape Breton, Canada is included to illustrate peripheral entrepreneurship.
Findings
The paper suggests ways in which peripheral-central relationships can be a positive factor in entrepreneurial learning. It suggests that rebalancing the bidirectional “flow” of knowledge, talent and resources between centres and peripheries can enhance the value of peripheral entrepreneurship, learning and innovation.
Social implications
The paper connects with prior work on community economic development, offering observations for entrepreneurial learning and development of knowledge-intensive businesses in peripheral areas. Boundary-spanning leadership and skills are required to facilitate peripheral-central interaction and entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
Peripherality is defined more widely than in prior work, suggesting peripheral learning is part of the fundamental human experience and offers new insights, innovations and opportunities which can create shared value. A conceptual framework for peripheral-central entrepreneurial learning is proposed, which may assist in rebalancing central-peripheral value creation, innovation and regeneration.
Details
Keywords
Tourism, if properly managed, can represent an opportunity for economic development and social growth especially for territories that have infrastructure deficits and economic…
Abstract
Tourism, if properly managed, can represent an opportunity for economic development and social growth especially for territories that have infrastructure deficits and economic problems. This is the case of rural and mountain areas, many of which in Italy correspond to the so-called ‘inner areas’, spaces for which the public sector has developed a specific strategy in recent years. Within these fragile areas, tourism planning plays a crucial role because, more than in other spaces, it must identify balanced goals between fostering economic development and safeguarding local identities. The point of equilibrium can be reached through strategies of resilience, that is, by adopting collective response-and-adaptation tools that allow to manage tourism by mitigating its impact on the local sociocultural organization and to restore sustainable mechanisms of operation of the tourism system.
The communities of the Madonie, a rural and mountainous area close to Palermo, taking advantage of the strategy for inner areas, have decided to start processes of institutional innovation through an intermunicipal governance and also to promote new partnership networks to strengthen the capacity of resilience and development of the territorial system as a ‘green community’. Some territorial planning actions specifically concern the tourism sector, as in the case of the organization of a destination management community and the creation of an ecomuseum.
This chapter analyses some experiences recently conducted by the Madonie communities, which are trying to reconcile, also through planning tools, economic growth and landscape protection.
Details
Keywords
The merits of acculturation and marginality theses are considered for the particular Management Bibliography case of upwardly mobile individuals who have followed educational and…
Abstract
The merits of acculturation and marginality theses are considered for the particular Management Bibliography case of upwardly mobile individuals who have followed educational and non‐educational routes. Two indicators — values and social integration — have been chosen as basic to the assumptions of the accultural and marginality theses, and the relation of upward occupational mobility to each is examined independently.
Details
Keywords
Marco Brydolf-Horwitz and Katherine Beckett
A growing body of work suggests that welfare and punishment should be understood as alternative, yet interconnected ways of governing poor and marginalized populations. While…
Abstract
A growing body of work suggests that welfare and punishment should be understood as alternative, yet interconnected ways of governing poor and marginalized populations. While there is considerable evidence of a punitive turn in welfare and penal institutions over the past half century, recent studies show that welfare and carceral institutions increasingly comanage millions of people caught at the intersection of the welfare and penal sectors. The growth of “mass supervision” and the expansion of the social services sector help explain the blurring of welfare and punishment in the United States in daily practice. We suggest that these developments complicate the idea of an institutional trade-off and contend that welfare and punishment are best understood along a continuum of state management in which poor and socially marginalized populations are subjected to varying degrees of support, surveillance, and sanction. In presenting the punishment–welfare continuum, we pay particular attention to the “murky middle” between the two spheres: an interinstitutional space that has emerged in the context of mass supervision and a social services–centric safety net. We show that people caught in the “murky middle” receive some social supports and services, but also face pervasive surveillance and control and must adapt to the tangle of obligations and requirements in ways that both extend punishment and limit their ability to successfully participate in mainstream institutions.
Details
Keywords
Rebecca Hill, Paul Beynon‐Davies and Michael D. Williams
This paper seeks to describe a deep investigation of the phenomenon of internet engagement amongst older people. The likelihood of internet engagement has been shown in previous…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to describe a deep investigation of the phenomenon of internet engagement amongst older people. The likelihood of internet engagement has been shown in previous work to rapidly decrease with age, and patterns of disengagement are most pronounced amongst older people.
Design/methodology/approach
The study comprises a qualitative investigation consisting of observation and interviews conducted within a programme of internet literacy workshops funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.
Findings
The reflection of previous research with data collected has led to the development of a model of older people's internet engagement. This model helps us better understand the context for patterns of engagement and disengagement with the internet.
Practical implications
The model of internet engagement is used to highlight a number of strategies that should be considered in future policy intervention in the area of digital inclusion.
Originality/value
The model described offers a more sophisticated instrument for understanding the issue of the digital divide amongst this excluded group and potentially may be applied more generally in understanding the complex nature of this issue.
Details