OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate emergency nurses' experiences and perceptions of violence from patients and visitors in US emergency departments (EDs). BACKGROUND: The ED is a particularly vulnerable setting for workplace violence, and because of a lack of standardized measurement and reporting mechanisms for violence in healthcare settings, data are scarce. METHODS: Registered nurse members (n = 3,465) of the Emergency Nurses Association participated in this cross-sectional study by completing a 69-item survey. RESULTS: Approximately 25% of respondents reported experiencing physical violence more than 20 times in the past 3 years, and almost 20% reported experiencing verbal abuse more than 200 times during the same period. Respondents who experienced frequent physical violence and/or frequent verbal abuse indicated fear of retaliation and lack of support from hospital administration and ED management as barriers to reporting workplace violence. CONCLUSION: Violence against ED nurses is highly prevalent. Precipitating factors to violent incidents identified by respondents is consistent with the research literature; however, there is considerable potential to mitigate these factors. Commitment from hospital administrators, ED managers, and hospital security is necessary to facilitate improvement and ensure a safer workplace for ED nurses. Language: en

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Violence against nurses working in US emergency departments

The COVID-19 pandemic forced all face-to-face college courses to transition to remote instruction. This article explores instructional techniques used in the transition, student perceptions of effe...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0092055X20954263

COVID-19 Remote Learning Transition in Spring 2020: Class Structures, Student Perceptions, and Inequality in College Courses

Crowdfunding platforms offer promising opportunities for project founders to publish their project ideas and to collect money in order to be able to realize them. Consequently, the question of what influences the successful funding of projects, i.e., reaching the target amount of money, is very important. Building upon media richness theory and the concept of reciprocity, we extend previous research in the field of crowdfunding success factors. We provide a comprehensive view on factors influencing crowdfunding success by both focusing on project-specific as well as founder-specific aspects. Analyzing a sample of projects of the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, we find that the project description, related images and videos as well as the question of whether the founder has previously backed other projects influence funding success. Interestingly, the question of whether the founder has previously created other projects has no significant influence. Our results are of high interest for the stakeholders on crowdfunding platforms.

Crowdfunding Success Factors: The Characteristics of Successfully Funded Projects on Crowdfunding Platforms

In analyzing the sources and processes of failure, one can see a certain pattern. Namely, management does not notice the critical situation in time, which due to delayed or incompetently carried out repair actions, ends in company collapse. Development thresholds are occurring in the process of the growth and development of the company. They are often tied with crisis in the company. Their occurrence is preceded with symptoms of future crises in many cases. The analysis and understanding of these symptoms by entrepreneurs may help reduce the number of crises in companies of the SME sector and unintentional economic failure.

The Reasons and Symptoms of Failure in SME

The authors explore the effects of having a large dominant competitor and show conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. Through lab and field studies, the authors demonstrate that highlighting a large competitor's size and close proximity can help smaller brands rather than harm them. The results show that support for small brands goes up when faced with a competitive threat from large brands versus when they are in competition with brands that are similar to them or when consumers view them outside a competitive context. This support translates into purchase intentions, real purchases, and more favorable online reviews in a study of more than 10,000 Yelp posts. The authors argue that this “framing-the-game effect” is mediated by consumers' motivation to express their views and have an impact in the marketplace through their purchase choices.

Positioning Brands against Large Competitors to Increase Sales

This study analyzes entrepreneurship from the perspective of a potential Latin American necessity entrepreneur. The analysis contains an overview of the culture of entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Necessity entrepreneurship and its practice in Latin America and the Caribbean is examined using the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data. Finally necessity entrepreneurship among Latin American immigrants in developing and developed countries, especially the United States is described. In all cases the necessity entrepreneur is faced with numerous institutional obstacles, though the obstacles differ in each region. These obstacles often prevent individual's entrepreneurial activities from being as productive as they could be, leading to different degrees of contribution to overall economic growth. Possible solutions to the institutional obstacles are identified.INTRODUCTIONIn 2007, 20.7 percent of all the businesses in the state of Texas were owned by Hispanic entrepreneurs (Echeverri-Carroll & Kellison, 2012). There was a 40.2 percent increase (in five years) in the number of Hispanic owned businesses in Texas. The figure went from 319,340 in 2002 to 447,589 in 2007 (Echeverri-Carrol & Kellison, 2012). The recent US census revealed that the Hispanic-American population in the United States will grow three times faster than any other ethnic group over the next 20 years (Roberts, 2013). This rapid growth will very likely affect the American economy as immigrants are nearly twice as likely to create new businesses (Herman & Smith, 2010). The causes for this early entrepreneurship activity include both a home country culture which supports entrepreneurship activity and conditions in the United States which both encourage and necessitate the creation of new ventures. This study will examine both the causes for immigrant entrepreneurship activities and the barriers, especially the institutional barriers, faced by immigrants from Latin American countries.ENTREPRENEURSHIP CULTURE WITHIN LATIN AMERICAIt is well established that entrepreneurship is the engine of economic growth in developed and developing economies (Reynolds, 1997; Schumpeter, 1934). Studies performed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) have revealed that Latin America has especially high levels of entrepreneurial activity (Larroulet & Couyoumdjian, 2009). When it comes to entrepreneurship rates, Latin America is the second highest region in the world, exceeding those of the European Union, Asia, and North America. Evidence shows that approximately 18 percent of Latin American people of working age have participated in entrepreneurial activities (Larroulet & Couyoumdjian, 2009). The high level of entrepreneurial activity is consistent across all of the Latin American countries that participated in the GEM study, showing that the entrepreneurial pattern is consistent (Larroulet & Couyoumdjian, 2009).These trends have not changed in the last few years. The latest GEM study (the 2013 Global report) reveals that the general populations in Latin America and the Caribbean aim to engage in entrepreneurial activities; 32.5 % of the working population (aged 18-64) have expressed the intention to engage in entrepreneurial activities (see Table 1). Again, of the adult population of working age (aged 18-64), 18.5 % of Latin American and Caribbean people are engaged in early stage entrepreneurial activities (see Table 2). GEM defines early stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) as including individuals in the process of starting a new venture as well as those operating a business for less than 42 months (Amoros & Bosma, 2014: 12). If the analysis only includes the ten Latin American countries in the 2013 GEM survey, the number of TEA entrepreneurs jumps to over 20%. For Latin America and the Caribbean Region, there is quite a variance in the presence of early stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) with Surinam only at 5. …

Necessity Entrepreneurship: A Latin American Study

Over the past few years, the area of entrepreneurship has grown significantly and with this growth, there has developed a new realm of funding: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding allows individuals to source their funding from a various amount of individuals from platforms that can be found from the internet. This type of funding can be traced back to the early 1700's and is continuing to evolve ever since its inception as microfinancing. As crowdfunding continues to evolve, it only becomes larger and more successful with projects raising millions of dollars and products being shipped worldwide. This type of financing is not only reserved for business projects, some platforms allow people to fund charities and allow these crowd funders to give back to society. This paper explores the process of crowdfunding and some of its pitfalls.INTRODUCTIONCombining the opportunity for entrepreneurs to make projects a reality, investors to turn someone's dream into a reality, or an average person donating to help better society, crowdfunding is not without its flaws. Crowdfimding is not a financing platform that is regulated; individuals have free reign to find funding through these online platforms for whatever they need funds for, to an extent. This situation puts banks in a predicament, since people are trying to fund their projects with hassle free rules; therefore, they are not seeking as many loans from the banks. Rules and regulations to alleviate potential perils are in the process of being put into place through an act signed into legislation as of 2012. In the coming pages, the paper will cover the history of crowdfimding and how it has become what it is today; the basics of crowdfimding and how it works; the larger platforms available to entrepreneurs wanting to have their projects crowdftmded; successful projects that have derived from crowdfimding; the implications of crowdfimding; rules and regulations and the future of crowdfimding.THE ENTREPRENEUROver the past decades the growth of the entrepreneur has become very prominent within the business world. Small businesses owned by the average person are turning into the norm just like any franchised company or large corporation. The days of working a typical schedule of "9- 5" are long gone. These entrepreneurs have pushed the corporate rules to the way side and became their own bosses. According to the text of Small Business Management: Launching and Growing Entrepreneurial Venture, an entrepreneur is defined as: a person who is relentlessly focused on an opportunity, in either a new or existing business, to create value while assuming both risk and reward for his or her effort (Longenecker, Petty, Palich & Hoy, 2012). Becoming an entrepreneur is as simple or as complex as you and the environment you are in allows it to be. The critical determinant is on what business opportunity that the entrepreneur decides to latch. As stated earlier, this can be a new or existing business to the entrepreneur's environment. Funding this business venture may be the most difficult stage in the process. Many investors are leery to fund a person or business about which they know little. Luckily for entrepreneurs, within the past two decades crowdfimding has found its way to the internet.CROWDFUNDING 101Crowdfunding is a newest evolutionary form of micro financing. The goal of crowdfimding is to help individuals get a financial start on the small business venture. Tanya Prive of Forbes defines crowdfimding as, "the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet" (Prive, 2012).Historical Crowdfunding.The roots of this micro financing can be traced back to the 1700s when it was once called an Irish Loan Fund. Founded by Jonathan Swift, these loans were given to low income families in rural areas. These loans gained in popularity and peaked in the 1800s where over 20% of all Irish households held an Irish Loan Fund. …

Crowdfunding: A New Opportunity for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

INTRODUCTION Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have become fixtures of the international community. For over thirty years, MFIs have successfully supported entrepreneurship by lending money to needy people all over the world (Richardson, 2009). The growth of the microfinance and microlending has spawned considerable research interest in this industry and its international growth. Much of the prior research has examined the product and service offerings of MFIs, management best practices, MFI clientele, and policy issues and their impacts (see Brau & Woller's (2004) literature review of microfinance). Brau and Woller (2004) found that scholarly inquiries into microfinance and microlending have generally lagged behind industry developments. In Iraq, the United States government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has successfully created programs that have provided more than 132,000 microloans worth a combined value of over $300 million. The loans have averaged $1500 at 1518% interest rates with a repayment rate of over 98%. (US Federal News Service, 2009). The microfinance loans from MFIs working with USAID have resulted in more than 130,000 jobs being sustained or created (Iraq Microfinance Industry (IMFI), 2010). In contrast, microfinance and microlending, while achieving considerable success internationally, have not generally succeeded in the United States. Microlending in the US has experienced high default rates, failures in meeting program goals, and a general lack of self-sufficiency or sustainability (Richardson, 2009). Sustainability as used herein refers to survivability, not the social responsibility focus that sustainability has begun to assume. This article will examine the factors that contribute to the success and failure of microlending efforts, and compare the specific reasons for the success of the USAID programs in Iraq and the general failure of microlending and microcredit efforts in the US. DETERMINANTS OF MICROLENDING SUCCESS/FAILURE Microfinance generally refers to the informal and formal arrangements that offer financial services to the poor (Brau & Woller, 2004). While it has existed for centuries, microfinance came on the international scene during the 1970s as a serious effort to create and formalize financial services for the poor (Richardson, 2009; Brau & Woller, 2004). Domestic use of the terms "microenterprise" and "microfinance" did not appear for another decade (Burrus, 2005). A microenterprise is a business with five or fewer employees. Many of these businesses have no employees other than the owners (Burrus, 2005). The purpose of microfinance is to provide economic opportunities, including financial capital and services, to the poor in the hope that the cycles of poverty can be broken through new business development (Crabb, 2008). Microfinance offers people living in poverty access to basic financial services, such as loans, savings, money transfer services, and insurance needed to run their businesses (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 2009). At best, commercial banks in developing countries serve only 20% of the population (Richardson, 2009). MFIs have stepped in to fill this void, lending to individuals that traditional lenders have ignored due to high transaction costs and risks (Richardson, 2009). There are now thousands of MFIs servicing 100-200 million of the world's poor (Brau & Woller, 2004). The individual amount of the microloans in developing countries ranges from $10 to over $1000 with durations usually of less than two years. Borrowers are not usually required by microlenders in developing countries to put up collateral or undergo credit checks (Richardson, 2009). Since the 1970s, MFIs in developing countries have been very successful, while those in the United States have seen limited success. Defining success for MFIs has been problematic. MFIs normally have dual objectives of financial development and social improvement. …

The Determinants of the Success of Microlending: A Comparison of Iraq and the United States

Negligent hiring is emerging as one of the prime causes of healthcare employer liability for workplace violence. Healthcare administrators have been found liable for violent acts of employees both within and outside their normal scope of employment. The authors discuss negligent hiring doctrine and what the US courts have decided on negligent hiring cases. The discussion shows how liability in healthcare institutions can occur, and how the respondeat superior doctrine may no longer serve to limit employer liability. The authors suggest how to develop screening practices to reduce work-place violence and minimize negligent hiring lawsuits. Language: en

Preventing workplace violence from negligent hiring in healthcare.

INTRODUCTION The evidence is overwhelming that culture influences managerial decision making on any number of levels or dimensions (Hofstede, 1980). The importance of culture's implications for managers has led to a substantial increase in cross-cultural research (Yeganeh & Su, 2007). However, much of the cross-cultural research has focused on developed countries and emerging economies in Asia and Eastern Europe. Often ignored have been the countries of the Middle East (Yeganeh & Su, 2007). Even within the existing research on Middle Eastern and Islamic countries, Iraq has not been extensively studied. For example, the most recent comprehensive study of the effects of leadership and culture, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Research Project, did not study Iraq. This paper attempts to fill the void in the research and literature on the business culture of Iraq. Through the removal of a dictator, war, and strife, the relationship between Iraq and the United States has been very contentious. Despite the conflicts, the U.S. government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported the redevelopment of the Iraqi economy through the successful creation of the Tijara program. This program, together with its predecessor, the Izdihar program, has provided both financial capital and services to nascent Iraqi businesses. More than 132,000 microloans, worth a combined value of $300 million, have already been made (U.S. Federal News Service, 2009). These efforts along with the efforts of the Iraqi people and their government have created an Iraqi business culture that resembles the blossoming American business culture during the Industrial Revolution. This paper will analyze the affects of imposing a very diverse Western business culture on the religious culture of Iraq. In an attempt to figure out where the Iraqi business culture is evolving, we must first dissect the fundamentals of the culture of the past, and the ingrained cultural beliefs of the inhabitants of the present. Once we understand the past, we can then evaluate a comparable market in an attempt to predict and make suggestions as to its future. IRAQI CONTEXT In an effort to fully understand some of the deeply held traditions and sentiments of a culture, we must understand their past. The land now known as Iraq has been called the Cradle of Civilization. The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians all developed great empires in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. At later times, it was ruled by the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, and the Ottoman Turks. Under the Abbasid rulers (750-1258), Baghdad became a center of learning for the entire Muslim world. However the Mongols invaded the region in 1258, leading to its decline. The Ottoman Turks, after a long struggle, won Baghdad and the Tigris and Euphrates Valley from Persia in 1638. The region remained a part of the vast Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I (Randall, 2006). A discussion of the Iraqi political environment is provided in Appendix A. Economic Environment For the past three decades, the Iraqi economy has been adversely affected by costly militarization, three wars, and international sanctions (Gorrill, 2007). These events severely traumatized Iraq's population, damaged the country's political and economic institutions, and negated many of its previous economic and social gains. By 2004, Iraq's per capita GDP had fallen to less than US$800, and its crippling debt had stifled its growth and development (International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2009). Iraq's natural resource base makes it potentially a rich country and provides the means to rebuild its economy. Production and export of petroleum, which provides 90% of the country's foreign exchange earnings, continues to set the country on the path to sustained economic growth and long-tem prosperity (CIA Factbook, 2009). …

Don B. Bradley

Papers

Necessity Entrepreneurship: A Latin American Study

Crowdfunding: A New Opportunity for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Determinants of the Success of Microlending: A Comparison of Iraq and the United States

Preventing workplace violence from negligent hiring in healthcare.

Iraqi Business Culture: An Expatriate's View