Showing papers on "Perspective (graphical) published in 2008"

Institutional Theory in the Study of Multinational Corporations: A Critique and New Directions

Abstract: This paper was motivated by the growing interest of scholars of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the institutional perspective. Our review of the literature suggests that international management applications of this perspective have been dominated by a narrow set of neoinstitutional ideas. We develop a set of provocations that challenge the validity of traditional neoinstitutionalism in the context of MNCs. We then offer ideas for more novel theory building in the study of MNCs, based on integrating “old” and “new” institutionalism.

The morphology of landscape

Abstract: The objects which exist together in the landscape exist in interrelation. We assert that they constitute a reality as a whole that is not expressed by aregionalist tradition that described the dynamic interaction between humans and their environment from a longterm historical perspective. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Sauer had attended Semple’s lectures, but he came to view the idea of environmental determinants of human behavior as unfounded scientifically and even questionable morally. Sauer felt that the evidence supported a view that did not hold nature constant, but regarded “the scene” of human action (that is, the human-environment relationship) as constantly changing.

Does Public Accountability Work? An Assessment Tool

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a drive to strengthen existing public accountability arrangements and to design new ones. This prompts the question whether accountability arrangements actually work. In the existing literature, both accountability ‘deficits’ and ‘overloads’ are alleged to exist. However, owing to the lack of a cogent yardstick, the debate tends to be impressionistic and event-driven. In this article we develop an instrument for systematically assessing public accountability arrangements, drawing on three different normative perspectives. In the democratic perspective, accountability arrangements should effectively link government actions to the ‘democratic chain of delegation’. In the constitutional perspective, it is essential that accountability arrangements prevent or uncover abuses of public authority. In the learning perspective, accountability is a tool to make governments effective in delivering on their promises. We demonstrate the use of our multicriteria assessment tool in an analysis of a new accountability arrangement: the boards of oversight of agencies.

Chapter 1. Effectiveness of Early Intervention for Vulnerable Children: A Developmental Perspective

Abstract: An analysis of the current state of our knowledge of the effectiveness of early intervention for children at risk and for those with established disabilities was provided. A model focused on children's cognitive development was presented in which early intervention is placed firmly within a developmental framework. Both short- and long-term effects, the mechanisms through which early intervention exerts its influence, the relation between those mechanisms and the organization of existing service systems, current limits of programs, and prospects for future research were considered in this model.

Time perspective and correlates of wellbeing

Abstract: This study investigated correlates of five time per- spectives (TP) and the Balanced Time Perspective (BTP) construct proposed by Zimbardo and colleagues. Two hundred and sixty Scottish participants completed the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI: Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999), Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan, 2003). The most prevalent TP profile was moderate to high score on all five of TPs of the ZTPI. BTP participants were significantly happier and more mindful. Happiness and mindfulness were positively correlated but future TP did not correlate with subjective happiness. KEY WORDS • Balanced Time Perspectivehappinessmindfulnesstemporal framestime perspective

A History of the Concept of Spatial Autocorrelation: A Geographer's Perspective

Abstract: Spatial autocorrelation is a concept that helps to define the field of spatial analysis. It is central to studies using spatial statistics and spatial econometrics. In this paper, we trace the early development of the concept and explain the academic links that brought the concept to the fore in the late 1960s. In geography, the importance of the work of Michael F. Dacey, Andrew D. Cliff, and J. Keith Ord is emphasized. Later, with the publication of a volume on spatial econometrics by Luc Anselin, spatial research and the use of the concept of spatial autocorrelation received a considerable boost. These developments are outlined together with comments about recent and possible future trends in spatial autocorrelation-based research.

Investigating the secondary–tertiary transition

Abstract: The secondary–tertiary transition has been studied in a great amount of research in mathematics education, adopting different focuses and theoretical approaches. I present here how these focuses led the authors to identify and study different students' difficulties and to develop different means of didactical action. Individual, social, but also institutional phenomena are considered with different perspectives. Each perspective yields a particular view of transition. The association and comparison of these views makes it possible to build an organized outline of this complex object, combining several kinds of ruptures and long-term evolutions.

An agentic perspective on positive psychology.

Abstract: The present chapter addresses the field of positive psychology from the agentic perspective of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986; 2006a). To be an agent is to influence intentionally one’s functioning and the course of environmental events. In this view, people are contributors to their life circumstances not just products of them. Among the mechanisms of agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy. This core belief is the foundation of human motivation, well-being, and accomplishments. Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Whatever other factors serve as guides and motivators, they are rooted in the core belief, that one has the power to effect changes by one’s actions.

Implicit and Explicit Measures of Attitudes: The Perspective of the MODE Model

Abstract: Strong or weak, extreme or mild, certain or uncertain, attitudes are as richly diverse as the judgments and behavior they oft n influence. Years of systematic study of these attitudinal qualities have tackled the age-old questions of when and how attitudes relate to behavior. What sorts of attitudes relate reliably to judgments and behavior? Under what conditions is attitude-behavior correspondence most likely to occur? By what processes do attitudes exert their influence? The MODE model (Motivation and Opportunity as Determinants of the attitude-behavior relation) was developed to address these historical and fundamental questions (Fazio, 1990; Fazio & Towles-Schwen, 1999). We will describe the tenets of the model in this chapter, and in so doing illuminate the multiple paths from attitude to behavior delineated by the MODE model.

Everyday Information Practices: A Social Phenomenological Perspective

Abstract: Everyday Information Practices draws on interviews with environmental activists and unemployed people during 2005 and 2006, exploring the practices of information seeking by focusing on the ways in which the participants monitored everyday events and sought information to solve specific problems The book shows that everyday information seeking practices tend to be oriented by the principle of "good enough" Overall, the role of routines and habits is more significant than has earlier been assumed Thus, everyday information seeking practices tend to change quite slowly

Resources, techniques, and strategies south of the Sahara: revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500–2000

Abstract: This article seeks to revise and re-apply the factor endowments perspective on African history. The propositions that sub-Saharan Africa was characterized historically by land abundance and labour scarcity, and that the natural environment posed severe constraints on the exploitation of the land surplus, are broadly upheld. Important alterations are suggested, however, centred on the seasonality of labour supply, Ruf's concept of 'forest rent', and, for precolonial economies, the role of fixed capital. This revised endowments framework is then applied in order to explore the long-term dynamics of economic development in Africa, focusing on how the economic strategies of producers and political authorities created specific paths of change which shifted the production possibility frontiers of the economies concerned, and ultimately altered the very factor ratios to which the strategies had been responses.

Three Magic Letters: Getting to Ph.D

Abstract: Three Magic Letters: Getting to Ph.D. by Michael T. Nettles and Catherine M. Millett. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. In the spring of 1995, Catherine Millett, a doctoral student at the time, approached faculty member Michael Nettles and asked: "How do doctoral students find the financial resources to support their academic interests and see themselves through the timely completion of their PhD degrees?" So began the exchange that spawned the collaboration that led to one of the most comprehensive and ambitious projects on doctoral education in the United States, Three Magic Letters: Getting to the Ph.D. This informative, comprehensive, and enjoyable book goes far beyond the initial question about funding to examine essentially all aspects of the doctoral experience. Nettles and Millett have collected, compiled, analyzed, and interpreted an impressive array of data to shed light on the complexity of the doctoral experience. A long-awaited release, Three Magic Letters offers readers an abundance of information regarding determinants of progress to the PhD, as their work reflects the findings of the largest survey of doctoral students yet completed. A total of 9,036 doctoral students in 11 fields of study across 21 universities were surveyed regarding their educational experience and progress to the degree. The study is broad and comprehensive, making it an invaluable resource for researchers, policy makers, faculty members, and doctoral students themselves. Nettles and Millet's work represents the burgeoning emphasis of studying doctoral education from the disciplinary perspective, as has been suggested by experts such as Golde and Dore (2004). This approach broadens our understanding of the contexts and cultures that influence the doctoral experience. The book begins with a refresher on the history of the doctoral degree as well as an overview of existing research on the PhD experience, especially in terms of time to degree, attrition, and completion, and it continues with a synopsis of the research design and sample. Subsequent chapters focus on findings related to particular aspects of the doctoral experience and their influence upon degree completion. Topics covered include admissions and screening, funding, socialization, research productivity, satisfaction, time to degree, performance, field differences, and group differences. The book is an unprecedented integration of topics that have previously been examined but never in a way that acknowledges disciplinary perspectives and demographic variables as Nettles and Millett do. The study findings are presented in way that is accessible and interesting. The conceptual analytical framework that guides Nettles and Millett in their research and writing builds upon the framework originally developed by Berelson (1960), in his seminal study on doctoral education in the United States, as well as upon the work by Bowen and Rudenstine (1992), among others. This framework is based upon the five experiences on which Nettles and Millett focused in their study, including type of funding, socialization, research productivity, satisfaction and stopping out of a doctoral program, and doctoral degree completion. Each of the five areas of analysis is made up of specific variables that contribute to a better understanding of the doctoral student experience. The framework suggests that "personal and academic backgrounds, along with other acquired benefits, contribute to the quality of students' experiences and outcomes" (p. 27). The book does a great job of providing detail about the variables, conceptual analytical framework, data analysis, and study findings in ways that are informative and thorough yet never dry. Given the expansiveness of the project, it is not feasible in a book review to provide a detailed account of the findings. The book generates many "new answers and new questions" about doctoral education that merit ongoing consideration. …

Effects of Gender Differences on Perceptions of Destination Attributes, Motivations, and Travel Values: An Examination of a Nature-Based Resort Destination

Abstract: This study examines the perceptions of the potential tourist market to a nature-based resort destination from the gendered perspective. The research reveals that significant gender differences exist about the perceived importance of destination attributes and travel values when potential nature tourists consider destination choices. After controlling for demographic and travel behaviour variables, such as age, marital status, education, household income, preference of price quote and length of stay, most gender differences remain significant. In addition, more significant distinctions between men and women are demonstrated after controlling for age and income level. The study provides insights into gendered perceptions of nature-based tourism settings. Specific marketing implications are discussed in an attempt to successfully attract nature tourists and provide a high-quality nature destination experience.

Assessment and Intervention for Executive Function Difficulties

Abstract: Preface. Six Case Vignettes. A Conceptual Model of Executive Functions. A General Holarchical Model of Executive Function Processes from an Integral Perspective. Executive Function Development and Related Issues. Assessment of Executive Function Capacities. Academic Skill Development and Assessment of Executive Functions. Interventions for Executive Function Difficulties. Executive Functions in the School Setting. Case Study. Summary.

Nursing Workload and Patient Safety—A Human Factors Engineering Perspective

Abstract: Nursing workload is affected by staffing levels and the patients’ conditions, but also by the design of the nurses’ work system. In this chapter, a description of different levels of workload, including situational workload, was offered, and a proposal for a human factors engineering approach aimed at reducing workload or at mitigating or balancing the impact of workload on nurses and patient care was suggested.

Multilingualism as a New Linguistic Dispensation

Abstract: This paper aims to show that the development of multilingualism in the world has reached a point where, in terms of scale and significance, it is comparable with and assimilable to politico-economic aspects of globalisation, global mobility and ‘postmodern’ modes of thinking. The paper situates multilingualism in its relationship with the most dramatic social changes currently occurring in the world, notably the transformation of the experience of time and space, as well as global mobility, which has resulted in unprecedented diversity and heterogeneity in the populations of individual countries and regions. It argues that multilingualism is the ineluctable concomitant of all dimensions of globalisation and that the application in the relevant literature of the notion of a new linguistic dispensation to recent shifts in the language/society interface is entirely justified by the facts. Finally, taking an historical perspective, it seeks to make a case for the claim that, although multilingual ind...

Stakeholder Marketing: Beyond the Four Ps and the Customer

Abstract: To better understand the full impact of marketing on society, there is an urgent need for new research that looks beyond customers as the target of marketing activities and firms as the primary intended beneficiary. A consortium of leading scholars and practitioners was convened to discuss how adopting a stakeholder perspective gives birth to a host of research questions that are relevant to the broader academic community.

Knowledge and Human Interests: A General Perspective

Abstract: The only knowledge that can truly orient action is knowledge that frees itself from mere human interests and is based on Ideas – in other words, knowledge that has taken a theoretical attitude. The word ‘‘theory’’ has religious origins. The theoros was the representative sent by Greek cities to public celebrations. Through theoria, that is through looking on, he abandoned himself to the sacred events. In philosophical language, theoria was transferred to contemplation of the cosmos. In this form, theory already presupposed the demarcation between Being and time that is the foundation of ontology. This separation is first found in the poem of Parmenides and returns in Plato’s Timaeus. It reserves to logos a realm of Being purged of inconstancy and uncertainty and leaves to doxa the realm of the mutable and perishable. When the philosopher views the immortal order, he cannot help bringing himself into accord with the proportions of the cosmos and reproducing them internally. He manifests these proportions, which he sees in the motions of nature and the harmonic series of music, within himself; he forms himself

Taking Another Person's Perspective Increases Self-Referential Neural Processing

Abstract: The ability to adopt the perspective of another person has been identified as a critical component of social functioning that predicts level of empathic concern for other individuals (Davis, 1983) and level of category-based responding toward out-groups (Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000). One explanation for these effects holds that in taking another person’s perspective, one comes to treat that person as more ‘‘selflike’’; indeed, the extent to which perceivers describe another person as sharing their own personality attributes increases after they imagine an event from that person’s perspective (Davis, Conklin, Smith, & Luce, 1996). An alternative explanation, however, is that perspective taking might lead only to a shift in non-self-based social-cognitive processes deployed when considering the minds of others (Mitchell, Heatherton, & Macrae, 2002). How exactly does taking another person’s perspective lead to greater overlap between self and other? Recent neuroimaging findings suggest a novel way to test the proposal that perspective taking increases self-based processing of others. Studies have shown that a region of human ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is preferentially engaged by self-referential mentation, such as introspecting about one’s own personality characteristics (Kelley et al., 2002) or one’s attitudes and preferences (Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006). Accordingly, to the extent that perspective taking does lead to greater overlap in the cognitive processes engaged by consideration of self and other, activity in vMPFC should differentiate less between self and a person whose perspective has recently been adopted than between self and a person considered from a more distal vantage.