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Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting50%

Selected Abstracts

Trust, collaboration, e-learning and organisational transformation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003
Jon Mason
While theoretically distinct, learning and knowing are meshed in practice. This paper builds on this observation and argues that organisational transformation and the development of best practices in e-learning share some similar context. This is particularly evident when knowledge management perspectives are considered. Specifically, trust and collaboration are shown to be common enablers of both activities. A range of interrelated models is introduced with trust identified as prominent within a complex mix of processes and outputs that can be described in terms of interoperability. Collaboration and interoperability are identified as key organising principles in information-based and knowledge-based economies. Through collaboration common goals and mutual benefit are discerned and pursued; duplication of effort is minimised; innovation is stimulated. Achieving technical interoperability demands use of networks in ways that harness the aggregate capacity of disparate systems, applications and services. The resulting infrastructure matches requirements of both e-learning and organisational transformation. [source]

Persistence of Alarm-Call Behaviour in the Absence of Predators: A Comparison Between Wild and Captive-Born Meerkats (Suricata Suricatta)

ETHOLOGY, Issue 11 2007
Linda I. Hollén
Performing correct anti-predator behaviour is crucial for prey to survive. But, are such abilities lost in species or populations living in predator-free environments? How individuals respond to the loss of predators has been shown to depend on factors such as the degree to which anti-predator behaviour relies on experience, the type of cues evoking the behaviour, the cost of expressing the behaviour and the number of generations under which relaxed selection has taken place. Here we investigated whether captive-born populations of meerkats (Suricata suricatta) used the same repertoire of alarm calls previously documented in wild populations and whether captive animals, as wild ones, could recognize potential predators through olfactory cues. We found that all alarm calls that have been documented in the wild also occurred in captivity and were given in broadly similar contexts. Furthermore, without prior experience of odours from predators, captive meerkats seemed to distinguish between faeces of potential predators (carnivores) and non-predators (herbivores). Despite slight structural differences, the alarm calls given in response to the faeces largely resembled those recorded in similar contexts in the wild. These results from captive populations suggest that direct, physical interaction with predators is not necessary for meerkats to perform correct anti-predator behaviour in terms of alarm-call usage and olfactory predator recognition. Such behaviour may have been retained in captivity because relatively little experience seems necessary for correct performance in the wild and/or because of the recency of relaxed selection on these populations. [source]

Is there more assimilation in Catalonia than in the Basque Country?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008
Analysing dynamics of assimilation in nationalist contexts
This article builds on recent attempts in political science to illuminate the ,micro-level' mechanisms of identity formation. It analyses the dynamics of assimilation in two similar contexts with extremely salient regional-nationalist movements: Catalonia and the Basque Country. It poses the question: In which of the two regions has there been more assimilation of demographically significant, internal-immigrant segments of the population? It tests whether there has been more assimilation in Catalonia , a result expected from the allegedly more ,civic' nature of the nationalist movement there. To do so, it draws on and goes beyond the tools provided by David Laitin for operationalising assimilation. It uses existing public opinion surveys to construct and present assimilation indices for both regions. The authors show that though rates of ,linguistic adaptation' are higher in Catalonia, such adaptation correlates weakly with assimilation into feelings of subjective identification and the espousal of nationalist views and aspirations more generally. The article goes on to demonstrate that rates of assimilation, when measured using several more robust proxies for the feeling of national identity, are actually lower in Catalonia. The authors then proceed to provide a theoretical explanation for their surprising empirical results. The explanation stresses the causal role of institutional pressures , themselves the product of nationalist coalition-building strategies , in accounting for patterns of linguistic adaptation and of cultural assimilation. Furthermore, it emphasises the relevance of ,cultural demography', particularly among natives/insiders, in accounting for the different nationalist strategies and the different intensity as well as different types of institutional pressures faced by immigrants/outsiders in the two regions. [source]

An investigation of innovation antecedents in small firms in the context of a small developing country

R & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2000
Athanasios Hadjimanolis
The present research was conducted in Cyprus, a small developing country. A large number (n=140) of manufacturing small and medium sized firms were surveyed, via a questionnaire administered during personal interviews with the firms' owners or managers. A research model based on the antecedent factor approach was used. The main variables affecting innovation according to the survey results include: strategy, expenditure on R&D, co-operation with external technology providers, use of technological information sources and overall performance of the firm. Contrary to expectations and literature claims, some environmental variables, e.g. intensity of competition, were not correlated to innovation. Managers and public policy makers in similar contexts can increase the innovativeness of firms by paying attention to its main determinants, as identified by the above research. [source]