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Data Collection Process (data + collection_process)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

Craft Retailers' Criteria for Success and Associated Business Strategies

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002
Rosalind C. Paige
This research was designed to fill the void in understanding how art,related retailers define and achieve success. A two,phase data collection process was implemented. Preliminary personal interviews were conducted with 12 craft retailers followed by a mailed survey to 1000 craft retailers in nine southeastern U.S. states. Factor analysis was employed to reduce the number of items for defining success. Cluster analysis followed to develop empirical groupings of craft retail businesses based on the success factor scores, of which four different groups were identified. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare retail clusters related to business strategy variables of competitive strategies, product assortment, pricing, and distribution strategies, and networking activities. Significant differences were found in the craft retailers' business strategies used to achieve success. Craft retail entrepreneurs were found to define success with both traditional criteria such as profit and growth and also with intrinsic factors such as personal satisfaction and the opportunity to elevate the craft tradition. Successful small craft retail firms offered more focused product assortments of specialized craft products, implemented more differentiated strategies of stocking unique crafts in their assortments, as well as offering unique services to educate consumers about crafts, craft artisans, and a region's culture. Craft retailers who reported greater success did not engage in competitive pricing. Collaborative strategies included networking among family, friends, and business peers. [source]

Becoming a new doctor: a learning or survival exercise?

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 7 2007
Jeremy Brown
Objective, This study set out to establish why some new doctors view their training as a valuable period in their professional development, whereas others see it as a year to be endured and survived. Methods, This multi-method case study focused on the interaction of key participants within 1 deanery, sampling the 237 pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) and 166 educational supervisors populating the associated 12 National Health Service trusts at the time (2001). The design of the case study was predicated on gathering the views of both teachers and learners in a way that allowed each stage of the data collection process to inform and influence the next phase. Results, Lack of formal guidance and support were common characteristics associated with the first few days in post. The first day in post as a doctor is, for most, an experience that is hard to prepare for, even after a useful induction period. Those PRHOs who felt they were not guided or advised on how to undertake their new professional responsibilities tended to feel undervalued and under-recognised as individuals. Conclusions, Without the support of senior colleagues who can help the new doctor reflect on quite difficult and uncertain situations, new doctors will almost certainly perceive the first year of the new Foundation Programme as a survival exercise. If new doctors are working in an environment where their learning is properly facilitated, they are more likely to recognise their progress in their professional development and be more proactive in addressing concerns about professional expectations. [source]

Using measured performance as a process safety leading indicator

PROCESS SAFETY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2009
Kenneth H. Harrington
Abstract Periodic demands on layers of protection (i.e., prealarms, safety instrumented functions, relief devices, emergency response systems, etc.) are precursors to more serious incidents. The failure of one or more layers of protection is always part of an accident sequence. When they occur documenting these demands and the associated consequences in a way to facilitate analysis, provides a means to measure process safety management performance. Although process safety metrics are still in their adolescence, this article reviews experiences of development and implementation of a "Challenges to Safety Systems" process safety performance indicator. This article includes a discussion of automating significant portions of the data collection process based on the technical work documented by the CCPS PERD (Process Equipment Reliability Database) initiative. The article also recommends various metrics that can be calculated and describes how the initial foundation developed to support improved process safety can be leveraged to achieve other benefits, such as design improvements and improvements in the reliability, operation, and maintenance of the facility. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009 [source]

The Future of a Discipline: Considering the ontological/methodological future of the anthropology of consciousness, Part I,

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2010
Toward a New Kind of Science, its Methods of Inquiry
ABSTRACT Calling for an expanded framework of EuroAmerican science's methodology whose perspective acknowledges both quantitative/etic and qualitative/emic orientations is the broad focus of this article. More specifically this article argues that our understanding of shamanic and/or other related states of consciousness has been greatly enhanced through ethnographic methods, yet in their present form these methods fail to provide the means to fully comprehend these states. They fail, or are limited, because this approach is only a "cognitive interpretation" or "metanarrative" of the actual experience and not the experience itself. Consequently this perspective is also limited because the researcher continues to assess his or her data through the lens of their symbolic constructs, thereby preventing them from truly experiencing shamanic and psi/spirit approaches to knowing since the data collection process does not "in and of itself" affect the observer. We, therefore, need expanded ethnographic methods that include within their approaches an understanding of methods and techniques to experientially encounter these states of consciousness,and become transformed by them. Our becoming transformed and then recollecting our ethnoautobiographical experiences is the means toward a new kind of science and its methods of inquiry that this article seeks to encourage. [source]

DEVELOPING STRATEGIES TO GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE MATERNITY EXPERIENCES OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN AN ACUTE CARE SETTING

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2002
Jennifer Watson
ABSTRACT: This project emerged from the concerns of health care professionals at a large acute care hospital in the Northern Territory of Australia. The aim of the project was to develop educational resources through information and experiences provided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and health care professionals. The objectives are to optimise collaboration and participation by Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander women in sharing their maternity experiences about the birthing of their baby either in hospital, or out of hospital before arrival. Stage one of a three stage project is reported here. In stage one a modified Delphi method was used to interview ten purposefully chosen professional Indigenous women with insight into the research process and changing social arrangements. Stage two involved the development of an interview schedule and face-to-face interviews. Stage three includes the development of a questionnaire to be answered by health care professionals. Discussion of the background to the study, reviewed literature and issues identified from interviews with the professional Indigenous women regarding best methods and appropriate data collection processes is presented. Research described here explores issues of concern for Indigenous women from the Northern Territory around their child birthing experiences in an acute care setting. [source]