Network evolution and the spatiotemporal dynamics of knowledge sourcing

Knowledge accessing from external organisations is important to firms, especially entrepreneurial ones which often cannot generate internally all the knowledge necessary for innovation. There is, however, a lack of evidence concerning the association between the evolution of firms and the evolution of their networks. The aim of this paper is to begin to fill this gap by undertaking an exploratory analysis of the relationship between the vintage of firms and their knowledge sourcing networks. Drawing on an analysis of firms in the UK, the paper finds some evidence of a U-shaped relationship existing between firm age and the frequency of accessing knowledge from certain sources. Emerging entrepreneurial firms tend to be highly active with regard to accessing knowledge for a range of sources and geographic locations, with the rate of networking dropping somewhat during the period of peak firm growth. For instance, it is found that firms tend to less frequently access knowledge sources such as universities and research institutes in their own region during a stage of peak turnover growth. Overall, the results suggest a complex relationship between the lifecycle of the firm and its networking patterns. It is concluded that policymakers need to become more aware that network formation and utilisation by firms is likely to vary dependent upon their lifecycle position.

Analysis and identification of spamming behaviors in Sina Weibo microblog

Spamming has been a widespread problem for social networks. In recent years there is an increasing interest in the analysis of anti-spamming for microblogs, such as Twitter. In this paper we present a systematic research on the analysis of spamming in Sina Weibo platform, which is currently a dominant microblogging service provider in China. Our research objectives are to understand the specific spamming behaviors in Sina Weibo and find approaches to identify and block spammers in Sina Weibo based on spamming behavior classifiers. To start with the analysis of spamming behaviors we devise several effective methods to collect a large set of spammer samples, including uses of proactive honeypots and crawlers, keywords based searching and buying spammer samples directly from online merchants. We processed the database associated with these spammer samples and interestingly we found three representative spamming behaviors: Aggressive advertising, repeated duplicate reposting and aggressive following. We extract various features and compare the behaviors of spammers and legitimate users with regard to these features. It is found that spamming behaviors and normal behaviors have distinct characteristics. Based on these findings we design an automatic online spammer identification system. Through tests with real data it is demonstrated that the system can effectively detect the spamming behaviors and identify spammers in Sina Weibo.

Theory and practice in the field of foresight

Purpose – The paper aims to explore the gap between theory and practice in foresight and to give some suggestions on how to reduce it. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of practical foresight activities and suggestions are based on a literature review, the author's own research and practice in the field of foresight and futures studies, and her participation in the work of a European project (COST A22). Findings – Two different types of practical foresight activities have developed. One of them, the practice of foresight of critical futures studies (FCFS) is an application of a theory of futures studies. The other, termed here as praxis foresight (PF), has no theoretical basis and responds directly to practical needs. At present a gap can be perceived between theory and practice. PF distinguishes itself from the practice and theory of FCFS and narrows the construction space of futures. Neither FCFS nor PF deals with content issues of the outer world. Reducing the gap depends on renewal of joint discourses and research about experience of different practical foresight activities and manageability of complex dynamics in foresight. Production and feedback of self-reflective and reflective foresight knowledge could improve theory and practice. Originality/value – Contemporary practical foresight activities are analysed and suggestions to reduce the gap are developed in the context of the linkage between theory and practice. This paper is thought provoking for futurists, foresight managers and university researchers.

Leadership jellemvonások és lean menedzsment – elmélet és gyakorlat = Leadership attributes and lean management in theory and practice

A műhelytanulmány két kutatási kérdést vizsgál. Egyrészt kiemelt szakirodalom alapján megvizsgálja, hogy az elméleti ajánlások milyen vezetési stílust és vezetői stílusjegyeket fogalmaznak meg követendőnek egy lean vállalat számára. Másrészt megvizsgálja, hogy a lean menedzsment gyakorlatának alkalmazásában fejlettebb vállalatok vezetői valóban az irodalom által javasolt, kívánatosnak tekintett vezetői stílusjegyeket tekintik-e pozitívnak. Vizsgálatunkat a Versenyképesség Kutató Központ 2009-es kérdőívének adatbázisán végeztük el, melyben mintegy 300 vállalat négy vezetőjének válaszai állnak rendelkezésre. A rendelkezésre álló mintából mi az 50 fő feletti foglalkoztatottal rendelkező, feldolgozóipari vállalatokra fókuszáltunk, esetükben elemeztük a vezérigazgató és a termelésvezető által követendőnek, jónak tartott vezetői stílusjegyek alkalmazását. ----- Abstract: The working paper focuses on two connected research quesions: Ono ne hand based on selected literature it systematically looks at the ideal leadership style and connected leader attributes that help in transforming a company into a real lean organization. On the other hand the paper analyzes whether leaders of companies with more developed lean practice do or do not follow these leadership related suggestions formulated in the literature. The study uses the fourth round of the Hungarian Competitiveness Research Survey from 2009. The survey has 300 valid observations. Four different respondents in each company filled in questionnaires, all of them were top managers (CEO, marketing /sales, finance, production). Plants were quite different alongside the most important organizational dimensions (volume, number of employee, industry, ownership). Previous researches pointed out that lean management is more likely applied by larger manufacturer. Hence, this study is limited to the analysis of questionnaires filled in by producers that have more than 50 employees. We analyze the leadership styles of two managers, namely the CEO and production manager.

Chaos Theory and Socio-Economic Renewal in Hungary

We utilised methods of chaos theory that were originally used in a 1990’s study to analyse the behaviour of various Hungarian socio-economic macro indicators, both historically and their expected behaviour in the future. In this study, we present the method adapted to PC and the behaviour of the selected macro indicators. We characterize the pathways our society and economy has experienced and where they are heading to into the future by the means of these indicators. Comparing the present results of analysis with the results twenty years ago (when today’s present was the future) we came to the conclusion that most of the indicators became less chaotic, thus the socio-economic courses were getting more stable over the past two decades. We conclude that the opportunity to change them is slowly diminishing, it will be more and more difficult to renew the Hungarian socio-economic indicators, and to turn the processes to more desirable courses. Recommendations for change interventions are then provided.

An approach for design and analysis of User-centric Communication Middleware

Today, the development of domain-specific communication applications is both time-consuming and error-prone because the low-level communication services provided by the existing systems and networks are primitive and often heterogeneous. Multimedia communication applications are typically built on top of low-level network abstractions such as TCP/UDP socket, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) APIs. The User-centric Communication Middleware (UCM) is proposed to encapsulate the networking complexity and heterogeneity of basic multimedia and multi-party communication for upper-layer communication applications. And UCM provides a unified user-centric communication service to diverse communication applications ranging from a simple phone call and video conferencing to specialized communication applications like disaster management and telemedicine. It makes it easier to the development of domain-specific communication applications. The UCM abstraction and API is proposed to achieve these goals. The dissertation also tries to integrate the formal method into UCM development process. The formal model is created for UCM using SAM methodology. Some design errors are found during model creation because the formal method forces to give the precise description of UCM. By using the SAM tool, formal UCM model is translated to Promela formula model. In the dissertation, some system properties are defined as temporal logic formulas. These temporal logic formulas are manually translated to promela formulas which are individually integrated with promela formula model of UCM and verified using SPIN tool. Formal analysis used here helps verify the system properties (for example multiparty multimedia protocol) and dig out the bugs of systems.

An investigation of the strategies used by organizations participating in the welfare-to-work network program and correlation of the strategies with the retention data to determine best practices for job retention among former welfare recipients

This ex post facto study (N = 209) examined the relationships between employer job strategies and job retention among organizations participating in Florida welfare-to-work network programs and associated the strategies with job retention data to determine best practices. ^ An internet-based self-report survey battery was administered to a heterogeneous sampling of organizations participating in the Florida welfare-to-work network program. Hypotheses were tested through correlational and hierarchical regression analytic procedures. The partial correlation results linked each of the job retention strategies to job retention. Wages, benefits, training and supervision, communication, job growth, work/life balance, fairness and respect were all significantly related to job retention. Hierarchical regression results indicated that the training and supervision variable was the best predictor of job retention in the regression equation. ^ The size of the organization was also a significant predictor of job retention. Large organizations reported higher job retention rates than small organizations. There was no statistical difference between the types of organizations (profit-making and non-profit) and job retention. The standardized betas ranged from to .26 to .41 in the regression equation. Twenty percent of the variance in job retention was explained by the combination of demographic and job retention strategy predictors, supporting the theoretical, empirical, and practical relevance of understanding the association between employer job strategies and job retention outcomes. Implications for adult education and human resource development theory, research, and practice are highlighted as possible strategic leverage points for creating conditions that facilitate the development of job strategies as a means for improving former welfare workers’ job retention.^

The relationship between faculty perceptions and implementation of elements of transactional distance theory and online web-based course completion rates

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between faculty perceptions, selected demographics, implementation of elements of transactional distance theory and online web-based course completion rates. This theory posits that the high transactional distance of online courses makes it difficult for students to complete these courses successfully; too often this is associated with low completion rates. Faculty members play an indispensable role in course design, whether online or face-to-face. They also influence course delivery format from design through implementation and ultimately to how students will experience the course. This study used transactional distance theory as the conceptual framework to examine the relationship between teaching and learning strategies used by faculty members to help students complete online courses. Faculty members' sex, number of years teaching online at the college, and their online course completion rates were considered. A researcher-developed survey was used to collect data from 348 faculty members who teach online at two prominent colleges in the southeastern part of United States. An exploratory factor analysis resulted in six factors related to transactional distance theory. The factors accounted for slightly over 65% of the variance of transactional distance scores as measured by the survey instrument. Results provided support for Moore's (1993) theory of transactional distance. Female faculty members scored higher in all the factors of transactional distance theory when compared to men. Faculty number of years teaching online at the college level correlated significantly with all the elements of transactional distance theory. Regression analysis was used to determine that two of the factors, instructor interface and instructor-learner interaction, accounted for 12% of the variance in student online course completion rates. In conclusion, of the six factors found, the two with the highest percentage scores were instructor interface and instructor-learner interaction. This finding, while in alignment with the literature concerning the dialogue element of transactional distance theory, brings a special interest to the importance of instructor interface as a factor. Surprisingly, based on the reviewed literature on transactional distance theory, faculty perceptions concerning learner-learner interaction was not an important factor and there was no learner-content interaction factor.

The new Jamaican migration : implications for theory and practice

While analysis of the effect which education and migration have on development is neither clear cut, nor obvious, regimes such as those of Jamaica have traditionally placed great emphasis on development through education at all levels. The process of human resource development and the accumulation of human capital is intended to unlock the door to modernization. Nevertheless, our findings indicate a considerable loss of professional and skilled personnel -- the same group that embody a disproportionate amount of educational expenditure relative to the population. Insofar as planning is concerned this migration represents a negative factor. The developing country of Jamaica is unintentionally supplying the developed world with an "annual gift" of human capital which its economy cannot afford. The major issue becomes: to what extent can any government "protect" its investments by restricting movements of capital and people. The general assumption of this paper is that the question of human rights cannot be ignored especially in democracies (which Jamaica decidedly is), where movement is seen as an ingrained human right. During the 1970s and 1980s, Jamaica and the Caribbean as a whole has lost much through intellectual capital migrations. Yet brains may also die in their own environment, if deprived the ability to create their own criteria and goals. Forcing people to stay with their money and know-how may only serve to produce and economic environment overgrown with weeds of lethargy, indolence and mediocrity.

Theory and Practice in Sustainability Science: Influence of Urban Form on the Urban Heat Island and Implications for Urban Systems

As the world population continues to grow past seven billion people and global challenges continue to persist including resource availability, biodiversity loss, climate change and human well-being, a new science is required that can address the integrated nature of these challenges and the multiple scales on which they are manifest. Sustainability science has emerged to fill this role. In the fifteen years since it was first called for in the pages of Science, it has rapidly matured, however its place in the history of science and the way it is practiced today must be continually evaluated. In Part I, two chapters address this theoretical and practical grounding. Part II transitions to the applied practice of sustainability science in addressing the urban heat island (UHI) challenge wherein the climate of urban areas are warmer than their surrounding rural environs. The UHI has become increasingly important within the study of earth sciences given the increased focus on climate change and as the balance of humans now live in urban areas.

In Chapter 2 a novel contribution to the historical context of sustainability is argued. Sustainability as a concept characterizing the relationship between humans and nature emerged in the mid to late 20th century as a response to findings used to also characterize the Anthropocene. Emerging from the human-nature relationships that came before it, evidence is provided that suggests Sustainability was enabled by technology and a reorientation of world-view and is unique in its global boundary, systematic approach and ambition for both well being and the continued availability of resources and Earth system function. Sustainability is further an ambition that has wide appeal, making it one of the first normative concepts of the Anthropocene.

Despite its widespread emergence and adoption, sustainability science continues to suffer from definitional ambiguity within the academe. In Chapter 3, a review of efforts to provide direction and structure to the science reveals a continuum of approaches anchored at either end by differing visions of how the science interfaces with practice (solutions). At one end, basic science of societally defined problems informs decisions about possible solutions and their application. At the other end, applied research directly affects the options available to decision makers. While clear from the literature, survey data further suggests that the dichotomy does not appear to be as apparent in the minds of practitioners.

In Chapter 4, the UHI is first addressed at the synoptic, mesoscale. Urban climate is the most immediate manifestation of the warming global climate for the majority of people on earth. Nearly half of those people live in small to medium sized cities, an understudied scale in urban climate research. Widespread characterization would be useful to decision makers in planning and design. Using a multi-method approach, the mesoscale UHI in the study region is characterized and the secular trend over the last sixty years evaluated. Under isolated ideal conditions the findings indicate a UHI of 5.3 ± 0.97 °C to be present in the study area, the magnitude of which is growing over time.

Although urban heat islands (UHI) are well studied, there remain no panaceas for local scale mitigation and adaptation methods, therefore continued attention to characterization of the phenomenon in urban centers of different scales around the globe is required. In Chapter 5, a local scale analysis of the canopy layer and surface UHI in a medium sized city in North Carolina, USA is conducted using multiple methods including stationary urban sensors, mobile transects and remote sensing. Focusing on the ideal conditions for UHI development during an anticyclonic summer heat event, the study observes a range of UHI intensity depending on the method of observation: 8.7 °C from the stationary urban sensors; 6.9 °C from mobile transects; and, 2.2 °C from remote sensing. Additional attention is paid to the diurnal dynamics of the UHI and its correlation with vegetation indices, dewpoint and albedo. Evapotranspiration is shown to drive dynamics in the study region.

Finally, recognizing that a bridge must be established between the physical science community studying the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, and the planning community and decision makers implementing urban form and development policies, Chapter 6 evaluates multiple urban form characterization methods. Methods evaluated include local climate zones (LCZ), national land cover database (NCLD) classes and urban cluster analysis (UCA) to determine their utility in describing the distribution of the UHI based on three standard observation types 1) fixed urban temperature sensors, 2) mobile transects and, 3) remote sensing. Bivariate, regression and ANOVA tests are used to conduct the analyses. Findings indicate that the NLCD classes are best correlated to the UHI intensity and distribution in the study area. Further, while the UCA method is not useful directly, the variables included in the method are predictive based on regression analysis so the potential for better model design exists. Land cover variables including albedo, impervious surface fraction and pervious surface fraction are found to dominate the distribution of the UHI in the study area regardless of observation method.

Chapter 7 provides a summary of findings, and offers a brief analysis of their implications for both the scientific discourse generally, and the study area specifically. In general, the work undertaken does not achieve the full ambition of sustainability science, additional work is required to translate findings to practice and more fully evaluate adoption. The implications for planning and development in the local region are addressed in the context of a major light-rail infrastructure project including several systems level considerations like human health and development. Finally, several avenues for future work are outlined. Within the theoretical development of sustainability science, these pathways include more robust evaluations of the theoretical and actual practice. Within the UHI context, these include development of an integrated urban form characterization model, application of study methodology in other geographic areas and at different scales, and use of novel experimental methods including distributed sensor networks and citizen science.

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in solar chromospheric jets: theory and observation

Using data obtained by the high-resolution CRisp Imaging SpectroPolarimeter instrument on the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope, we investigate the dynamics and stability of quiet-Sun chromospheric jets observed at the disk center. Small-scale features, such as rapid redshifted and blueshifted excursions, appearing as high-peed jets in the wings of the Hα line, are characterized by short lifetimes and rapid fading without any descending behavior. To study the theoretical aspects of their stability without considering their formation mechanism, we model chromospheric jets as twisted magnetic flux tubes moving along their axis, and use the ideal linear incompressible magnetohydrodynamic approximation to derive the governing dispersion equation. Analytical solutions of the dispersion equation indicate that this type of jet is unstable to Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI), with a very short (few seconds) instability growth time at high upflow speeds. The generated vortices and unresolved turbulent flows associated with the KHI could be observed as a broadening of chromospheric spectral lines. Analysis of the Hα line profiles shows that the detected structures have enhanced line widths with respect to the background. We also investigate the stability of a larger-scale Hα jet that was ejected along the line of sight. Vortex-like features, rapidly developing around the jet’s boundary, are considered as evidence of the KHI. The analysis of the energy equation in the partially ionized plasma shows that ion–neutral collisions may lead to fast heating of the KH vortices over timescales comparable to the lifetime of chromospheric jets.

The Idiosyncratic Body: Contemporary Clown Theory and Practice

Drawing on historical research, personal interviews, performance analysis, and my own embodied experience as a participant-observer in several clown workshops, I explore the diverse historical influences on clown theatre as it is conceived today. I then investigate how the concept of embodied knowledge is reflected in red-nose clown pedagogy. Finally, I argue that through shared embodied knowledge spectators are able to perceive and appreciate the humor of clown theatre in performance. I propose that clown theatre represents a reaction to the eroding personal connections prompted by the so-called information age, and that humor in clown theatre is a revealing index of socio-cultural values, attitudes, dispositions, and concerns.

Trade Shocks and Local Labor Markets' Linkages: Theory and Evidence

In the past few years, there has been a concern among economists and policy makers that increased openness to international trade affects some regions in a country more than others. Recent research has found that local labor markets more exposed to import competition through their initial employment composition experience worse outcomes in several dimensions such as, employment, wages, and poverty. Although there is evidence that regions within a country exhibit variation in the intensity with which they trade with each other and with other countries, trade linkages have been ignored in empirical analyses of the regional effects of trade, which focus on differences in employment composition. In this dissertation, I investigate how local labor markets' trade linkages shape the response of wages to international trade shocks. In the second chapter, I lay out a standard multi-sector general equilibrium model of trade, where domestic regions trade with each other and with the rest of the world. Using this benchmark, I decompose a region's wage change resulting from a national import cost shock into a direct effect on prices, holding other endogenous variables constant, and a series of general equilibrium effects. I argue the direct effect provides a natural measure of exposure to import competition within the model since it summarizes the effect of the shock on a region's wage as a function of initial conditions given by its trade linkages. I call my proposed measure linkage exposure while I refer to the measures used in previous studies as employment exposure. My theoretical analysis also shows that the assumptions previous studies make on trade linkages are not consistent with the standard trade model. In the third chapter, I calibrate the model to the Brazilian economy in 1991--at the beginning of a period of trade liberalization--to perform a series of experiments. In each of them, I reduce the Brazilian import cost by 1 percent in a single sector and I calculate how much of the cross-regional variation in counterfactual wage changes is explained by exposure measures. Over this set of experiments, employment exposure explains, for the median sector, 2 percent of the variation in counterfactual wage changes while linkage exposure explains 44 percent. In addition, I propose an estimation strategy that incorporates trade linkages in the analysis of the effects of trade on observed wages. In the model, changes in wages are completely determined by changes in market access, an endogenous variable that summarizes the real demand faced by a region. I show that a linkage measure of exposure is a valid instrument for changes in market access within Brazil. By using observed wage changes in Brazil between 1991-2000, my estimates imply that a region at the 25th percentile of the change in domestic market access induced by trade liberalization, experiences a 0.6 log points larger wage decline (or smaller wage increase) than a region at the 75th percentile. The estimates from a regression of wages changes on exposure imply that a region at the 25th percentile of exposure experiences a 3 log points larger wage decline (or smaller wage increase) than a region at the 75th percentile. I conclude that estimates based on exposure overstate the negative impact of trade liberalization on wages in Brazil. In the fourth chapter, I extend the standard model to allow for two types of workers according to their education levels: skilled and unskilled. I show that there is substantial variation across Brazilian regions in the skill premium. I use the exogenous variation provided by tariff changes to estimate the impact of market access on the skill premium. I find that decreased domestic market access resulting from trade liberalization resulted in a higher skill premium. I propose a mechanism to explain this result: that the manufacturing sector is relatively more intensive in unskilled labor and I show empirical evidence that supports this hypothesis.

Modeling and analysis of thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency in nanostructures.

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