Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
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Integrating sustainability into new product development: The role of organizational leadership and culture
Get PDFWhile corporate sustainability research continues to grow, we contend that key organizational factors influence the ability of firms to strategically integrate sustainability orientation to the performance of new products. Using data from 349 product developers, this paper examines organizational factors that instill a sustainability orientation leading to market performance of new products. Specifically, we construct a model where organizational leadership (i.e., leadership practices, employee incentives, and a focus on patents), and culture (i.e., innovation culture and geocentricity) lead to sustainability orientation that results in the translation of firm resources into improved new product development outcomes. Our results support our contention; sustainability orientated firms are likely to realize improved market performance of new products as these firms benefit from an innovative organizational culture exposed to the global environment with complementary leadership that provides focus and reward mechanisms for employees
Finding Flexibility with HyFlex: Teaching in the Digital Age
Get PDFTeachers knew in the summer of 2020 that the next school year would be a new venture in education. After experiencing a rapid shift in delivery of their classes in the spring, teachers across the country sought the best ways to engage students meaningfully in a variety of modalities, knowing that shift might continue to happen in the coming year. As summer gave way to fall, teachers returned to their schools with great anticipation and a bit of uncertainty. Some teachers returned to their classrooms in a virtual environment with all of their students online. Others returned with all of their students in person. Still others returned with a blend:some students online and some students in person. For those classes that have a blend of online and in-person students at any given time, a flexible approach is needed, a hybrid-flexible or HyFlex model of teaching is the answer, particularly if the students have choice in how they attend and engage in class and they have access to the necessary technology (Beatty, 2019; Ferrero, 2020; Nave, 2020). 
The Importance of Learning Through Play in Early Childhood Education: Reflection on The Bold Beginnings Report
Get PDFIn this paper, authors reflect on the implications of the report titled “Bold Beginnings: The Reception Curriculum in a Sample of Good and Outstanding Primary Schools” (Ofsted, 2017). This report is a review of curriculum for four-and five-year-old children in the United Kingdom. The Bold Beginnings report argues for teaching young children more academic subjects, instead of introducing learning through play. The report claims when children learn more academic curriculum early without spending too much time on play, they become ready and qualified in their academic lives which in turn, makes instruction easier for their future elementary school teachers.
In contrast, this paper focuses on the importance of allowing young children to learn naturally through a variety of play experiences. The authors argue play is holistic and provides children with a range of support including mental and emotional well-being, social interactions, and physical challenges. The premise for this paper underscores the critical importance that children play and learn about the world with relevance, authenticity, and developmentally appropriate opportunities. Early childhood settings become an extraordinary space for this natural and holistic learning to occur. After describing how play most effectively accommodates children’s unique needs and individual development, authors explain how learning through play provides children the opportunities to grow in a risk-free environment, communicate with peers, express feelings and thoughts, discover and investigate various subjects, improve social-emotional skills, develop language and vocabulary, enhance cognitive capacity, build self-esteem, prepare for life, and establish a foundation for the next stage of school. Early childhood teachers can help students to do all this and more by providing learning through play. 
Beyond linearity and resource-based perspectives of SME growth
Get PDFRecent debates have seen increased interest in the growth of SMEs. Most research however follows a limited remit, focusing on specific subsets and employing narrow, resource-based perspectives. A consequence is our knowledge is limited on how SME growth occurs more broadly and the critical determinants in this process. This paper addresses this gap, examining SME growth as a multidimensional process rather than an output.The paper operationalises a Four Dimensions Conceptual Model through a Systematic Literature Review of 36 studies on the growth process. It identifies a broader set of determinants supporting a multidimensional approach, the pluralistic nature of SME growth embedded in distinctive contexts. Evidence suggests a greater reliance on firm-based Characteristics and Environmental factors in supporting growth, providing critical inputs into forming and reinforcing networks through which firm-based resources are activated. We emphasise the need to test these propositions through more SME research using qualitative and longitudinal methods
An exploratory study of executive factors that lead to technology adoption in small businesses
Get PDFThe small business setting can be quite competitive, and companies that succeed tend to invest in technology to gain or maintain a competitive edge. Often, the adoption of technology is heavily dependent on the specific will and desires of the CEO or other top executives. This research aims to determine what executive factors affect the adoption of technology among small businesses. We employ the technology acceptance model to test the correlations between technology acceptance and the unique characteristics of small digital printing companies. The results suggest that the executive personality traits of entrepreneurship and technology readiness are indicators of a positive attitude toward technology and market orientation and show that this positive attitude correlates with technology adoption
Shin Gojira: Return of the Angry God
Get PDFShin Gojira returns to the original themes of horror and cultural commentary that were the foundation of the original 1954 film. It works as a running analogy to many of the most pressing issues on the mind of Japanese society at the time of this film’s creation. It serves also as a window into these pressing issues and a medium through which we can look and understand these issues
The Relationship between Religion and Politics in a Globalizing World
Get PDFReligion plays a powerful role in modern politics, and the relationship between the two is ever-changing. The governing of a state cannot be separated from the religious views of its people that affect the leaders and lawmakers of a country. Law mirrors society. This paper explores the ways that religious beliefs, practices, and communities shape and are shaped by the political expecta-tions and necessities of a nation by using examples from major world religions. Readers will be presented information regarding each religion’s perception of the relationship between religion and politics and how religious adherents have upheld or opposed the relationship. Because reli-gion and politics are always changing and adapting, the foundational ideologies of the relation-ship between these two entities are continually challenged, reimagined, modified
COMIC-ECON: USING AMAR CHITRA KATHA COMICS TO TEACH ECONOMICS
Get PDFStudents are exposed to a variety of sources of information and entertainment during their formative years. While this has certain downsides to academic pursuits, it also presents opportunities since students are interacting with ideas and concepts in different settings. One of those settings is the comic book and the closely related graphic novel. Comic books are actually an older entertainment source but seem to have an enduring appeal and even occasional re-births as some get adapted into movies and video games. These relatively short, colorful, entertaining magazines have been popular for decades in many cultures,and some characters are very well known and, as a result, present an educational opportunity. Using comics to teach several different topics in economicsexpands the toolbox for the instructor to use either in schools or undergraduate classes
SME sustainability dashboards: An aid to manage and report performance
Get PDFThis applied paper introduces the concept and potential application of sustainability dashboards by SMEs as an aid to meet growing demands for sustainability management and reporting. It suggests how dashboards can be integrated into the planning and control systems of SMEs to facilitate data visualization for the purpose of sustainability decision making. The paper highlights benefits including low cost and discusses practical implications, such as use of dashboards beyond sustainability management and the need for policymakers to provide better access to training and software for SMEs
Rhyme and Revolution
Get PDFWilliam Wordsworth’s poetry stands as a reflection of the sociopolitical landscape of his time. His focus on the natural landscape instead of the sculpted is one of the best examples of artistic revolution in history, as Wordsworth uses his natural landscape focus as a way of protesting the rapidly developing Industrial Revolution in England. Beyond anything Wordsworth could have expected, however, this focus on natural landscapes, combined with his concern with a person’s individuality, turned him into the progenitor of a new era of poetry and literature: the Roman-tic period. Thus, Wordsworth’s poetry and ideals stand as a revolution of both the contemporary poetic style and sociopolitical ideals of his time