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Control-style ambidexterity and information systems project performance: an expanded view of control activities
Get PDFInformation systems (IS) projects represent key building blocks of large-scale digital transformation and innovation initiatives. As a result, IS projects have become increasingly ambitious in terms of both goals and scale, making it even more challenging for managers to exercise control over such projects. While prior research focused primarily on the direct and interactive effects of formal and informal control modes on IS project performance, recent research directs attention to the importance of considering project managers’ control styles (i.e., how managers interact with controlees to enact controls). Corresponding studies also indicate that “either/or” control approaches – as opposed to “both/and” approaches – are no longer viable in today’s complex environment. As such, our study draws on an ambidexterity perspective to theoretically develop and empirically test the direct and interactive effects of control-style ambidexterity on IS project performance. Using matched-pair data from 146 IS projects (from 146 high-tech firms), we find that control-style ambidexterity improves project performance – directly and in combination with both formal and informal control. The study results contribute novel insights regarding the effective control of IS projects in the digital era and help explain mixed findings in prior literature, thereby facilitating continued theory development in the research area
Biomechanical measures of short-term maximal cycling on an ergometer: a test-retest study
Get PDFAn understanding of test-retest reliability is important for biomechanists, such as when assessing the longitudinal effect of training or equipment interventions. Our aim was to quantify the test-retest reliability of biomechanical variables measured during short-term maximal cycling. Fourteen track sprint cyclists performed 3 × 4 s seated sprints at 135 rpm on an isokinetic ergometer, repeating the session 7.6 ± 2.5 days later. Joint moments were calculated via inverse dynamics, using pedal forces and limb kinematics. EMG activity was measured for 9 lower limb muscles. Reliability was explored by quantifying systematic and random differences within- and between-session. Within-session reliability was better than between-sessions reliability. The test-retest reliability level was typically moderate to excellent for the biomechanical variables that describe maximal cycling. However, some variables, such as peak knee flexion moment and maximum hip joint power, demonstrated lower reliability, indicating that care needs to be taken when using these variables to evaluate biomechanical changes. Although measurement error (instrumentation error, anatomical marker misplacement, soft tissue artefacts) can explain some of our reliability observations, we speculate that biological variability may also be a contributor to the lower repeatability observed in several variables including ineffective crank force, ankle kinematics and hamstring muscles’ activation patterns
Becoming a Smuggler: Migration and Violence at EU External Borders
Get PDFMigrants’ involvement in smuggling increases alongside restricted cross-border movement and violent borders, yet this dynamic is usually examined from migrants’ position as clients. In this article, we move away from migrants and smugglers as two separate roles and question migrants’ aspirations to and experiences of resorting to smuggling networks as workers in the context of EU land borders, where direct violence is used daily to fight cross-border crime. By doing so, we move further the examination of fluid relations in smuggling provisions and the way they are intertwined with care and exploitation, as shaped and circumscribed by violent borders. The article illustrates the intersections between border violence and migrants’ active involvement in smuggling by drawing on the case study of an anonymised Border Town and multi-site, multi-author fieldwork from Serbia and Bosnia. By questioning migrants’ experiences of shifting roles from clients to service providers, and by taking into account their work in smuggling provision, we show that, in a situation of protracted vulnerability orchestrated by border violence, state and law enforcement, the categories – “migrant” and “smugglers” – can blur
Scientist of the week: evaluating effects of a teacher-led STEM intervention to reduce stereotypical views of scientists in young children
Get PDFBackground: Previous research into children’s perceptions of science shows that children like science but often hold stereotypical views of scientists and commonly do not see themselves with a career as a scientist.Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine if a carefully designed medium-term, teacher-led STEM intervention, ‘Scientist of the Week’ which showcased a diverse range of working scientists and the skills they need, can lead to a positive change in the perception of scientists among young people.Sample Design and Methods: Using a case-control approach, this research used a tracked sample of 118 young people from aged 7 to 11 in a primary school in the North East of England. Words associated with scientists were collected before and after (directly, one month, one year) the intervention from the tracked sample and analysed to assess changes in stereotypical perceptions and any difference in responses between male and female participants.Results: Before the intervention, young children held many of the common stereotypes associated with scientists. Shortly afterwards, and one year following the intervention, the use of common stereotypes had fallen significantly across all children, with particular improvements in counter-stereotypical word usage for males. It also found that stereotypical images of scientists as highly intelligent were more difficult to counteract and that many of the positive changes in this view seen in the short term (weeks and months) diminished in the long term (one year later).Conclusions: This research has shown that with minimal expense and effort from teachers, negative stereotypes of scientists can be reduced through an intervention that does not require bringing scientists into the classroom. Some of the observed changes persisted in the longer-term, suggesting a lasting alteration in children’s perceptions of scientists following the interventio
Decoder Choice Network for Metalearning
Get PDFMetalearning has been widely applied for implementing few-shot learning and fast model adaptation. Particularly, existing metalearning methods have been exploited to learn the control mechanism for gradient descent processes, in an effort to facilitate gradient-based learning in gaining high speed and generalization ability. This article presents a novel method that controls the gradient descent process of the model parameters in a neural network, by limiting the model parameters within a low-dimensional latent space. The main challenge for implementing this idea is that a decoder with many parameters may be required. To tackle this problem, the article provides an alternative design of the decoder with a structure that shares certain weights, thereby reducing the number of required parameters. In addition, this work combines ensemble learning with the proposed approach to improve the overall learning performance. Systematic experimental studies demonstrate that the proposed approach offers results superior to the state of the art in performing the Omniglot classification and miniImageNet classification tasks
Unpacking the context of Value for Money assessment in global markets: a procurement option framework for Public Private Partnerships
Get PDFPurpose: The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), with the private sector’s investment and ingenuity, would appear to be an increasingly popular alternative. Value for money (VfM) has become the major criterion for evaluating PPPs against the traditional public sector procurement, and however is plagued with controversy. Hence, it is important that governments compare and contrast their practice with similar and disparate bodies to engender best practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand governments’ evaluation context and provide a cross-continental comparison on their VfM assessment.
Design/ methodology/ approach: Faced with different domestic contexts (e.g., aging infrastructure, population growth, and competing demands on finance), various governments tend to adopt different emphases when undertaking the VfM assessment. In line with the theory of boundary spanning, a cross continental comparison is conducted between three of the most noticeable PPP markets (i.e., the United Kingdom - UK, Australia and China) about their VfM assessment. The institutional level is interpreted by a social, economic and political framework, and the methodological level is elucidated through a qualitative and quantitative VfM assessment.
Findings: There are individual institutional characteristics that have shaped the way each country assesses VfM. For the methodological level, we identify that: (1) these global markets use a public sector comparator as the benchmark in VfM assessment; (2) ambiguous qualitative assessment is conducted only against PPPs to strengthen their policy development; (3) Australia’s priority is in service provision whereas that of the UK and China is project finance and production; and (4) all markets are seeking an amelioration of existing controversial VfM assessments so that purported VfM relates to project lifecycles. Therefore, an option framework is proposed to make headway towards a sensible selection of infrastructure procurement approaches in the post COVID-19 era.
Originality/ value: This study addresses a current void of enhancing the decision-making process for using PPPs within today’s changing environment and then opens up an avenue for future empirical research to examine the option framework and ensuing VfM decisions. Practically, it presents a holistic VfM landscape for public sector procurers that aim to engage with PPPs for their infrastructure interventions
Social Impact Bonds and public service reform: back to the future of New Public Management?
Get PDFThis article explores where the increasing adoption of SIBs and outcomes-based contracting may lead public service systems—toward New Public Governance, or ‘back’ to New Public Management. We present analysis from the first significant longitudinal qualitative study of a major UK SIB focused on improving outcomes in the context of social determinants of health to analyze how the two governance logics manifest and interact across the SIB lifecourse. We find that while both governance logics were present at initiation, over time NPM elements strengthened while NPG elements weakened. Two inalienable elements of the SIB model—investor power and data requirements for contract management—appeared to drive this change. Our findings provide evidence that SIBs promote a retrenchment of NPM, rather than a transition to NPG or a hybridization of the two governance logics. Findings also show how NPM, rather than a transitional stage toward NPG, can prove the more resilient and dominant governance logic within institutional forms
Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology
Get PDFExperiences of felt presence (FP) are well documented in neurology, neuropsychology and bereavement research, but systematic research in relation to psychopathology is limited. FP is a feature of sensorimotor disruption in psychosis, hypnagogic experiences, solo pursuits and spiritual encounters, but research comparing these phenomena remains rare. A comparative approach to the phenomenology of FP has the potential to identify shared and unique processes underlying the experience across these contexts, with implications for clinical understanding and intervention. We present a mixed-methods analysis from three online surveys comparing FP across three diverse contexts: a population sample which included people with experience of psychosis and voice-hearing (study 1, N = 75), people with spiritual and spiritualist beliefs (study 2, N = 47) and practitioners of endurance/solo pursuits (study 3, N = 84). Participants were asked to provide descriptions of their FP experiences and completed questionnaires on FP frequency, hallucinatory experiences, dissociation, paranoia, social inner speech and sleep. Data and code for the study are available via OSF. Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that FP frequency was predicted by a general tendency to experience hallucinations in all three studies, although paranoia and gender (female > male) were also significant predictors in sample 1. Qualitative analysis highlighted shared and diverging phenomenology of FP experiences across the three studies, including a role for immersive states in FP. These data combine to provide the first picture of the potential shared mechanisms underlying different accounts of FP, supporting a unitary model of the experience
Emotions and Marriage negotiations: Irish marriages in Late Medieval Spain
No full textFirst wave Irish migrants who established communities in Spain founded initial permanent settlements in the Crown of Aragon, Biscay and Galicia during the 1490s. These early settlements were based upon trading links, and also the desire to establish communities throughout the Iberian peninsula. Initially Irish marital practices, very different from those in Spain, prevailed. Over time, however, changes and gradual assimilation emerged
Mapping the Lie: A Smallest Space Analysis of Truthful and Deceptive Mock-informant Accounts.
Get PDFDetecting informant deception is a key concern for law enforcement officers, with implications for resource-management, operational decision-making, and protecting officers from risk of harm. However, the situational dilemma of a police informant, otherwise known as a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS), is unique. Informants are tasked to obtain information about the transgressive actions or intentions of their associates, knowing they will later disclose this information to a handler. Thus, techniques for detecting deception in other forensic scenarios may not be transferrable to an informant interview. Utilising truthful and deceptive transcripts from a unique mock-informant role play paradigm, Smallest Space Analysis was used to map the co-occurrence of content themes. Results found that deceptive content frequently co-occurred with emotive and low-potency content themes. This provides support for the future analysis of verbal content when seeking to detect informant deception