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Crafting the Virtuous Corporation Through Spiritual Discernment
Get PDFhis study explores spiritual discernment through the lenses of modern virtue ethics in organizational decision-making by developing a process model grounded in empirical research at Buurtzorg Nederland, a Dutch home care organization. Drawing on MacIntyre’s virtue ethics and Moore’s concept of virtuous corporate character, we identify six principles (serving, attuning, trusting, needing, rethinking, and common sense) and six manifestations (meaningless, meaningful, mindless and mindful organizing activities, substantive rationality, and love for craftsmanship) that facilitate the development of virtuous corporate character. Our findings demonstrate how spiritual discernment enables organizations to balance internal goods (e.g., excellence in practice) with external goods (e.g., reputation and profit). The resulting Process Model of Spiritual Discernment in Organizing Activities contributes to business ethics by empirically grounding Moore’s concept of the virtuous institutional character and Weber’s substantive rationality, providing practical guidance for managers seeking to transcend the means-ends dichotomy
Authentic experience in the metaverse: a situated cognition perspective of metaverse food festivals
Get PDFPurpose Anchored in embeddedness, embodiment and extension principles from situated cognition theory, this study aims to propose a model to explain customer experience in the metaverse.
Design/methodology/approach This study tests the proposed model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on usable data from 816 individuals who attended a metaverse food festival.
Findings This study demonstrates the role of authentic experiences in activating customers’ mental imagery in the metaverse. This mental imagery, in turn, enhances customers’ sense of presence, which is crucial for an immersive metaverse experience. The study also shows how this heightened sense of presence, alongside subjective well-being, plays a critical role in shaping purchase intentions, both directly and indirectly, in the metaverse.
Practical implications The insights suggest that prioritizing authenticity is a viable strategy for brands seeking to leverage the metaverse, as fostering enriched mental imagery and a strong sense of presence can strengthen subjective well-being and stimulate purchase intentions among customers
Originality/value This study enriches understanding by establishing a model that offers a seminal explanation of customer experience in the metaverse from a situated cognition perspective supported by field data from participants of a metaverse food festival
Lobbying: influence under micro-targeting
Get PDFInterest groups (IGs) can potentially influence policy making process or policy outcomes in their favor by using different lobbying tactics. In this paper, we study how and under what circumstances IGs exert influence on policy outcomes when they can use Micro-targeting (MT) as a lobbying strategy, i.e. the IGs can send group specific messages to a subset of voters. In the absence of IGs, the political candidate does not have means to privately commit a policy to a group of voters, who might vote for her after observing such policy commitment. Recognizing this, IGs can get policy favours from the political candidate in exchange for facilitating candidate’s private commitment. We identify conditions in which MT is influential, in the sense of leading to a different policy outcome in the presence of IGs. The analysis fully characterizes the set of influential MT equilibria. The like minded IG does not have any direct influence, but its presence could severely impact the direct influence of unlike minded IGs given that the competing candidates are ideologically motivated. Moreover, this may also lead to polarisation between the two competing candidates
Time-dependent associations between accessibility to tram stops, proximity to tram tracks, and property prices: From construction to operation
Get PDFResearch on how accessibility to tram stops and proximity to tram tracks affect property prices has been limited. Additionally, the time-dependent effects of the tram system and its effects at different price levels remain underexplored. This study fills these gaps by analyzing the relationship between Chengdu Tram Line 2 and nearby property prices. Using a before-and-after treatment-control design and a dataset of 33,150 property transactions over six years, it applies multilevel hedonic price, difference-in-differences (DID), and quantile regression models to investigate the association between accessibility to tram stops, proximity to tram tracks, and property prices during various phases (e.g., construction and operation phases). Our findings are listed below. First, the positive influence of accessibility to tram stops only becomes significant during the operation phase. Specifically, property prices within 800 m of tram stops are 1.4 % higher than those farther away. Second, price penalties induced by proximity to tram tracks persist throughout the construction and operation phases. Third, the impact of accessibility to tram stops varies significantly across different price levels. Specifically, buyers of low-priced properties are more willing to pay a premium for accessibility to tram stops, whereas purchasers of high-end properties prefer greater distances from tram tracks to avoid nuisances. The results highlight the time-dependent accessibility benefits and negative externalities linked to tram services. Finally, policy implications, such as measures to alleviate the disturbances caused by tram tracks, are discussed
Attenuation and reinforcement mechanisms over the life course
Get PDFWe analyse the complex dynamic feedback effects between different life domains over the life course, providing a quantification of the direct (not mediated) and indirect (mediated) effects. To extend the analysis in scope and time beyond the limitations of existing data, we use a rich dynamic microsimulation model of individual life course trajectories parameterised and validated to the UK context. We interpret findings in terms of the implied attenuation or reinforcement mechanisms at play, and discuss implications for health and economic inequalities
Algorithms on Trial: Does Evaluative Probabilistic Reporting of Forensic Evidence Infringe the Presumption of Innocence?
Get PDFScientific evidence plays an important role in criminal justice. Recent technological developments including the use of AI and advanced computational forensic software have made possible forensic examinations and expert opinions that previously would have been impossible. Alongside benefits, the use in criminal trials of forensic evidence based on computational technologies such as Probabilistic Genotyping (PG) DNA, are posing difficult problems for courts and have been met with controversy. This study focuses on one important aspect of the criticism surrounding the use of PG DNA evidence, which relates to the probabilistic reporting of the forensic evidence results. It explores whether the use of likelihood ratios to report evaluative expert opinions infringes the presumption of innocence. This is a fundamental question that concerns not only evidence based on advanced computational technologies such as PG DNA but all forensic disciplines where the use of likelihood ratios and probabilistic assessments of the evidence are being actively promoted. This article posits that the criticism on the use of probabilistic methods for evidence evaluation encountered in legal practice, scholarly debate, policy and legal reform documents, is founded on misunderstandings of the role and limitations of the forensic evidence, of the processes involved in arriving at an evaluative expert opinion, as well as of the meaning and scope of the presumption of innocence itself. This study aims to contribute to an enhanced understanding of these fundamental issues which will lead towards a better regulation of AI and forensic algorithms across jurisdictions, without diminishing the impact of the scientific evidence in criminal proceedings and beyond
Voices for Inclusive Activity: A co-produced Participatory Action Research project exploring more accessible and inclusive ways of evaluating disabled people’s participation in sport and physical activity
Get PDFDisabled people and those with long-term health conditions are less likely than the general population to participate in sport and physical activity. Sport and physical activity have the potential to transform lives, but existing tools used to evaluate disabled people’s participation in such occupations are typically inaccessible and not inclusive of varied ways and means of participation. Consequently, sport and physical activity programmes struggle to demonstrate impact and ensure future sustainability. This can perpetuate inequalities in access to sport and physical activity for disabled people, violating occupational rights and perpetuating occupational injustice. Injustice is also apparent within traditional research and evaluation approaches that produce knowledge ‘about’, rather than in collaboration ‘with’, disabled people. This PhD focuses on the Voices for Inclusive Activity research project, within which an initial seven co-researchers, including five disabled people and one family carer, worked together to explore more accessible and inclusive ways of evaluating disabled people’s participation in sport and physical activity. Co-researchers used principles of co-production to design and implement a research project involving two categories of participants: funders, providers and related organisations with interest in disability sport and physical activity; and users and non-users of disability sport and physical activity. Co-researchers were involved in all aspects of the research process, from designing research questions and participant information, to carrying out data collection and elements of data analysis, determining recommendations, next steps and calling for action. Co-researchers also worked together to develop accessible forms of dissemination, which have included co-produced presentations and discussions with interest holders, audio podcasts and subtitled videocasts. Methodological learnings acknowledge exclusions and opportunities for innovation in an online participatory action research approach, congruence between this approach and occupational therapy theory, practice and occupational justice, and may also offer guidance for the pursuit of participatory forms of evaluation involving disabled people
Non-Orthogonal AFDM: A Promising Spectrum-Efficient Waveform for 6G High-Mobility Communications
Get PDFThis paper proposes a spectrum-efficient nonorthogonal affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM) waveform for reliable high-mobility communications in the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) mobile systems. Our core idea is to introduce a compression factor to enable controllable subcarrier overlapping in chirp-based AFDM modulation. To mitigate intercarrier interference (ICI), we introduce linear precoding at the transmitter and an iterative detection scheme at the receiver. Simulation results demonstrate that these techniques can effectively reduce interference and maintain robust bit error rate (BER) performance even under aggressive compression factors and high-mobility channel conditions. The proposed non-orthogonal AFDM waveform offers a promising solution for next-generation wireless networks, balancing spectrum efficiency and Doppler resilience in highly dynamic environments
Emotional anticipation for dynamic emotional faces is not modulated by schizotypal traits: A Representational Momentum study.
Get PDFSchizotypy, a personality structure that resembles schizophrenia symptoms, is often associated with abnormal facial emotion perception. Based on the prevailing sense of threat in psychotic experiences, and the immediate perceptual history of seeing others' facial expressions, individuals with high schizotypal traits may exhibit a heightened tendency to anticipate anger. To test this, we used insights from Representational Momentum (RM), a perceptual phenomenon in which the endpoint of a dynamic event is systematically displaced forward, into the immediate future. Angry-to-ambiguous and happy-to-ambiguous avatar faces were presented, each followed by a probe with the same (ambiguous) expression as the endpoint, or one slightly changed to express greater happiness/anger. Participants judged if the probe was "equal" to the endpoint and rated how confident they were. The sample was divided into high (N = 46) and low (N = 49) schizotypal traits using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). First, a forward bias was found in happy-to-ambiguous faces, suggesting emotional anticipation solely for dynamic faces changing towards a potential threat (anger). This may reflect an adaptative mechanism, as it is safer to anticipate any hostility from a conspecific than the opposite. Second, contrary to our hypothesis, high schizotypal traits did not heighten RM for happy-to-ambiguous faces, nor did they lead to overconfidence in biased judgements. This may suggest a typical pattern of emotional anticipation in non-clinical schizotypy, but caution is needed due to the use of self-report questionnaires, university students, and a modest sample size. Future studies should also investigate if the same holds for clinical manifestations of schizophrenia
The intelligence community as a normative actor under international law
No full textHow do international law and the intelligence community influence one another? This chapter demonstrates that the relationship between them is bidirectional and mutually constitutive. International law first constitutes a strong permissive tool for the intelligence community. The intelligence community invokes international law to explain, justify, and legitimate its activities, while international law provides legitimation to the intelligence community for many of its activities. Equally, international law constrains the intelligence community through the risk of accountability. In turn, the intelligence community shapes international law when it uses it for political legitimation. Whereas, in the past, the intelligence community remained silent on its practices, at best uttering ‘neither confirm nor deny’, the situation has changed. Forced exposure has triggered a matching need to legitimise intelligence activities through law. The intelligence community is now openly engaging with and interpreting international law, putting forward interpretations that will legitimise its preferred outcomes and empower it to pursue its choices of policies. In doing so, the intelligence community changes the meaning ascribed to international norms. Moreover, when the intelligence community refuses to abide by the rules of the legalism game by not providing a legal justification for its activities, it undermines the status of international legal norms, which may be perceived as less binding by the rest of the international community. For these reasons, the intelligence community acts as a norm-shaper, if not yet a norm-setter