1,720,972 research outputs found
Modelling of organizational capabilities, innovation activities and performance of small and medium sized construction firms / Lee Yee Lin
Get PDFThe relevance of innovation in service industries has been addressed within a project-based construction setting. Adopting innovative technologies and practices is important in accruing beneficial outcomes related to improved project delivery and performance as well as sustained competitive advantage of construction firms. However, little empirical emphasis has been paid to small and medium scale firms that constituted the bulk structure of the industry. The present study aims to develop an innovation framework, together with its mathematical equations, that considers organizational capabilities as a distinguishing character of superior firm performance in small and medium contracting firms (SMCFs). Construction innovation is defined as two different types of innovation activities, that is, technological and organizational innovations. Organizational capabilities involve several dimensions, such as entrepreneurship, organizational learning, integrated market orientation, human resource practice and inter-organizational network. The present study proposes an innovation framework, based on resource-based view (RBV) of firm, which assumes a positive effect of organizational capabilities on innovation, which in turns exerts a positive effect on firm performance. To date, to what extent these concepts are interrelated to each other and how innovation can be achieved within a small and medium (SME) setting remain unclear. Draw upon a mixed method, the proposed innovation framework and its mathematical equations are sequentially developed and validated with 157 empirical surveys and 12 in-depth interviews. Both the quantitative and qualitative studies are sampled on SMCFs (of general and specialist types) located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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The purpose of the quantitative surveys was to gauge the strength of relationship between capabilities, innovation and firm performance. To this end, partial least square (PLS) approach of structural equation modelling (SEM) is utilized to produce quantitative results, which are then validated with a qualitative study that involves 12 experts specifically associated with SMCFs. The findings affirmed that capabilities can positively spur the effectuation of the two different, yet, complementing types of innovation desired by SMCFs. In turn, both the technological and organizational innovations are found to spur the development of superior performance of SMCFs. Further analysis indicated a partial mediating effect of the two distinct types of construction innovation. The results are expected to contribute to the academics in two main areas. First, the new innovation framework considers both capabilities-based antecedents and firm-based consequence to understand the nature of innovation in SMCFs. It provided an advanced explanation of how SMCFs innovate to accrue competent market position. Second, the conceptualization of innovation is consolidated on two different types of construction innovation, therefore advancing the understanding of innovation in SMCFs setting. Finally, the mathematical equations provide practical guidance for both practitioners and policymakers as to promote new value creation among SMCFs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
An exploratory study of the effect of entrepreneurship and networking to the innovative performance of construction SMES
No full textTurner syndrome with ring x chromosome: do they have a distinct phenotype?
No full textIn contrast to classic Turner syndrome, Turner patients with ring X chromosome are associated with distinct dysmorphism and are likely to be mentally impaired. Four Turner patients with ring X chromosome were examined for phenotypic features of Turner syndrome and additional dysmorphism. Both patients 1 and 2 are twins with normal intelligence whereas patients 3 and 4 have mental impairment. With the exception of patient 4, the other three patients only have few Turner characteristics. None of the patients have the distinctive dysmorphism previously reported in Turner syndrome with ring X chromosome. Both twins developed spontaneous puberty. Patients 3 and 4 however had no spontaneous puberty. We postulate that this variation may be related to the ring size, the proportion of 45,X and ring X chromosome in cell lines of various body tissues as well as the ability of these rings to be inactivated as a result of lyonisation
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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