Search results for: institutional

Authors: Razak Rahmat, Azizah Ahmad, Rafidah Razak, Roshidi Din, Azizi Abas

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Telecenter is a place where communities can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies to enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others. However, previous studies found that sustainability issues related to economic, political and institutional, social and technology is one of the major problem faced by the telecenter. Based on that problem, this research is planning to design a possible solution on rural telecenters sustainability with the support of business intelligence (BI). The empirical study will be conducted through the qualitative and quantitative method including interviews and observations with a range of stakeholders including ministry officers, telecenters managers and operators. Result from the data collection will be analyze using the causal modeling approach of SEM SmartPLS for the validity. The expected finding from this research is the Business Intelligent Requirement Model as a guild for sustainability of the rural telecenters.

Keywords: Rural ICT Telecenter(RICTT), business intelligence, sustainability, requirement analysis modal

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Authors: Carrie Prendergast, Lisa Bortman

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The focus of this presentation will be on non-traditional (adult) students as they seek their Bachelors’ degrees online. This presentation will specifically examine nontraditional online student perceptions of Tinto’s success conditions: expectations, support, assessment, and engagement. Expectations include those of the student, the faculty and the institution. Support includes academic, social, and financial support. Feedback and assessment encompasses feedback in the classroom, upon entry, and on an institutional level. The fourth success condition is involvement or engagement of students with their peers and faculty in both academic and social contexts. This program will review and discuss a rich, detailed description of the lived experience of the nontraditional online student to add to the paucity of research on this understudied population and guide higher education professionals in supporting this growing population of students.

Keywords: adult students, online education, student success, vincent tinto

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Authors: Zainab Olabisi Tairu

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The human species is facing some of the most challenging issues encountered as civilization and development occurs. The most salient factors threatening all species globally are habitats loss and degradation, overexploitation, competition with unwanted invasive species, pollution, global climate and various individual lifestyles of indigenous species. In order to avoid or minimize the effect of our actions on the environment and to balance employee work life with their private life, Green Human Resource is important and must be practiced in every organization including Higher Learning Institutions. This study addressed Green HRM from an institutional perspective, University systems are involved in numerous and complex social, educational and extra-curricular activities. The University community must be challenged to rethink and re-construct their environmental policies and practices in order to contribute to sustainable development. Many institutions only look at sustainability from the technology improvement aspect and waste management. People are the principal actors for sustainability development at the institutional level. The aim of the study is to explore the concept of Green Human Resource Management at a case site. Divine Word University (DWU) an Institution of Higher Education that embraced the ‘Printing & Paper use Policy’, also commonly referred to as the ‘paperless policy’, the use of solar as an alternative source of energy, water conservation and improvement in internet technology (IT) with the aim of becoming a green institution in effort to help save the environment. This study used Participatory Action Research as the Overarching methodological framework and Egg of sustainability and Wellbeing as the theoretical perspective in analyzing the data, engaging Case study strategy and a mixed method design at DWU. Focus group interview were conducted with three departments at the University, semi-structure interviews with the senior managers, survey questionnaire administered to students and staff with a sample size of 176 participants, in addition, policy documents were also exploited as extra source of data. Waste management including e-waste appeared to be one of the main concerns at DWU. A vast majority of DWU staff and students expressed the need for their institution to do more on sustainability education. The findings revealed that members of the community are not fully integrated like the Egg of sustainability and wellbeing in order to achieve sustainable development goal. The concept of Green Human Resource Management in Universities lies with the idea that Universities must bear profound responsibilities to manage its stakeholders in an environmental friendly way. Human resource management can help local institutions to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production, consumption as well as the end product in order to combat or at least reduce human Induced which produce or aggravate it.

Keywords: sustainability, environmental management, higher education institutions, green human resource management

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Authors: Carlos Guillermo Lloga Sanz, Maria del Carmen Tamayo Asef

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As an object of study in Cuban universities, cinema is still in its infancy. This is relevant considering the significance of cinema within the local political culture and its impact on countries of the region. Discussions about the medium have been carried out mainly in the field of film criticism. The objective of this article is to reflect on the divergences between film studies and film criticism taking into account formal and theoretical features and to explore the transcendence of this debate for the intellectual ambiance of the Island. Methodologically, the study relies on theoretical elaborations based on literature review and non-structure interviews with Cuban film critics and scholars. The study finds that the gradation proposed by the Anglo-Saxon tradition, where film studies are considered a “higher stage," compared to criticism and cinephilia, does not apply to the Cuban space. Instead, to assess the state of reflection on cinema in Cuba, it is essential to consider it a starry node traversed by epistemic, institutional, and geopolitical matrices.

Keywords: film studies, film criticism, Cuban cinema, Cuban film studies

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Authors: E. N. R. de Silva

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The main purpose of this research is to set a policy framework for establishing a legal, institutional and social infrastructure that enhances the welfare, health, safety and economic interest of the consumers in Sri Lanka. It will help to develop an approach to continuously and successfully advocate for a consumer protection legal reform agenda and also it is significant as it gives directions to create national consumer protection associations in Sri Lanka. The methodology adopted for this research is purely a qualitative approach and it is generally and specifically categorized. Generally, part of this research looked at the existing laws, regulations and how effective they are in order to protect consumers. It will analyze the consumer protection framework and specially, consumer protection enhanced by the public organizations in Japan. This research offers a model with methods and legal instruments to enforce advocacy group to enhance consumer welfare, also brings out reforms to be made in the national legal framework on consumer welfare.

Keywords: consumer protection association, consumer protection law, consumer welfare, legal framework

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Authors: Xueqing Ivy Chen, Christo De Coning

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It is clear from practice that a gap exists between Result-Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBME) as a discipline, and Knowledge Management (KM) on the other hand. Whereas various government departments have institutionalised these functions, KM and M&E has functioned in isolation from each other in a practical sense in the public sector. It’s therefore necessary to explore the relationship between KM and M&E and the necessity for integration, so that a convergence of these disciplines can be established. An integration of KM and M&E will lead to integration and improvement of evidence-based information and policy decision-making. M&E and KM process models are available but the complementarity between specific process steps of these process models are not exploited. A need exists to clarify the relationships between these functions in order to ensure evidence based information and policy decision-making. This paper will depart from the well-known policy process models, such as the generic model and consider recent on the interface between policy, M&E and KM.

Keywords: result-based monitoring and evaluation, RBME, knowledge management, KM, evident based decision making, public policy, information systems, institutional arrangement

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Authors: Josephine R. Migalbin

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Halal is an Arabic word meaning "lawful" or "permitted". When it comes to food and consumables, Halal is the dietary standard of Muslims. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has a comparative advantage when it comes to Halal Industry because it is the only Muslim region in the Philippines and the natural starting point for the establishment of a halal industry in the country. The region has identified goat production not only for domestic consumption but for export market. Goat production is one of its strengths due to cultural compatibility. There is a high demand for goats during Ramadhan and Eid ul-Adha. The study aimed to provide an overview of the ARMM Halal Goat Industry; to map out the specific supply chain of halal goat, and to analyze the performance of the halal goat supply chain in terms of efficiency, flexibility, and overall responsiveness. It also aimed to identify areas for improvement in the supply chain such as behavioural, institutional, and process to provide recommendations for improvement in the supply chain towards efficient and effective production and marketing of halal goats, subsequently improving the plight of the actors in the supply chain. Generally, the raising of goats is characterized by backyard production (92.02%). There are four interrelated factors affecting significantly the production of goats which are breeding prolificacy, prevalence of diseases, feed abundance and pre-weaning mortality rate. The institutional buyers are mostly traders, restaurants/eateries, supermarkets, and meat shops, among others. The municipalities of Midsayap and Pikit in another region and Parang are the major goat sources and the municipalities in ARMM among others. In addition to the major supply centers, Siquijor, an island province in the Visayas is becoming a key source of goats. Goats are usually gathered by traders/middlemen and brought to the public markets. Meat vendors purchase them directly from raisers, slaughtered and sold fresh in wet markets. It was observed that there is increased demand at 2%/year and that supply is not enough to meet the demand. Farm gate price is 2.04 USD to 2.11 USD/kg liveweight. Industry information is shared by three key participants - raisers, traders and buyers. All respondents reported that information is through personal built-upon past experiences and that there is no full disclosure of information among the key participants in the chain. The information flow in the industry is fragmented in nature such that no total industry picture exists. In the last five years, numerous local and foreign agencies had undertaken several initiatives for the development of the halal goat industry in ARMM. The major issues include productivity which is the greatest challenge, difficulties in accessing technical support channels and lack of market linkage and consolidation. To address the various issues and concerns of the various industry players, there is a need to intensify appropriate technology transfer through extension activities, improve marketing channels by grouping producers, strengthen veterinary services and provide capital windows to improve facilities and reduce logistics and transaction costs in the entire supply chain.

Keywords: autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, halal, halal goat industry, supply chain improvement

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Authors: Kevin Smith

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Publicly traded company in the US are legally obligated to host earnings calls that discuss their most recent financial reports. During these calls, investors are able to ask these companies questions about these financial reports and on the future direction of the company. This paper examines whether common institutional owners use these calls as a way to indirectly signal to companies in their portfolio to not take actions that could hurt the common owner's interests. This paper uses transcripts taken from the earnings calls of the six largest health insurance companies in the US from 2014 to 2019. This data is analyzed using text analysis and sentiment analysis to look for patterns in the statements made by common owners. The analysis found that common owners where more likely to recommend against direct price competition and instead redirect the insurance companies towards more passive actions, like investing in new technologies. This result indicates a mechanism that common owners use to reduce competition in the health insurance market.

Keywords: common ownership, text analysis, sentiment analysis, machine learning

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Authors: Harriet Koshie Lamptey, Richard Boateng

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is a novel approach to knowledge acquisition and dissemination and is gaining global attention. Steady progress in wireless technologies and the portability of communication devices continue to broaden the scope and use of mobiles. With the convergence of Web functionality onto mobile platforms and the affordability and availability of mobile technology, m-learning has the potential of being the next prevalent channel of education in both formal and informal settings. There is substantive literature on developed countries but the state in developing countries (DCs) however appears vague. This paper is a synthesis of extant literature on mobile learning in DCs. The research interest is based on the fact that in DCs, mobile communication and internet connectivity are popular. However, its use in education is under explored. There are some reviews on the state, conceptualizations, trends and teacher education, but to the authors’ knowledge, no study has focused on mobile learning adoption and integration issues. This study examines issues and gaps associated with its adoption and integration in DCs higher education institutions. A qualitative build-up of literature was conducted using articles pooled from electronic databases (Google Scholar and ERIC). To enable criteria for inclusion and incorporate diverse study perspectives, search terms used were m-learning, DCs, higher education institutions, challenges, benefits, impact, gaps and issues. The synthesis revealed that though mobile technology has diffused globally, its pedagogical pursuit in DCs remains quite low. The absence of a mobile Web and the difficulty of resource conversion into mobile format due to lack of funding and technical competence is a stumbling block. Again, the lack of established design and implementation rules to guide the development of m-learning platforms in DCs is a hindrance. The absence of access restrictions on devices poses security threats to institutional systems. Negative perceptions that devices are taking over faculty roles lead to resistance in some situations. Resistance to change can be a hindrance to the acceptance and success of new systems. Lack of interest for m-learning is also attributed to lower technological literacy levels of the underprivileged masses. Scholarly works on m-learning in DCs is yet to mature. Most technological innovations are handed down from developed countries, and this constantly creates a lag for DCs. Lack of theoretical grounding was also identified which reduces the objectivity of study reports. The socio-cultural terrain of DCs results in societies with different views and needs that have been identified as a hindrance to research. Institutional commitment decisions, adequate funding for the necessary infrastructural development as well as multiple stakeholder participation is important for project success. Evidence suggests that while adoption decisions are readily made, successful integration of the concept for its full benefits to be realized is often neglected. Recommendations to findings were made to provide possible remedies to identified issues.

Keywords: developing countries, higher education institutions, mobile learning, literature review

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Authors: Santosh Ghosh, Vinod Kumar Yadav, Vivekananda Mukherjee, Ishta Garg

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India, akin to the rest of the world today, is grappling with balancing act between ever increasing demand for energy and alarmingly high level of green house gas emission, which is inevitable corollary of energy production in the conventional way. Researchers and energy policy makers around the world are now focusing on renewable energy (RE) technologies to find solution to this crisis. In India various agencies at both national and state level has been set up and bestowed with responsibility of development of renewable energy technologies, viz. Ministry of New Renewable Energy (MNRE), National Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd. (NVVNL), Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) and RE Development Agencies in respective states. In the present work, the preparedness of India in terms of forming institutional and policy frame work briefly discussed. Status of implementation of RE technologies state wise and of India as a whole, critically reviewed.

Keywords: energy policy, energy sustainability, renewable energy, IREDA

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Authors: Kiran Baldavoo, Mishelle Doorasamy

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Universities have a role to play in the preservation of the environment, and the study attempted to evaluate the environmental management accounting (EMA) processes at UKZN. UKZN, a South African university, generates the same direct and indirect environmental impacts as the higher education sector worldwide. This is significant within the context of the South African environment which is constantly plagued by having to effectively manage the already scarce resources of water and energy, evident through the imposition of water and energy restrictions over the recent years. The study’s aim is to increase awareness of having a structured approach to environmental management in order to achieve the strategic environmental goals of the university. The research studied the experiences of key managers within UKZN, with the purpose of exploring the potential factors which influence the decision to adopt and apply EMA within the higher education sector. The study comprised two objectives, namely understanding the current state of accounting practices for managing major environmental costs and identifying factors influencing EMA adoption within the university. The study adopted a case study approach, comprising semi-structured interviews of key personnel involved in Management Accounting, Environmental Management, and Academic Schools within the university. Content analysis was performed on the transcribed interview data. A Theoretical Framework derived from literature was adopted to guide data collection and focus the study. Contingency and Institutional theory was the resultant basis of the derived framework. The findings of the first objective revealed that there was a distinct lack of EMA utilization within the university. There was no distinct policy on EMA, resulting in minimal environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. The university embraced the principles of environmental sustainability; however, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability primarily from an accounting perspective was absent. The findings of the second objective revealed that five key barriers contributed to the lack of EMA utilization within the university. The barriers being attitudinal, informational, institutional, technological, and lack of incentives (financial). The results and findings of this study supported the use and application of EMA within the higher education sector. Participants concurred that EMA was underutilized and if implemented, would realize significant benefits for both the university and environment. Environmental management accounting is being widely acknowledged as a key management tool that can facilitate improved financial and environmental performance via the concept of enhanced environmental accountability. Historically research has been concentrated primarily on the manufacturing industry, due to it generating the greatest proportion of environmental impacts. Service industries are also an integral component of environmental management as they contribute significant environmental impacts, both direct and indirect. Educational institutions such as universities form part of the service sector and directly impact on the environment through the consumption of paper, energy, and water and solid waste generated, with the associated demands.

Keywords: environmental management accounting, environmental impacts, higher education, Southern Africa

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Authors: Thusitha B. Abeysekara, M. A. Nihal Chandrathilake

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The aim of this research is to examine the legal mechanism of resolving maritime disputes by arbitration, and it would be a reference point on the analysis of USA approaches. In doing so, the research aims to analyse the relevant legal principles in the context of current maritime arbitration practices in selected jurisdictions. The research also aims to analyse the advantages and applicability of arbitration in maritime dispute settlements over the litigation and further approaches the role of specialist maritime arbitration institutes in the USA and the position of international merchant organizations in maritime arbitration. Further, research values the legislative aspects of maritime arbitration. The study would evaluate the contemporary issues in maritime arbitration practices in the USA and further analyses the statistical information on maritime arbitration. Finally, the research made remarks to often parallel consequence in USA legal systems in maritime arbitration and despite the fundamental divergences of the applicable principles and practices of maritime arbitration. The research finally suggests the doctrine should reshape with equitable remedies and international maritime arbitration practices with its institutional impact rather than using as statutory rules related maritime arbitration.

Keywords: arbitration, international shipping, maritime dispute, New York convention

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Authors: Martha Salinas, Valkyria Bernal

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Creativity is a possible response to the profound social, economic, and global changes society is living and education is the source to develop this kind of capacity. However, institutional pressures often prevent teachers from engaging in creative teaching practices and make innovation not the main curricular focus when building learning scenarios and experiences. This study proposes and validates the use of a prototype of Educative Video – Capsules from the perspective of teacher training, presenting the different stages of design, the content plan, as well as the influences of its components and characteristics from the perspective of creativity. The paper presents literature findings of the factors that influence the innovative behavior of teachers, the beliefs of teachers about creativity and its nature, as well as the creative pedagogies that have generated better results. The results show that the disposition of teachers towards creative pedagogies improves significantly with the use of a tool that is based on the principles of microlearning and is developed in a non-academic, autonomous, and non-imposed family environment as traditional teacher training processes usually occur.

Keywords: educational innovation, resistance to innovation, creativity, creative pedagogy

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Authors: Alicja Zapolnik-Plachetka

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The paper examines the impact of the Members’ of the European Parliament (MEPs) language choice on the linguistic quality of their political discourse as delivered by the interpreters. The study, designed by the author, who is an EU interpreter herself, consisted of three phases. First, a number of speeches of Polish and Spanish MEPs were analyzed to determine whether the incidence of use of certain figures of speech depending on whether the speech had been delivered in English or their respective mother tongue. Then the use of figures of speech was also analyzed based on speeches by some British MEPs, in order to determine what was the incidence for the native users of English. Subsequently, the speeches were compared with their interpretations to find out whether the interpreters managed to convey accurately the means of oratory used by the MEPs. The final result shows that in case of institutional environments dependant on simultaneous interpretation the speakers’ choices can, in fact, influence the linguistic quality of the political communication.

Keywords: content accuracy, European Parliament, political discourse, simultaneous interpreting

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Authors: Min Wei

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With the rapid development eco-tourism resources exploitation, the conflict between economy development and ecological environment is increasingly prominent. The environmental protection laws, however, are lack of necessary legal support to use market mechanism and economic means to carry out ecological compensation and promote the environmental protection. In order to protect the sustainable utilization of eco-tourism resources and the benign development of the interests of various stakeholders, protection of ecological compensation balance should be put on schedule. The main role of institutional guarantee in eco-tourism resources' value compensation mechanism is to solve the question 'how to guarantee compensation'. The evaluation of the game model in this paper reveals that interest balance of stakeholders is an important cornerstone to obtain the sustainable development. The findings result in constructing a sustainable development pattern of eco- tourism industry based on tripartite game equilibrium among government, tourism enterprises and tourists. It is important that the social, economic and ecological environment should be harmonious development during the pursuit of eco-tourism growth.

Keywords: environmental protection, ecological compensation, eco-tourism, market mechanism

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Authors: Kanita Beširević

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Open-source software development activities highly rely on Internet gathering communities volunteering in software development projects. Additionally, the libraries and cultural institutions share their metadata in the form of linked metadata to enable dissemination and enrichment. The open-source software provides free alternatives to traditional software solutions. The article aims to investigate the ever-increasing options for the digital library open source software adoption. The software available is presented and compared to other software solutions as well as to their previous versions. The top three open-source digital library software solutions are presented and compared. The comparison criteria are adopted from the UNESCO study by Bankier, J., & Gleason, K. Institutional Repository Software Comparison comprising of twelve criteria to appraise software, namely: infrastructure, front-end design, content discovery, publication tools, interoperability, and preservation. This article adopts a descriptive methodology based on data and information collected through selected software websites and the literature review.

Keywords: open source software, digital library, DSpace, Fedora, Greenstone

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Authors: B. Sudhakara Reddy

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This study provides a snapshot of the sustainability of selected Indian cities by employing 70 indicators in four dimensions to develop an overall city sustainability index. In recent years, the concept of ‘urban sustainability’ has become prominent due to its complexity. Urban areas propel growth and at the same time poses a lot of ecological, social and infrastructural problems and risks. In case of developing countries, the high population density of and the continuous in-migration run the highest risk in natural and man-made disasters. These issues combined with the inability of policy makers in providing basic services makes the cities unsustainable. To assess whether any given policy is moving towards or against urban sustainability it is necessary to consider the relationships among its various dimensions. Hence, in recent years, while preparing the sustainability index, an integral approach involving indicators of different dimensions such as ‘economic’, ‘environmental’ and 'social' is being used. It is also important for urban planners, social analysts and other related institutions to identify and understand the relationships in this complex system. The objective of the paper is to develop a city performance index (CPI) to measure and evaluate the urban regions in terms of sustainable performances. The objectives include: i) Objective assessment of a city’s performance, ii) setting achievable goals iii) prioritise relevant indicators for improvement, iv) learning from leaders, iv) assessment of the effectiveness of programmes that results in achieving high indicator values, v) Strengthening of stakeholder participation. Using the benchmark approach, a conceptual framework is developed for evaluating 25 Indian cities. We develop City Sustainability index (CSI) in order to rank cities according to their level of sustainability. The CSI is composed of four dimensions: Economic, Environment, Social, and Institutional. Each dimension is further composed of multiple indicators: (1) Economic that considers growth, access to electricity, and telephone availability; (2) environmental that includes waste water treatment, carbon emissions, (3) social that includes, equity, infant mortality, and 4) institutional that includes, voting share of population, urban regeneration policies. The CSI, consisting of four dimensions disaggregate into 12 categories and ultimately into 70 indicators. The data are obtained from public and non-governmental organizations, and also from city officials and experts. By ranking a sample of diverse cities on a set of specific dimensions the study can serve as a baseline of current conditions and a marker for referencing future results. The benchmarks and indices presented in the study provide a unique resource for the government and the city authorities to learn about the positive and negative attributes of a city and prepare plans for a sustainable urban development. As a result of our conceptual framework, the set of criteria we suggest is somewhat different to any already in the literature. The scope of our analysis is intended to be broad. Although illustrated with specific examples, it should be apparent that the principles identified are relevant to any monitoring that is used to inform decisions involving decision variables. These indicators are policy-relevant and, hence they are useful tool for decision-makers and researchers.

Keywords: benchmark, city, indicator, performance, sustainability

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Authors: Misook Ahn

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This study examines the Institutional Curriculum Repository (ICR) developed with MS SharePoint. The purpose of using MS SharePoint is to organize, share, and manage the curriculum data. The ICR aims to build a centralized curriculum infrastructure, preserve all curriculum materials, and provide academic service to users (faculty, students, or other agencies). The ICR collection includes core language curriculum materials developed by each language school—foreign language textbooks, language survival kits, and audio files currently in or not in use at the schools. All core curriculum materials with audio and video files have been coded, collected, and preserved at the ICR. All metadata for the collected curriculum materials have been input by language, code, year, book type, level, user, version, and current status (in use/not in use). The qualitative content analysis, including the survey data, is used to evaluate the effectiveness of using MS SharePoint for the repository system. This study explains how to manage and preserve curriculum materials with MS SharePoint, along with challenges and suggestions for further research. This study will be beneficial to other universities or organizations considering archiving or preserving educational materials.

Keywords: digital preservation, ms sharepoint, repository, curriculum materials

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Authors: Jenny Lee

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Fat Studies is emerging as an interdisciplinary area of study, intersecting with Gender Studies, Sociology, Human Development and the Creative Arts. A focus on weight loss, and, therefore, fat hatred, has resulted in a form of discriminatory institutional practice that impacts women in the Western world. This focus is sanctioned by a large dieting industry, medical associations, the media, and at times, government initiatives. This paper will discuss the emergence of the so-called ‘Obesity Epidemic’ in Australia and the Western world and the stereotypes that thin equals healthy and fat equals unhealthy. This paper will argue that, for those with a health focus, ‘Health at every size’ is a more effective principle, which involves striving for healthy living, without a focus on weight loss. This discussion will contextualise an autoethnographic exploration of how fat acceptance and Health at Every Size can be encouraged through fat activism and fat political art. As part of this paper, a selection of the recent performance, writing and art in Australia will be presented, including Aquaporko, the fat femme synchronised swim team and VaVaBoomBah, the Melbourne fat burlesque performances.

Keywords: activism, fat, health, obesity, performance

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Authors: Helio Arthur Reis Irigaray, Fabricio Stocker

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This study aims to discover the extent to which affinity groups effectively act to combat inequalities, promote diversity, and contribute to the inclusion of non-hegemonic groups in the work environment. To this end, we have built empirical research, in which we interviewed 36 leaders and members of the collectives of non-hegemonic groups, namely women, blacks, and LGBTQ. With the proper authorization of the participants, their interviews were transcribed and submitted for critical analysis of the discourse. The field revealed that collectives are the result of the articulation of non-hegemonic groups, which create and participate in legitimate and institutional spaces to promote diversity. We also identified that diversity actions have happened as a market trend and reproduced mimetically. As the largest companies implement these actions, they become benchmarking and thus create a flow that is reproduced by other companies. However, there is no effective change in the structures that could promote inclusion and belonging. We state that a diverse group of employees are not enough to claim that the organization is diverse and inclusive. There remains much more to discuss and delve into deeply, including gender, diversity, and intersectionality.

Keywords: diversity, inclusion, collectives, affinity groups, employee resource groups

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Authors: Sandra So, Mohd Roslan Ismail, Safurah Jaafar

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With the rapid proliferation of data in healthcare has provided an opportune platform creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has brought a paradigm shift for healthcare professionals, promising improvement in delivery and quality. This study aims to determine the perception of healthcare personnel on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm toward attitude for artificial intelligence acceptance. A cross-sectional single institutional study of employees’ perception of adopting AI in the hospital was conducted. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire adapted from Technology Acceptance Model and a four-point Likert scale was used. There were 96 or 75.5% of the total population responded. This study has shown the significant relationship and the importance of ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm to the acceptance of AI. In the study results, it concluded that the determining factor to the strong acceptance of AI in their practices is mostly those respondents with the most interaction with the patients and clinical management.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm

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Authors: Rachel S. Chang, Samuel P. Massion, Alan Z. Grusky, Heather A. Ridinger

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Introduction Health advocacy is defined as activities that improve access to care, utilize resources, address health disparities, and influence health policy. Advocacy is increasingly being recognized as a critical component of a physician’s role, as understanding social determinants of health and improving patient care are important aspects within the American Medical Association’s Health Systems Science framework. However, despite this growing prominence, educational interventions that address advocacy topics are limited and variable across medical school curricula. Furthermore, few recent studies have evaluated attitudes toward health advocacy among physicians-in-training in the United States. This study examines medical student attitudes towards health advocacy, along with perceived knowledge, ability, and current level of engagement with health advocacy during their clerkships. Methods This study employed a cross-sectional survey design using a single anonymous, self-report questionnaire to all second-year medical students at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (n=96) in December 2020 during clerkship rotations. The survey had 27 items with 5-point Likert scale (15), multiple choice (11), and free response questions (1). Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were utilized to analyze responses. The study was approved by the Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board. Results There was an 88% response rate among second-year clerkship medical students. A majority (83%) agreed that formal training in health advocacy should be a mandatory part of the medical student curriculum Likewise, 83% of respondents felt that acting as a health advocate or patients should be part of their role as a clerkship student. However, a minority (25%) felt adequately prepared. While 72% of respondents felt able to identify a psychosocial need, 18% felt confident navigating the healthcare system and only 9% felt able to connect a patient to a psychosocial resource to fill that gap. 44% of respondents regularly contributed to conversations with their medical teams when discussing patients’ social needs, such as housing insecurity, financial insecurity, or legal needs. On average, respondents reported successfully connecting patients to psychosocial resources 1-2 times per 8-week clerkship block. Barriers to participating in health advocacy included perceived time constraints, lack of awareness of resources, lower emphasis among medical teams, and scarce involvement with social work teams. Conclusions In this single-institutional study, second-year medical students on clerkships recognize the importance of advocating for patients and support advocacy training within their medical school curriculum. However, their perceived lack of ability to navigate the healthcare system and connect patients to psychosocial resources, result in students feeling unprepared to advocate as effectively as they hoped during their clerkship rotations. Our results support the ongoing need to equip medical students with training and resources necessary for them to effectively act as advocates for patients.

Keywords: clerkships, medical students, patient advocacy, social medicine

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Authors: Ngoc T. B. Hoang

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With a young population showing a greatly entrepreneurial spirit, Vietnam has become a potential land for a growing knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem (KBEE). KBEE is the key to new job formation, and well solution for the crisis of unemployment of higher education graduates and powerful engine for knowledge-based development and building the knowledge based economy in Vietnam. Consequently, Vietnam is attempting to build a healthy KBEE, giving local entrepreneurs more opportunities to develop their businesses. The purpose of the research article is to sketch up a general map to show the current situation of Vietnam's startup ecosystem in the beginning of a startup nation and take into consideration the influence of socio-cultural norms, institutional landscape and socio-economic factors on motivation to develop a KBEE. This paper also proposes a qualitative approach to explore the relationship between these and other elements of Vietnamese entrepreneurial ecosystems. Eventually, viable recommendations are drawn for Vietnamese entrepreneurs and policymakers to improve the quality of the knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem in Vietnam.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, knowledge-based entrepreneurial ecosystem, startup ecosystem, Vietnam

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Authors: Marwa Sahnoun, Chokri Abdennadher

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This article comes, very timely, to look at the effectiveness of active labor market policies (ALMP) in improving labor market outcomes. Using panel data estimates for 19 European countries during the period 2000-2012, this article showed the role of institutional factors, especially the role of employment policies implementation based on three variables: the allocation of resources for the implementation of policies, continuity and timing in the implementation of policies to capture their effectiveness on the labor market. Empirical results shows favor effect of training, employment incentives, sheltered employment and rehabilitation and direct job creation on the entire population employment growth. Results shows also that start-up incentives seems to be more effective in increasing employment than other types of policies. Importantly, two aspects are important in terms of implementation: public expenditure on program administration, e.g. (PES) watches the most favorable aspect and the continuity of policies implemented.

Keywords: active labor market policies, implementation, public expenditure on program administration, start-up incentives, training

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Authors: María-José Palacin-Sanchez, Filippo Di Pietro, Reyes Samaniego-Medina

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This article examines, in an institutional context such as Spanish one, the corporate board structure characteristics and determinants in entrepreneurial firms to go public. Specifically, it explores these issues through all the initial public offerings in the Spanish Alternative Equity Market (MAB), which is a market segment for smaller growing companies. The results show that: a) firm size, age of the company, and the reputation of the auditor and the nominated advisor and Corporate Governance Code favour a larger and more independent board structure that enhances its monitoring functions; and b) leverage, opportunities of growth, sector risk and ownership by executive directors all lead towards a smaller broad of directors where the role of entrepreneurship provided by executive directors remains crucial. This reflects the delicate balance of power between small-business entrepreneurs and financial equity market forces, which demand more transparency and monitoring in the companies.

Keywords: board composition, board size, corporate governance, IPO, SMEs

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Authors: Mohammed Albakariyu Kabir

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There is a trend in development discourse to understand and explain the level of corruption in Nigeria, its anti-corruption crusade and why it is failing, as well as its level of compliance with International standards of United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) & African Union Convention on Converting and Preventing Corruption) to which Nigeria is a signatory. This paper discusses the legal and Constitutional provisions relating to corrupt practices and safeguards in Nigeria, as well as the obstacles to the implementation of these Conventions.The paper highlights the challenges posed to the Anti-Corruption crusade by analysing the loopholes that exist both in administrative structure and in scope of the relevant laws. The paper argues that Nigerian Constitution did not make adequate provisions for the implementation of the conventions, hence a proposal which will ensure adequate provision for implementing the conventions to better the lives of Nigerians. The paper concludes that there is the need to build institutional parameters, adequate constitutional and structural safeguards, as well as to synergise strategies, collaborations and alliances to facilitate the timely domestication and implementation of the conventions.

Keywords: anti-corruption, corruption, convention, domestication, poverty, state parties

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Authors: Minh Thi Hai Vo

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This article draws on in-depth interviews with state employees at public hospitals and universities in its institutional analysis of the autonomy practices of public service delivery units in Vietnam. Unlike many empirical and theoretical studies that view formal and informal institutions as complements or substitutes, this article finds no evidence of complementary or substitutive relationships. Instead, the article finds that formal institutions accommodate informal ones and that informal institutions tend to compete and interfere, with the existing and ineffective formal institutions. The result of such conflicting relationship is that the actual autonomy of public service delivery units is, in most cases, perceived to be greater than the formal autonomy they are given. In the condition of poor regulation, the informal autonomy may result in unethical practices including rent-seeking and corruption. The implication of the study finding is policy-makers need to redesign and reorganize the autonomisation of public service delivery units to make informal institutions support and reinforce formal ones in a complementary manner.

Keywords: autonomy, formal institutions, informal institutions, public service delivery units, Vietnam

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Authors: Virgilio Angelo Gelera Gener

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This study investigates the role of short-term accommodations on the place brand and real estate development of urban areas. It aims to know the perceptions of the general public, real estate developers, as well as city and barangay-level local government units (LGUs) on how these lodgings affect the place brand and land value of a community. It likewise attempts to identify the personal and institutional variables having a great influence on said perceptions in order to provide a better understanding of these establishments and their relevance within urban localities. Using certain sources, Malate, Manila was identified to be the ideal study area of the thesis. This prompted the employment of mixed methods research as the study’s fundamental data gathering and analytical tool. Here, a survey with 350 locals was done, asking them questions that would answer the aforementioned queries. Thereafter, a Pearson Chi-square Test and Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) were utilized to determine the variables affecting their perceptions. There were also Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with the three (3) most populated Malate barangays, as well as Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with selected city officials and fifteen (15) real estate company representatives. With that, survey results showed that although a 1992 Department of Tourism (DOT) Circular regards short-term accommodations as lodgings mainly for travelers, most people actually use it for their private/intimate moments. Because of this, the survey further revealed that short-term accommodations exhibit a negative place brand among the respondents though they also believe that it’s still one of society’s most important economic players. Statistics from the Pearson Chi-square Test, on the other hand, indicate that there are fourteen (14) out of seventeen (17) variables exhibiting great influence on respondents’ perceptions. Whereas MLR findings show that being born in Malate and being part of a family household was the most significant regardless of socio-economic level and monthly household income. For the city officials, it was revealed that said lodgings are actually the second-highest earners in the City’s lodging industry. It was further stated that their zoning ordinance treats short-term accommodations just like any other lodging enterprise. So it’s perfectly legal for these establishments to situate themselves near residential areas and/or institutional structures. A sit down with barangays, on the other hand, recognized the economic benefits of short-term accommodations but likewise admitted that it contributes a negative place brand to the community. Lastly, real estate developers are amenable to having their projects built near short-term accommodations, for they do not have any bad views against it. They explained that their projects sites have always been motivated by suitability, liability, and marketability factors only. Overall, these findings merit a recalibration of the zoning ordinance and DOT Circular, as well as the imposition of regulations on their sexually suggestive roadside advertisements. Then, once relevant measures are refined for proper implementation, it can also pave the way for spatial interventions (like visual buffer corridors) to better address the needs of the locals, private groups, and government.

Keywords: estate planning, place brand, real estate development, short-term accommodations

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Authors: Theophilus Adedokun, Sylvia Zulu, Felix Awung, Sam Usadolo

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The proliferation of technology into teaching process has brought about transformation into the field of education. Language teaching is not left behind from this tremendous transformation which has drastically altered the teaching of language. It is, however, appalling that some language instructors seem to possess negative attitudes toward the use of technology in language teaching, which in this study is referred to as Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT). The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore sustainable lesson that can be learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards language teaching in some public universities. The knowledge gained from this study could inform and advance the use of Computer Assisted Language Teaching. This study considers the historical progression of CALT and recommends that a fundamental approach is required for institutions to develop and advance the use of CALT for teaching. A review of sustainable lessons learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards CALT are provided, and the CALT experience of 3 institutions are described. Drawing from this succinct description, this study makes recommendations on how operative CALT could be executed on a personal and institutional basis.

Keywords: attitudes, language instructors, sustainable lessons, computer assisted language teaching

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Authors: Ana Mercedes Vernia Carrasco

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The objective of this work is to reflect through the theoretical framework on the access to the university for the formation of a degree in a teacher of primary education. The University Access Tests in Spain evaluate a series of skills and competencies in writing, which leave aside the sample of another set of skills and tools that this type of test cannot evaluate. In the last years, a very much diversified student body has arrived in the classrooms of the Universities. Nowadays, talking about special education means attending to the changes that are being experienced in this area. At present, the educational model focuses on the reinforcement by the educational institutions so that they form the students according to their personal characteristics and that it is not the students that must adapt to the system. A bibliographic review plus some years of experience in training for the future teacher allows us to make an initial assessment about the lack of rigor in the tests of access to the university. In conclusion, we can say that, although we are not a specialist in the type of Special Educational Needs that can manifest the students, therefore, we understand that teacher today needs training and support to develop their teaching with the best quality possible. These teacher and student needs also imply more institutional support.

Keywords: training, special needs, didactics, music

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