Search results for "Data collection"
showing 10 items of 495 documents
Effects of contextual variables on strategic investment decision-making styles: An empirical study from Pakistan.
2022
There is a gap in the literature of strategic investment decision making (SIDM) concerning the links between context variables, infrastructure and SIDM practices (or SIDM styles) in developing countries. This research aims to fill that gap. Survey data (N = 128) from the manufacturing companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange was collected via an e-mailed questionnaire and visits to the companies. Data are analyzed with factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results reveal what we call four different SIDM styles (or emphases): managerial power-, financial analysis-, top management-, and strategy-based investing. These styles are considered to be novel perspectives on SI…
Child Well-Being in Times of Confinement: The Impact of Dialogic Literary Gatherings Transferred to Homes
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unexpected situation that has forced people to find educational alternatives to support learning and ensure child well-being. The need for practices that 'open doors' at home as a way to promote a quality education and to foster an environment of supportive relationships and a sense of community, has led to the in-depth analysis of successful educational actions, particularly the Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs). The aim of this article is to show how the transference of DLGs to the home environment has had an impact on child subjective well-being in times of confinement, promoting a safe and supportive environment for learning, interacting, coexistin…
Replacing Project Managers in Information Technology Projects
2015
According to anecdotal evidence, project managers working on information technology (IT) projects are occasionally replaced, although the literature on information systems (IS) and project management (PM) makes little mention of it. With a view to narrowing this knowledge gap the authors examined the reasons behind the practice. The authors took an interpretive approach to the data gathering and analysis, and collected descriptions about replacing project managers (RPM) from interviews and questionnaires (n=43). The concept of contradiction served as a lens through which to identify the underlying reasons. Contradiction refers to statements asserting or expressing the opposite of another st…
Cross-Domain Recommendations with Overlapping Items
2016
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in cross-domain recommender systems. However, most existing works focus on the situation when only users or users and items overlap in different domains. In this paper, we investigate whether the source domain can boost the recommendation performance in the target domain when only items overlap. Due to the lack of publicly available datasets, we collect a dataset from two domains related to music, involving both the users’ rating scores and the description of the items. We then conduct experiments using collaborative filtering and content-based filtering approaches for validation purpose. According to our experimental results, the sourc…
Issues with a course that emphasizes self-direction
2013
In this paper, we examine a master's level course that emphasizes self-direction on the part of students. The course is run by weekly group assignments and requires independent work such that only one mandatory classroom session is arranged each week. Our specific research interests are how students responded to the setting of this kind and whether they demonstrated self-direction during the course. We surveyed the students' view of the course, their group work experience, and their study habits, and analyzed the resultant survey data for themes. The results suggest that while the pass rate was considerably high and the course was regarded as well-organized by the students, there were sever…
Multicriteria evaluation of alternatives for remote monitoring systems of municipal buildings
2014
Abstract Conservation of natural resources drives municipalities to monitor their heat, power and water consumption more accurately. The objective of this study was to evaluate different implementation possibilities for remote monitoring systems for the municipal buildings of two medium-sized municipalities, Hollola and Nastola in Southern Finland. Four different alternatives were considered: (1) a system by an external service provider, (2) a system provided by the local energy distribution company, (3) a system built by the municipalities themselves, and (4) using the current manual system but with more frequent data collection. The alternatives were evaluated in terms of multiple functio…
The relationship between context, structure, and processes with outcomes of 6 regional diabetes networks in Europe
2018
BackgroundWhile health service provisioning for the chronic condition Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) often involves a network of organisations and professionals, most evidence on the relationships between the structures and processes of service provisioning and the outcomes considers single organisations or solo practitioners. Extending Donabedian's Structure-Process-Outcome (SPO) model, we investigate how differences in quality of life, effective coverage of diabetes, and service satisfaction are associated with differences in the structures, processes, and context of T2D services in six regions in Finland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, and UK.MethodsData collection consisted of: a) systemat…
Moral distress among social workers : the role of insufficient resources
2015
The present study examined moral distress among Finnish social workers and the role of perceived resource insufficiencies in explaining it. The aim was to shed light on this understudied phenomenon in the field of social welfare. The study focused on work-related moral distress, defined as impaired wellbeing that is connected to the continual inability to implement actions that one considers morally appropriate. The survey data were collected with an electronic questionnaire between the years 2011 and 2012. The respondents (n = 817) were social workers in the public social welfare services and the overall response rate was 46.5 per cent. Nearly 11 per cent of the respondents reported experi…
An examination of nonresponse in a study on daily family life: I do not have time to participate, but I can tell you something about our life
2012
The aim of this study was to look at the issue of nonresponse and self-selection bias in the context of a family study on daily family life. Data on the participating families and refusers were gathered as part of the wider Palette study in which questionnaires and diaries were used as data collection methods. On the basis of these data (N = 208 participating families and 119 refuser families), we profile the families left outside the study. The parents who declined to participate in the Palette study were asked to fill in a short refusal form, which included questions concerning their family background and reasons for refusal, and they were also asked to write freely about their everyday l…
Do Older Employees Suffer More from Work Intensification and Other Intensified Job Demands? Evidence from Upper White-Collar Workers
2019
Background: Working life today is characterized by acceleration and intensification due to social, and particularly technological, acceleration affecting the whole of society. These phenomena also affect working life by intensifying job demands, possibly imposing new job stressors on the workforce. At the same time workforce is aging, raising a question how older employees manage to cope with these work life changes. Methods: This study examined intensified job demands and their effects on occupational well-being from the age perspective utilizing Finnish survey data from upper white-collar workers (N = 2,200). Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and hierarchical reg…