Does regional disadvantage affect health-related sport and physical activity level? A multi-level analysis of individual behaviour

This study examines the role of regional government quality in health-related participation in sport and physical activity among adults (18–64 years) in 28 European countries. The importance of the analysis rests in the relative autonomy that regional and local governments have over policy decisions connected with sport and physical activity. While existing studies have focussed on economic and infrastructural investment and expenditure, this research investigates the quality of regional governments across 208 regions within 28 European countries. The individual-level data stem from the 2013 Eurobarometer 80.2 (n?=?18,675) and were combined with regional-level data from Eurostat. An individual's level of participation in sport and physical activity was measured by three variables reflecting whether an individual's activity level is below, meets, or exceeds the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The results of multi-level analyses reveal that regional government quality has a significant and positive association with individual participation in sport and physical activity at a level meeting or exceeding the guidelines. The impact is much larger than that of regional gross domestic product per capita, indicating that regional disadvantage in terms of political quality is more relevant than being disadvantaged in terms of economic wealth.     

Do men and women perform academic work differently?

Tertiary Education and Management - Why is the gender gap so large in researchers’ career progression? Do men and women have different priorities in their academic careers? This study...     

Different Argentine Rural Extensionists' Mindsets and Their Practical Implications

Purpose: This paper reflects upon the practice of Argentine rural extensionists working in the extension public system through the process of identifying different rural extensionists' types of mindsets and comparing them with transfer of technology extension approach, dialogical processes of horizontal knowledge exchange, participatory perspectives and innovation system approach.

Design/Methodology/approach: A quali-quantitative investigation was conducted. Surveys containing closed and open questions were sent via email to rural extensionists. This allowed the researcher to identify their beliefs about different issues connected to extension practice. The sample was incidental (n = 219; 143 men, 76 women). Qualitative data was categorized and quantified. Finally, a two-steps cluster analysis was implemented.

Findings: Two types of rural extensionists' mindsets were identified, one of which relates to the transfer of technology approach and other to the dialogical/horizontal model, yet neither of them fitting the ideal of the most important extension institution of the country, which supports an innovation system approach.

Practical implications: Extensionists' practices and institutional ideals do not coincide. Reflexive training processes are required to make beliefs about rural extension explicit in order to build a contextually suitable extension proposal. Originality/Value: Through a quali-quantitative approach to the issue of rural extensionists' mindsets, this paper contributes to a better understanding of Argentine rural extensionists' practices.     

Flawed heroes and great talents: the challenges associated with framing soccer legends in the NASL

The essay explores the ways that the North American Soccer Leagues (NASL) attempted to frame footballing stars in terms that North American fans would understand and embrace. The impetus for this approach was economic and influenced by the success of Pelé. However, the essay argues that the approach was deeply flawed and missed the obvious challenge of replacing Pelé – that he was irreplaceable. Nevertheless, the NASL and its boosters sought to position several stars as the natural successors to Pelé, including Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Johan Curyff. The essay thus explores how these NASL stars were framed and how these frames would ultimately become limited.     

Orthographic learning in Spanish children

In order to read fluently, children have to form orthographic representations. Despite numerous investigations, there is no clear answer to the question of the number of times they need to read a word to form an orthographic representation. We used length effect on reading times as a measure, because there are large differences between long and short words for unknown words, differences that disappear when reading frequent words. Two lists of new words (half short and half long) were presented to 102 second‐grade to sixth‐grade Spanish children, to be read aloud six times. One of the lists was presented as part of a story and the other in isolation. Comparison of the length effect at the first and sixth exposure showed large differences between short and long words in the first presentation and small differences at the sixth presentation, indicating that Spanish children develop representations of words after just a few repetitions.     

Battles for technological dominance: an integrative framework

This paper proposes an integrative framework for understanding the process by which a technology achieves dominance when “battling” against other technological designs. We focus on describing the different stages of a dominance battle and propose five battle milestones that in turn define five key phases in the process. We review the literature from several disciplines to identify the key firm- and environment-level factors that affect the outcome of a technology battle and posit that the relative importance of each factor will vary depending on the phase considered. Our framework complements and extends existing literature and has implications both for theory and for management practice.