Exploring the role of human capital,renewal capital and entrepreneurial capital in innovation performance in high-tech and low-tech firms

According to past research, intellectual capital (IC) is a key driver of innovation performance and subsequent competitive advantage. Given the human nature of innovation activities (i.e. human beings produce innovations), human capital (HC) deserves special attention. Although researchers in the past have analysed the HC–innovation linkage, we still do not have a detailed understanding of how specific human capabilities affect innovation. Furthermore, the technology level of the firm could generate major differences in the HC–innovation relationship as it influences both the type of knowledge prevalent within the company and the radicalness of the innovations developed. Nevertheless, former literature has largely omitted technology level when studying the IC–innovation linkage. To fill this research gap, this study examines the role of human attributes, including knowledge, skills and motivation (i.e. traditional HC), learning capability (i.e. renewal capital) and entrepreneurial attitude (i.e. entrepreneurial capital) on innovation in high-tech versus low-tech companies. To that end, survey data from 180 Spanish companies were analysed by means of structural equation modelling based on partial least squares. The results obtained confirm that the influence of HC, renewal capital and entrepreneurial capital on innovation differs depending on the technology level.     

One decade of environmental education research in Brazil: trajectories and trends in three national scientific conferences (ANPEd,ANPPAS and EPEA)

Abstract

This article discusses the scientific research work on environmental education presented during the last decade in three Brazilian conferences: the meetings of the National Association of Graduate Research on Education (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Educação, ANPEd), the National Association of Graduate Research on Environment and Society (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ambiente e Sociedade, ANPPAS), and the Environmental Education Research Meetings (Encontros de Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental, EPEA). It analyzes the authors, institutions, and regions whence the studies came from, as well as their main research subjects. Our findings indicate the prevalence of women in all academic degree segments; of PhD holders and candidates; of professors in public higher education institutions located in the Brazilian Southwest and South regions; and of environmental education in formal teaching as the main subject in all three conferences. Based on these results, we discuss how this body of research relates to the development of Brazilian academic and educational policies, and indicate some of the challenges involved in building a research tradition in this field, in close dialogue with the arduous political and pedagogical path of environmental education in Brazilian schools.     

An ideology critique of global citizenship education

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades, global citizenship education (GCE) has become a catchphrase used by international and national educational agencies, as well as researchers, to delineate the increasing internationalisation of education, framed as an answer to the growing globalisation and the high values of citizenship. These developments, however, have created issues, due to the presence of two conflicting discourses. While the discourse of critical democracy highlights the importance of ethical values, social responsibility and active citizenry, a neoliberal discourse privileges instead a market-rationale, focused on self-investment and enhanced profits. These two discourses are not separated; they rather appear side by side, causing a confusing effect. This article aims to analyse GCE as an ideology, unveiling not only its hidden (discursive) content but also the role played by non-discursive elements in guaranteeing the coexistence of antagonistic discourses. It will be argued that not only the critical democratic discourse does not offer any resistance or threat to the neoliberal structuring of higher education, but also this discourse can function as an apologetic narrative that exculpates all of us who still want to work in universities, notwithstanding our dissatisfaction with their current commodification.     

Attachment in Chronically Underweight Young Children

This study, conducted in Chile with a low-income population, was designed to assess quality of mother-infant attachment in 17-21-month-old children of different nutritional status. 43 nutritionally healthy and 42 chronically underweight children were seen with their mothers in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Children were classified in the conventional B (secure) and A and C (anxious) attachment patterns. In addition, an A/C pattern of anxious attachment was found to be frequent among children who consistently fail to gain adequate weight-for-age. Results showed a greater proportion (93%) of anxious attachments in the underweight group as compared to the group of children without a history of nutritional deficits (50%). Children classified as A/C presented the most serious weight deficits within the underweight group, indicating an association between severity of the nutritional deficits and insecure/disorganized attachments. Various hypotheses concerning the association between chronic nutritional deficits and insecure/disorganized attachments in infancy are discussed.     

The impact of polytechnic institutes on the local economy

Tertiary Education and Management - Higher education institutions and, particularly, polytechnic institutes in Portugal are, generally speaking, recognized as the key stakeholders in regional...     

Physicians’ willingness to share: a TPB-based analysis

Physicians’ willingness to share knowledge is a central antecedent of effective knowledge sharing within hospitals. This paper aims at supporting the micro-foundation of knowledge sharing with the identification of the factors that affect willingness to share and their classification according to a behavioural model grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The identification of antecedents and their classification is based on the review of the major contributions published on top tier and specialist journals. This study identifies 22 factors that affect physicians’ willingness to share. These factors are classified according to the TPB framework, which identifies three behavioural antecedents: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. The organization of the factors allows appreciating the diffusion of knowledge-sharing behaviours as the result of three concurring perspectives: raising attention to the benefits of knowledge sharing, building up social pressures from relevant actors and designing appropriate organizational contingencies.     

When talking less is more: exploring outcomes of Twitter usage in the large‐lecture hall

This article employs a mixed‐method approach to examine the outcomes produced by using Twitter in a large‐lecture course as a means to assess the pedagogical impact and potential of Twitter’s contribution to large‐lecture course dynamics. In doing so, it seeks also to explore the broader relationship between methodologies and outcomes. Exploratory in nature and design, this study proceeds from the recognition of the inherent limitations and unpredictability in investigating how new technologies transform social patterns. Such an approach allows us to question how the mode and design of our research ultimately frame the interpretation and understanding of how social media intersect and impact classroom dynamics and their potential contributions for developing more effective pedagogical strategies and outcomes.     

Autistic traits and self-conscious emotions in early childhood

Self-conscious emotions arise from evaluating the self through the eyes of others. Given that children with autistic traits may experience difficulties with understanding others' minds, they might show less attuned self-conscious emotions. Two-to-five-year-old children's (N = 98, M_age = 48.54 months, 50% girls, 92% White) self-conscious emotions (guilt, embarrassment, and shame-like avoidance) were observed after children “broke” the experimenter's favorite toy. Data were collected from March 2018 till June 2019. Children with more autistic traits showed less theory of mind (ToM), and more shame-like avoidance, but associations were not mediated by ToM. This provides initial evidence that children with more autistic traits may show disturbances in some but not all self-conscious emotions, which could hinder their social functioning.     

Evaluation of the Feasibility and Perceived Value of Integrating Learn the Signs. Act Early. Developmental Monitoring Resources in Early Head Start

Early Childhood Education Journal - Many children with developmental disabilities are not identified before age 3 years of age, preventing them from being able to fully benefit from early...     

The policy object: a different perspective on policy enactment in higher education

This paper proposes a new perspective for higher education policy research. It introduces the concept of policy object to designate the discrete preoccupation(s) of a policy text (e.g. a new governance regime, a quality system, or new degrees) and suggests that actor conceptualisations of the policy object intersect with other elements in the policy process to shape enactment and outcomes. First, the policy object concept is described. It is argued that the policy object does not have an objective existence and two concepts are proposed to explain it: ontology and enacted ontology. The former refers to what actors believe the policy object is, a socially-construed context-determined conceptualisation, whereas enacted ontology refers to what the policy object becomes further to enactment under the influence of ontology. Second, the paper presents the findings of a comparative study of master degrees further to the Bologna process in different national and institutional settings to illustrate the policy object approach. This research puts forward arguments to suggest that the policy object could be an important variable to consider in policy research. This somewhat different lens, inviting fine-grained attention to a specific policy object (its ontologies and enacted ontologies), could bring additional insight into policy outcomes.