Inbound Open Innovation and Innovation Performance: A Robustness Study

In studies of firm's innovation performance, regression analysis can involve a significant level of model uncertainty because the ‘true’ model, and therefore the appropriate set of explanatory variables are unknown. Drawing on innovation survey data for France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we assess the robustness of the literature on inbound open innovation to variable selection choices, using Bayesian model averaging (BMA). We investigate a wide range of innovation determinants proposed in the literature and establish a robust set of findings for the variables related to the introduction of new-to-the-firm and new-to-the-world innovation with the aim of gauging the overall healthiness of the literature. Overall, we find greater robustness for explanations for new-to-the-firm rather than new-to-the-world innovation. We explore how this approach might help to improve our understanding of innovation.     

Technology,capabilities and critical perspectives: what can critical theory contribute to Sen’s capability approach?

This paper explores what insights can be drawn from critical theory to enrich and strengthen Sen’s capability approach in relation to technology and human development. The two theories share some important commonalities: both are concerned with the pursuit of “a good life”; both are normative theories rooted in ethics and meant to make a difference, and both are interested in democracy. The paper provides a brief overview of both schools of thought and their applications to technology and human development. Three areas are identified where critical theory can make a contribution to the capability approach: conceptually, by providing a critical account of individual agency and enriching the concept of technology beyond the simplistic notion of commodities; methodologically, by sensitising towards reification and hegemony of scientific tools, and, finally, by emphasising reflexivity of researchers.     

Reading as a lifeline among aging readers: Findings from a qualitative interview study with older adults

Older adults who identify as readers and choose to read for pleasure in their everyday lives are understudied despite the persistence and pervasiveness of this kind of reading. The phenomenology of reading and critical age studies inform this pilot project that uses in-depth interviews conducted with five readers who are between the ages of 75–90?years and who live in Canada. Data analysis followed principles of close reading and thematic analysis. Findings privilege the voices of the older readers and show how their experiences of reading can be analyzed using the metaphor of reading as a lifeline that, in turn, bridges with notions of resilience and embodied information practices. Reading for pleasure supports resilience and a reflective stance on life among older adults. The findings call for other researchers to engage more readily with older adults and will be of use to librarians and others who provide services, programs, and resources to older adult readers.     

Documentary ethics,ontology, and politics

Recent years have seen a sharp rise of attention to the importance of documentation in various disciplines in the social sciences. Many thinkers have found the concept of assemblages, which emphasizes complexity, heterogeneity, and emergence, fruitful for investigating the role of documents and documentation. This article analyses some examples from anthropology and management studies as contributions to documentary ethics, ontology, and politics. The first pair of case studies reveals a documentary activism of biological and therapeutic citizenship. The second pair shows how documentation works constitutively to bring different kinds of entities into being. Both kinds of cases practice a documentary politics, which is analyzed in terms of Bruno Latour’s ideas of “reassembling the social”.     

A multidimensional analysis of changes in mathematics motivation and engagement during high school

Despite concerns about declining interest and enrolments in mathematics, little research has examined change in a broad range of constructs reflecting mathematics motivation and engagement. The current study used an 11-factor model of motivation and engagement to evaluate levels of maths motivation compared to general academic motivation and to assess group-level and individual-level changes in maths motivation during secondary school. In a multicohort-multioccasion design, Australian students completed an adaptation of the Motivation and Engagement Scale in two consecutive school years. Ratings in mathematics were lower than general academic motivation on several scales but particularly on the planning and task management scales and for the year seven cohort. Mean ratings of valuing and task management decreased over the two years, while stability of mathematics motivation was moderate. Girls reported stronger anxiety, uncertain control and failure avoidance than boys, despite also reporting greater mastery focus. The findings demonstrate that a multidimensional model facilitates a differentiated analysis of possible reasons for a waning interest in mathematics.     

Mathematics motivation and engagement: an independent evaluation of a complex model with Australian rural high school students

Most traditional models of academic motivation focus on a small number of specific factors. However, the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) (Martin, 2007b Martin, A.J. 2007b. The motivation and engagement scale, Sydney, , Australia: Lifelong Achievement Group.  [Google Scholar]) includes a fairly comprehensive range of perspectives on general student motivation. The current study set out (a) to provide an independent test of the proposed 11-factor structure of the MES for boys and girls when (b) applied to high school mathematics in Australia (N = 1014; Years 7 to 11). It also examined (c) the covariation of different facets of motivation and engagement with gender, year level, and scholastic achievement. The hypothesised 11-factor model fit reasonably well across gender, and there was clear evidence of specificity to maths compared to English achievement. Some gender and grade effects were observed as well. The study provides support for the value of the Martin model and its instrument. It also extends our knowledge of student motivation to mathematics in Australian rural high schools.     

Get Your Head in the Clouds

No abstract available for this article.     

The e-Book Apocalypse: A Survivor's Guide

As an outgrowth of its course in online literature searching, the University of Washington School of Librarianship has recently added a course on numeric databases to its professional degree program. It emphasizes the relationship of these files to bibliographic databases and their application to general library service, rather than concepts of data management or statistical techniques, although attention was also given to these topics. Hands-on experience in searching socioeconomic databases provides students without research experience with an awareness of the character and capability of these resources. The course serves both as an introduction to a career specialization in data management as well as an examination of the role of numeric databases in library reference services. Given the increasing importance of statistical analysis in the social sciences, academic concern for training in the use of numeric databases is of a particular concern to the behavioral or social science librarian.     

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

No abstract available for this article.