eSports – Competitive sports or recreational activity?

eSports is growing around the globe, with more and more individuals are engaged as players or spectators. In this paper, the authors reflect on whether eSports can be considered as sport based on evaluating five characteristics of sport and assessing them for eSports. Currently, eSports are not a sport but there is the potential that eSports will become a sport. Different opportunities how marketers and managers can attend to eSports are outlined.     

The influence of training load,exposure to match play and sleep duration on daily wellbeing measures in youth athletes

This study assessed the influence of training load, exposure to match play and sleep duration on two daily wellbeing measures in youth athletes. Forty-eight youth athletes (age 17.3 ± 0.5 years) completed a daily wellbeing questionnaire (DWB), the Perceived Recovery Status scale (PRS), and provided details on the previous day’s training loads (TL) and self-reported sleep duration (sleep) every day for 13 weeks (n = 2727). Linear mixed models assessed the effect of TL, exposure to match play and sleep on DWB and PRS. An increase in TL had a most likely small effect on muscle soreness (d = ?0.43;± 0.10) and PRS (d = ?0.37;± 0.09). Match play had a likely small additive effect on muscle soreness (d = ?0.26;± 0.09) and PRS (d = ?0.25;± 0.08). An increase in sleep had a most likely moderate effect on sleep quality (d = 0.80;± 0.14); a most likely small effect on DWB (d = 0.45;± 0.09) and fatigue (d = 0.42;± 0.11); and a likely small effect on PRS (d = 0.25;± 0.09). All other effects were trivial or did not reach the pre-determined threshold for practical significance. The influence of sleep on multiple DWB subscales and the PRS suggests that practitioners should consider the recovery of an athlete alongside the training stress imposed when considering deviations in wellbeing measures.     

Exploring the Use of Electroencephalography to Gather Objective Evidence of Cognitive Processing During Problem Solving

Currently, there is significant interest being directed towards the development of STEM education to meet economic and societal demands. While economic concerns can be a powerful driving force in advancing the STEM agenda, care must be taken that such economic imperative does not promote research approaches that overemphasize pragmatic application at the expense of augmenting the fundamental knowledge base of the discipline. This can be seen in the predominance of studies investigating problem solving approaches and procedures, while neglecting representational and conceptual processes, within the literature. Complementing concerns about STEM graduates’ problem solving capabilities, raised within the pertinent literature, this paper discusses a novel methodological approach aimed at investigating the cognitive elements of problem conceptualization. The intention is to demonstrate a novel method of data collection that overcomes some of the limitations cited in classic problem solving research while balancing a search for fundamental understanding with the possibility of application. The methodology described in this study employs an electroencephalographic (EEG) headset, as part of a mixed methods approach, to gather objective evidence of students’ cognitive processing during problem solving epochs. The method described provides rich evidence of students’ cognitive representations of problems during episodes of applied reasoning. The reliability and validity of the EEG method is supported by the stability of the findings across the triangulated data sources. The paper presents a novel method in the context of research within STEM education and demonstrates an effective procedure for gathering rich evidence of cognitive processing during the early stages of problem conceptualization.     

The Impact of a Therapy Dog Program on Children’s Reading: Follow-up and Extension to ELL Students

An initiative in which therapy dogs were integrated into a school-wide reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading in the program’s second year. Prior research on the first year of this specific program (Kirnan et al. in Early Child Educ J 44(6):637–651) demonstrated improvement in reading scores only for kindergarten students, while interview data revealed increases in positive attitudes and enthusiasm for reading across all grades. In the current study, a series of independent t-tests were conducted for each grade, comparing the second year of the program to a control group. There was a significant difference for kindergarten in the second year, as reading scores were higher for program students compared to those in the control group. Unlike the first year of the program, in the second year there was also a significant mean difference in first grade. For both grades, an analysis of covariance controlling for reading scores prior to program implementation still resulted in a significant main effect for the reading program. Combining the first 2 years of the program yielded a large enough sample for a comparison of ELL students with non-ELL students in kindergarten. These data showed significantly higher reading scores for students enrolled in the dog program relative to the control for both ELL and non-ELL students, again accounting for earlier reading scores. These findings demonstrate the need to analyze at-risk subgroups as well as the need to apply a longitudinal lens in researching both dog-assisted literacy programs and participant progress.     

Environmental education in southern Africa: a case study of a secondary school in the Okavango Delta of Botswana

This study explored the extent to which teachers integrate environmental education and local environmental knowledge into the curriculum of a secondary school in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. In doing so, the study explored the potential value of place-based education in redressing concerns brought to light in postcolonial critiques of education in southern Africa. The study found that teachers sought to integrate environmental education into the curriculum through lessons that included references to local place names and local flora and fauna, lessons addressing issues related to environmental resource management in the region, and the acknowledgment and celebration of traditional lifestyle activities in the schools. The study also found that efforts to integrate environmental education into the curriculum were limited by a lack of educational resources needed to support these endeavors as well as a lack of adequate teacher training promoting this educational goal. The results also illustrate the potential value of place-based education in redressing the legacy of southern Africa’s colonial past in schools in Botswana and southern Africa.     

The role of Lean principles in supporting knowledge management in IT outsourcing relationships

Knowledge management (KM) in information technology outsourcing (ITO) is important to the organizations which pursue long-term strategic benefits and innovation. Effective KM mechanism in outsourcing enables both parties to continuously exchange knowledge and promotes collective learning. This paper investigates the role of Lean principles in supporting KM in ITO relationships. Drawn from the knowledge-based view of the firm, knowledge accessing and knowledge integration and utilization are identified as two key KM processes in outsourcing. Three case studies conducted in different service industries with 18 interviews indicate that the two KM processes were supported by four Lean principles: respect for people, continuous improvement, systems thinking, and proactive behavior. Those principles can be implemented with different tools at different organizational levels. This study reveals the relevance between Lean and KM in ITO relationships, which has not been reported by the KM literature. It also provides implications to ITO practitioners for the implementation of Lean principles.     

A method for identifying the critical success factors of CoP based on performance evaluation

The Community of Practice (CoP) within an organization is a practical way to manage knowledge as systematically as other critical assets to deploy and share it. The availability of the right information at the right time based on performance evaluations is critical. However, there have been few attempts to identify Critical Success Factor (CSFs) based on evaluations to foster knowledge sharing activities in CoPs. Therefore, we developed not only a holistic and systematic method to understand and assess the current state of the CoP but also a method to extract the main CSFs of the CoP based on a performance evaluation. A method for the elementary expression of performance measures and the global performance expression of strategies and CSF was developed using a desirability function to provide information useful in grasping the whole picture of the CoP. The relative importance of strategy and CSFs was extracted based on the cause and effect relationships within the Balanced Scorecard using the Analytic Network Process. In addition, an Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) is applied based on the relative importance and global performance expression of the CSFs.     

Ethical values and social care robots for older people: an international qualitative study

Values such as respect for autonomy, safety, enablement, independence, privacy and social connectedness should be reflected in the design of social robots. The same values should affect the process by which robots are introduced into the homes of older people to support independent living. These values may, however, be in tension. We explored what potential users thought about these values, and how the tensions between them could be resolved. With the help of partners in the ACCOMPANY project, 21 focus groups (123 participants) were convened in France, the Netherlands and the UK. These groups consisted of: (i) older people, (ii) informal carers and (iii) formal carers of older people. The participants were asked to discuss scenarios in which there is a conflict between older people and others over how a robot should be used, these conflicts reflecting tensions between values. Participants favoured compromise, persuasion and negotiation as a means of reaching agreement. Roles and related role-norms for the robot were thought relevant to resolving tensions, as were hypothetical agreements between users and robot-providers before the robot is introduced into the home. Participants’ understanding of each of the values—autonomy, safety, enablement, independence, privacy and social connectedness—is reported. Participants tended to agree that autonomy often has priority over the other values, with the exception in certain cases of safety. The second part of the paper discusses how the values could be incorporated into the design of social robots and operationalised in line with the views expressed by the participants.     

Evaluating R&D investment efficiency in China's high-tech industry

Research and development (R&D) investment activity plays a crucial role in developing high-tech industries. In recent decades, China has made sustained investments in its domestic high-tech industries, with the goal of increasing their productivity. This paper investigates the effect of this investment on relative R&D efficiency across China's high-tech sectors. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to generate quantitative indices for sector comparisons. The analysis of this study indicates that overall R&D investment efficiency did not increase from 1998 to 2009, despite R&D expenditure increasing by 2188%. Over the same period, most sectors suffered from decreasing returns to scale (DRS), presumably also reflecting the inefficient R&D investment. Most of the sectors showed significant fluctuation on R&D investment efficiency. This research result indicates that the problem of China's high-tech industry may be from the inefficiency of its technology commercialization processes, and therefore represents a critical parameter for policy makers and managers.     

Analysing intellectual capital management and growth based on dynamic modelling

The management of intellectual capital (IC) resources increases organizational value creation capacities. The aim of this study is to present an algorithm for analysing IC management with an emphasis on the recognition and modelling of growth mechanisms for strategic resources. Intensive interactions among different tangible and intangible assets turn organizations into complex systems of highly interrelated resources; therefore, a systems approach is adopted, and a causal loop diagram is used to model resource interaction feedback structures. The development and analysis of the resource interactions model is explained through a practical algorithm that reveals different dimensions of resource deployment, including the potential value of resources, utilization of resources in key business processes, and mechanisms responsible for the sustained growth of strategic resources. The proposed algorithm was used to examine a telecommunication company. We show that there are no growth mechanisms for certain strategic resources. To activate the growth of such strategic resources, several feedback loops are recognized and related initiatives are proposed.