Developing capabilities in new ventures: a knowledge management approach

On the basis of a knowledge management perspective, this paper expands the literature on new ventures’ capabilities by considering how these firms fill knowledge gaps and develop the technological, marketing, management, and ICT capabilities they need to compete. In particular, this paper investigates the role of networks in these dynamics. Although new technology-based firms have great potential to introduce innovative products into the market, they might suffer from more critical knowledge gaps and capability weaknesses than established firms. The results of a quantitative investigation of an original data set of more than 400 Italian new ventures specializing in high-tech industries show that these firms acquire knowledge to support their capability growth mainly through the management of intense relations with multiple external sources of knowledge. In addition, capability development is supported by the variety of founders’ industry experience and the presence of young graduates among the founding team.     

The evolution of student-coach’s pedagogical content knowledge in a combined use of sport education and the step-game-approach model*

Background: One of the essential elements within Sport Education is the inclusion of student roles and responsibilities. While previous research has examined students’ performance in officiating tasks, the examination of student-coaches’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) within peer-assisted tasks of Sport Education has been scarce. Indeed, the only study to date which has examined student-coach effectiveness was conducted by Wallhead and O’Sullivan [2007. “A Didactic Analysis of Content Development During the Peer Teaching Tasks of a Sport Education Season.”Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 12 (3): 225–243]. In that study, student-coaches struggled to manifest PCK by providing appropriate demonstrations, to diagnose errors, or to modify tasks for higher order content development. The study of PCK may be a useful heuristic to examine instructional effectiveness in physical education.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of the PCK of a cohort of student-coaches across three hybrid Sport Education-Step Game Approach seasons, and to examine the impact of protocols put in place to specifically enhance coaches’ PCK.

Participants and setting: Twenty-one students and one teacher from a school class in the north of Portugal participated in the present study.

Method: Data from multiple sources were collected: (a) videotape observations of all lessons, (b) field notes, and (c) pre-lesson interviews with the student-coaches. These were then subjected to deductive examination through a process of thematic analysis.

Findings and conclusions: Following a baseline season that identified four key limitations within the student-coaches’ instruction (task presentation, error diagnosis, feedback, and task modification), these students participated in specific coach preparation that involved modelling teacher’s instruction, pre-lesson meetings, and coaches’ corners. While showing marked improvement in their content knowledge across the second season, a second protocol was instigated during the third that involved the student-coaches to participate in stimulated reflections of their instruction and the incorporation of planning sheets to enhance their instruction. It was found that both interventions were efficacious in developing student-coaches’ PCK, which allowed a more complete transfer of the instructional responsibility from the teacher to the students. These results give insight into the importance of including coach education protocols within the design of seasons of Sport Education with respect to student-coaches’ instructional preparation.     

Hou Hsiao‐Hsien reviewed

Abstract

Press reviews of Hou Hsiao‐Hsien’s films appeared in a range of European magazines at a time when Hou’s films were hardly, if at all, available for watching in European cinemas. This essay asks what, in this context, may have been the reviews’ function. By way of an examination of a representative sample of these texts, I argue that, far from negotiating a relationship between, on the one hand, the producers, distributors and exhibitors of Hou’s films and, on the other hand, Hou’s European public, reviews of Hou’s films served to mediate the gradual and capillary instillation of new modes of viewing films. Reaching Europe very sparingly at a time when European cinemas had finally capitulated to the increasingly aggressive marketing strategies of distributors of Hollywood produce, the construction of Hou Hsiao‐Hsien as an auteur became available for the ‘educational’ realignment needed in order to sell Hollywood cinema better, not in spite of, but because of, the negligible European circulation of Hou Hsiao‐Hsien’s films.     

Perceived service quality factors in online higher education

Learning Environments Research - In recent years, the offer of higher-education programs under online modality has grown significantly. This situation has generated the need to evaluate the quality...     

Mother As Donor,Hero or Villain: New Sides of The Mother’s Image in Sergey Sedov’s “Fairy Tales About Mums”

A new model of society in post-Soviet Russia introduced novel family patterns to everyday life as well as to children’s literature, with traditional parent and children’s functions becoming subject to rethinking. The tendency to reconsider parental functions can be observed in texts from different genres, but it appears most overtly in modern fairy tales which, on the one hand, link modernity with the national folkloric code but, on the other, aim to overcome the code. Unlike many contemporary Russian authors for children, who leave little narrative space for parents, Sergey Sedov makes the mother central to his “Fairy Tales About Mums.” He describes various situations in which this figure regains the depth and comprehensiveness of a Jungian Great Mother Archetype. The author combines different fairy tales, cultural stereotypes and literary themes to create the image of a new mother who possesses various roles, some of which place her in opposition to the gender stereotype of patriarchal Russian folklore. This article uses structural, typological and motive methods of analysis to trace the transformation of the mother’s image from the traditional folktale canon to determine its activity-related and axiological aspects and to analyse various manifestations of the mother in terms of the tales’ semantic and aesthetic integrity.     

SCAR分子标记监测菌群中的哈茨木霉

研究目的：开发具有种属特异性序列特征性扩增区域（SCAR）标记物来监测哈茨木霉在其入侵的试验菌群中的定殖和生长,为哈茨木霉应用于生物防治等生态和生物技术中提供支撑。 创新要点：多种木霉属真菌能与各种微观和宏观的生物有机体建立相互作用。利用这些相互作用,木霉可做为原生种群的入侵物种而用于生物防治。本文通过使用试验菌群为研究模型,利用随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）技术和序列特征性扩增区域（SCAR）标记物来监测菌群中哈茨木霉的生长状态。 研究方法：利用随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）技术,从16个10聚体引物进行多态性筛选,其中1个引物扩增出对应哈茨木霉的条带。对该条带进行克隆测序,并设计5个20-23聚体引物。成功利用引物对2F2／2R2和2F2／2R3278分别特异性地扩增出哈茨木霉BpTloa菌株278bp和448bp的DNA片段。同时,用这两个引物对14个哈茨木霉菌株和几种不同的真菌菌株进行特异性对照试验,也只成功扩增出哈茨木霉菌株。此外,使用真菌DNA混合物和试验真菌群的DNA为模板,采用实时聚合酶链式反应（PCR）对引物对2F2／2R2进行评估。当仅使用100份SCAR标记物或哈茨木霉仅占整个菌群的0．1％时,仍能检测出哈茨木霉。 重要结论：本研究所建立的SCAR分子标记能有效监测菌群中的哈茨木霉的定殖和生长,具有较高特异性、灵敏度和准确度。     

Fitting derivational morphophonology into a developmental model of reading

Oral language is the foundation on which literacy initially builds. Between early developing oral language skills and fluent reading comprehension emerge several types of metalinguistic ability, including phonological and morphological awareness. In this study, a developmental sequence is proposed, beginning with receptive language followed by phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and a new metalinguistic task measuring oral morphophonological accuracy (MPA), followed by decoding and culminating in reading comprehension. MPA is a measure of accurate primary stress placement in the production of derived words with non-neutral, stress changing suffixes (e.g., -ity). A path analysis with data from 76 third graders was used to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of these variables. The developmental model was confirmed, and a metalinguistic continuum, with MPA emerging after both PA and MA, was supported. Decoding and receptive language were the best unique predictors of reading comprehension. Surprisingly, MPA was more important to decoding than was PA, whereas MA was only indirectly implicated in both decoding and reading comprehension.