Web knowledge sharing and its effect on innovation: an empirical investigation in SMEs

This paper extends previous studies on knowledge management by analysing factors affecting Web Knowledge Sharing (WKS) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the impact of WKS on organizational innovation and the moderating effect of IT skills on this relation are analysed. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theory and the resource-based view (RBV), this paper develops an integrative research model, which analyses these relations using structural equation modelling on a data set of 535 Spanish SMEs. Results suggest that technological and organizational factors – IT expertise and commitment-based human resources practices – positively influence WKS, while the contrary is found for environmental factors (customer power). In addition, results show that WKS contributes positively to organizational innovation, though support for the moderating effect of IT skills in this relation is not found. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to SMEs that use or intend to use Internet technologies for knowledge management.     

A brief history of family life education in Romania

Starting from the state of conceptual diversity, semantic ambiguity, and poor connection of family life education practices to current policies and theoretical models in Romania, our study aims at understanding the underlying meanings of these issues by recourse to the history of approaches in the field. To this purpose, we carried out a qualitative historical research, based on the thematic analysis of a set of educational works produced between the sixteenth century, when the first Romanian texts were written, and the present time. Primary historical sources are supplemented with reliable secondary sources, while the criteria used for the selection of texts were their relevance to family life education (FLE), and the notoriety of the works in the corresponding historical periods. As in western countries, the concept of FLE was coined in Romania at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the family education discourse was outlined, but the roots of the field can be traced even in the first printed texts. Although marked by strong moral and religious emphases during pre-modernity, FLE has entered the slow process of secularisation and evolved from the perspective of political, social, and moral reconstruction goals of modern Romania. However, FLE’s goals and contents were redefined during Communism, and the discrepancies between discourses, practices, and realities compromised the functionality of the pedagogical model promoted at the time. A unitary definition of FLE in relation to Romanian contemporary families’ needs requires reconciliation with historical, cultural, and educational premises, as well as a careful contextualisation of western models and practices.     

Strong Periphery,Weak Centre: The Paradox of Sport in Early Twentieth-Century Romania

Abstract

When looking at the impact of the political, territorial, and social transformations which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers in the First World War, an evidence check suggests that sport was deeply influenced by the sudden disappearance of the Habsburg Empire. This article examines the shift triggered in the relation between a ‘centre’ (e.g. Bucharest) and a ‘periphery’ (former Austro-Hungarian provinces) of sporting life by the political outcome of the First World War. The joy and difficulties surrounding the emergence of ‘Greater Romania’ were well highlighted in the field of sport by tensions which appeared mostly in internal competitions and debates, rather than in the international arena.     

Privatisation,Domestic Marketisation and International Commercialisation of Higher Education: vulnerabilities and opportunities for Chile and Romania within the framework of WTO/GATS

This chapter explores the processes of privatisation of higher education in Chile (after 1981) and Romania (after 1989), focusing on the emergence of private institutions, the expansion in enrolments in these institutions, and the relative increase in private sources of funding for the post‐secondary sub‐sector. Attention is also given to related trends in higher education in these two countries: domestic marketisation (a strengthening of an orientation toward selling programmes/commodities to students/consumers within the country) and international commercialisation (an expansion of initiatives by domestic and foreign institutions to provide distance education, study abroad/exchange, and foreign site‐based degree programmes). Of importance to an understanding of globalisation, these two societies, which at the time exhibited similar economic systems but had different political systems and were situated in different regional contexts, experienced remarkably similar processes of and outcomes from privatisation, marketisation, and commercialisation. In both cases these processes were promoted by ‘internal’ political actors but also shaped by ‘external’ forces, notably the World Bank's higher education policy recommendations and the conditionalities included in the stabilisation and structural adjustment programmes ‘negotiated’, respectively, with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in order to obtain loans. As a result of these processes—occurring prior to and during the emergence of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as a component of the World Trade Organization (WTO)—higher education institutions in both Chile and Romania are much more vulnerable to foreign influence/domination, although they also have somewhat greater opportunities to broaden their role in the global ‘business’ of higher education.     

Implementing an IT service information management framework: The case of COTEMAR

It is evident that organizations are demanding more efficient information management technologies in order to offer high quality services for both internal and external clients. Firms pursue the implementation of processes aligned to their strategic and operational objectives and, to achieve these goals, they usually introduce various frameworks and approaches to information technology service management, such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) or Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT). However, once incorporated, it is essential to have mechanisms that guarantee performance efficiency. One of such mechanism is the Service Management Office (SMO). The case analysis presented here describes the lessons learned from its implementation in COTEMAR. The results provide useful insights for firms interested in integrating SMO within IT service management practices.