Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic view on e-learning-related concepts as a basis for an e-learning strategy. Furthermore, it aims to shed light on the level of application ...of existing open-source learning management systems (LMS) by the public and private universities of Cyprus. Due to a currently existing information gap in the field, the study should rather be seen as an exploratory descriptive snapshot to create initial awareness based on which further hypotheses can be derived for future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
– Quantitative research has been conducted in this study with an online questionnaire distributed to all the public and private universities in Cyprus.
Findings
– The conducted research analysis results clearly illustrate the comparisons among different features and services of an e-learning platform. Additionally, the analysis results highlighted the tendency of the participants toward a social learning environment which was considerably high in using social networks and other collaboration platforms, as students were more attracted to those e-learning platforms that integrate social learning elements such as various social media tools.
Research limitations/implications
– The only data collection method used was the online questionnaire. Even though it provided the researchers with sound and useful outcomes in a considerably short time, the validity of the results was not properly justified. The findings cannot claim to be representative. The main reason of selecting only one type of data collection method, i.e. questionnaire was the limited time of completing the research. Another significant limitation was the very low co-operation level of some of the universities under study which resulted in having less reliable results, as the response rates of some universities were merely 1 per cent.
Originality/value
– This research study provides a comprehensive body of knowledge about LMS and e-learning, in general, within the public and private universities in Cyprus. In other terms, the results of this study enhance the existing knowledge about the e-learning features as well as demonstrating the tendency of the students toward social learning within an LMS.
The paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the catalytic role of SMEs in generating innovation as a basis for a competitive economy. It focuses on six European countries, representing both ...established and transitional settings (United Kingdom, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Greece and Lithuania). The statistical methods used included ANCOVA, multiple regression analysis and chi-square tests. The factors explaining the innovation levels were provided. Innovation and corporate culture indices were created and found to be correlated. Four variables were shown to explain innovation management in the six countries: corporate culture, formal processes/innovation department, company size and review of products. The respective SME perceptions, key factors and levels of innovation management were thus differentiated for the six countries. This comprehensive differentiated approach is an innovative contribution to the field.
Purpose - Effectively managing the cultural environment is an important stepping stone towards international business success. Cultural problems, especially between partners coming from diametrically ...different cultural categories represent one of the key challenges of knowledge management in international business co-operations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of controversial cultural attitudes on collaboration and the use of most diverse knowledge capital of employees being regarded as a key resource for innovation and competitive advantage.Design methodology approach - Based on a comprehensive literature review, the very extensive data collection phase, applying the case study method, was carried out over a 13 month period. It mainly consisted of in-depth interviews requiring 23 of them to reach theoretical saturation, non-participant and participant observation (seven), focus groups (four) and fieldtrip notes in two culturally diverse Russian and Austrian research settings. Theoretical sampling was used to select the participants. The grounded theory method of constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the gathered data.Findings - The attitude towards sharing the precious resource of diverse employees' knowledge regarded as a prerequisite to international business success is influenced by national cultures. Protective attitudes for knowledge sharing limit the growth of humans' and the company's development. This paper suggests that providing the appropriate knowledge management tools and environment, especially referring to the soft aspects of emotions, will enhance and even change former institutionalised and ingrained patterns of behaviours. Therefore, the paper sheds light on the knowledge sharing contingency depending more on a social-cognitive state rather than a static hierarchical status.Originality value - The paper poses two innovative organizational memory conceptualizations based on respondents' needs and demands entailing a synthesis of knowledge management and interpersonal interactions to achieve the highest level of efficiency and high degrees of knowledge sharing and absorption. It bridges the gap of purely knowledge based and unemotional management tools towards a lively and engaging tool. This would appear to be the first time that an investigation of this type has been conducted explaining culturally influenced factors of knowledge management in Eastern and Western European co-operations.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of micro-environmental international entrepreneurship and the macro-environmental market forces on domestic institutionalization of ...the industrial sector. In doing so, the paper examines the moderating effect of the degree of internationalization on the relationship between domestic market forces and domestic sectoral institutionalization.Design methodology approach - Based upon the creation of the item pools "domestic sectoral institutionalization", "market forces" and "degree of internationalization" derived from previous research, an applied Delphi technique and a representative sample of 149 exporters in Turkey, a survey using a web-based questionnaire was conducted. All scales were designed and a number of hypotheses were validated. Results were analyzed by the principal components of factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and moderated hierarchical regression.Findings - The empirical analysis resulted in an interaction effect of two sub-elements of the market forces (trust and organization) and internationalization. The findings imply that internationalization can make an important contribution to the institutionalization of the domestic industrial sector. The paper confirms the findings of previous research on the significant importance of trust for institutionalization. Summarizing, it was found that internationalization significantly and positively moderates the effect of trust on institutionalization. Interestingly, however, internationalization negatively moderates the effect of organization on institutionalization implying that the learning process and experiences created by internationalization cause a higher level of structural adaptation.Originality value - This paper innovatively sheds light upon the interrelationship between macro environmental market forces, internationalization of entrepreneurship and domestic institutionalization. In doing so, it relates various disciplines, as national and international entrepreneurial behavior, with sociological aspects such as institutionalization for the sake of achieving important macro economic objectives, especially for countries in transition. The comprehensive, reliable and valid research methodology can be applied when researching this topic with important economic implications for transitional economies in other research settings.
Consumer cosmopolitanism is defined as world citizenship, open interaction with foreigners and the polar opposite of xenophobic attitudes. Although it is the opposite of consumer ethnocentrism, to ...date, cosmopolitanism has been primarily perceived as the virtue of not seeing foreigners as a threat, not being hateful towards foreigners, and embracing cultural diversity. Based on this conceptualization, our main objective is to develop and test an alternative pilot scale for consumer cosmopolitanism. Fifteen scale items were developed as a result of a literature review and consultation with academic experts. A survey was administered to 484 people in Turkey. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale items were grouped in three factors. To measure the validity of this consumer cosmopolitanism scale, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) Indicated that second-order- factor-model was a more rational measurement configuration to determine consumer cosmopolitanism with three factors. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
We investigated the development of soil macrofauna and mesofauna in the successional chronosequence of an Alpine glacier foreland located above the treeline. Sampling transects 10 m long were ...established at eight successional stages from 4 to 150 yr of age since deglaciation, and in addition two reference sites in front of the terminal moraine. Within the first 50 yr, macrofauna biomass and mesofauna abundance increased rapidly, attaining levels typical for all older stages (macrofauna 0.5-7 g m-2, microarthropods 50-120 103 ind. m-2). Among the macrofauna nematoceran Diptera were dominant at most sites, only the early colonizing stages being dominated by carabid and lepidopteran larvae and enchytraeids. Acari were more abundant than Collembola. Temporal sequences of occurrence were documented for macrofauna families and for collembolan species. Successional age was the major determinant of community composition, additional influences being local variations in microclimatic conditions and soil properties. Biomass increased over the short alpine summer, but community composition remained largely constant. The high aggregation of soil fauna affected the precision of abundance estimates. An outline of the trophic structure of evolving soil communities is presented.
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