Navigating male-dominated spaces

Networking by female business owners in Northern Ireland

This paper describes how cities approach the challenging task of identifying, considering, and adopting innovative transport policies. Drawing on political science literature, the paper begins by establishing a framework for analyzing the process of policy transfer and policy learning. Cities were selected on the basis of their reputation for having adopted innovative policies. Data were collected from project reports and in-depth interviews with 40 professionals comprising planners, consultants, and operators in 11 cities across North America and northern Europe. This paper presents the findings from three key innovations: congestion charging, compact growth and transport planning, and carsharing. Each of these innovations was implemented at several sites, and there was evidence of learning across the sites studied. The case studies present a discussion of each policy alongside indications of its positive and negative impacts and then examine how the different cities approached the task of learning about how to introduce it and the issues that they faced. The paper identifies conditions that appear to support effective learning: reliance on strong networks of personal and professional contacts, drawing lessons from multiple sites, and financial and institutional support to facilitate the uptake of risky or technologically immature innovations.

This article raises the problem of the international activities of the Cadet Party from 1906 to 1917. During this period, the Cadets were at the head of the foreign policy activities of the State Duma from the first to the fourth convocations. Firstly, the reason is that the cadets had a developed network of personal and professional contacts with Western politicians and journalists; secondly, they formulated their own vision of foreign policy, and were also ideologically close to the political elite of England and France. The Cadet Party used its international authority in two directions: on the one hand, this increased the party’s authority within the Russian society; on the other hand, Russia was drawing closer to its allies in the Entente. In this rapprochement, it is not so much the geopolitical aspect that is important as the establishment of horizontal ties between the societies of these countries, which allows building long-term friendly relations. This was the main feature of the activities of the Cadets – they did not have government powers, their activities did not lead to the conclusion of agreements, but it influenced public opinion both in Russia and abroad.

The influence of position and gender on personal networks in a UK professional service

SUE BIRLEY IS PROFESSOR OF management at Imperial College, London, England, Stanley Cromie is professor and director of the Centre for Management Education at the Ulster Business School, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, and Andrew Myers is with the Cranifield School of Management, England. This paper discusses the need for information in organisations and the particular relevance of non-documented data which is gathered by managers from a network of personal contacts. It examines some of the issues involved in assessing the characteristics of personal networks and proposes that network activiety, density and diversity are the crucial features of business networks. The paper suggests that personal networking is a particularly appropriate mechanism for information gathering by owners/managers of small organisations, examines the personal networks of 274 business proprietors and compares the findings of this study with similar ones conducted in the United States of America, Sweden and Italy. Results indicate that entrepreneurial networks in Northern Ireland are smaller than elsewhere and that little zeal is displayed in increasing their size. However, considerable energy is devoted to maintaining existing networks and they are of relativly high density. Northern Irish networks are quite heterogenous with business associates, family, friends and professionals to the fore but the dearth of owner/managers and employees in the personal contact networks is quite surprising.

To qualitatively determine factors that are associated with higher participation rates in community-based health services research requiring significant physician participation burden. A review of the literature was undertaken using MEDLINE and the Social Science Research Index to identify health services research studies that recruited large community-based samples of individual physicians and in which the participation burden exceeded that of merely completing a survey. Two reviewers abstracted data on the recruitment methods, and first authors were contacted to supplement published information. Sixteen studies were identified with participation rates from 2.5% to 91%. Almost all studies used physician recruiters to personally contact potential participants. Recruiters often knew some of the physicians to be recruited, and personal contact with these "known" physicians resulted in greater participation rates. Incentives were generally absent or modest, and at modest levels, did not appear to affect participation rates. Investigators were almost always affiliated with academic institutions, but were divided as to whether this helped or hindered recruitment. HMO-based and minority physicians were more difficult to recruit. Potential participants most often cited time pressures on staff and themselves as the study burden that caused them to decline. Physician personal contact and friendship networks are powerful tools for recruitment. Participation rates might improve by including HMO and minority physicians in the recruitment process. Investigators should transfer as much of the study burden from participating physicians to project staff as possible.

In recent years the use of networks and, in particular, personal contact networks (PCNs) has emerged as a focus for research in the area of small firm entrepreneurship. A tacit theme emerging from this area has been the need for entrepreneurs to develop a competency in using their PCNs as a means of resolving marketing problems faced in developing their enterprises. The competency literature itself focuses primarily on the subject of management development, with scant attention given to the identification of specific competences for small firm entrepreneurs and, in particular, the challenges they face in marketing decision‐making. Previous research by the authors addressed this shortcoming and pointed to the value of using PCNs for resolving marketing problems in the entrepreneurial small firm. A spectrum of entrepreneurial competences critical for marketing‐led enterprise development was developed. A conceptual model is proposed of how small firm entrepreneurs might use their existing competency strengths to develop a further competency in the proactive use of PCNs, a strength which is critical for the planned success of the entrepreneurial enterprise.

This article examines the problematic status as a pioneer of abstract art of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. Her case allows us to reflect simultaneously on two types of important contacts in the recognition process of the artist of the twentieth century. On the one hand, the network of personal contacts, and, on the other, the network of institutional contacts as museums. The starting point are the different positions held by the MoMA in the exhibition Inventing abstraction, 1910-1925, and by the Moderna Museet of Stockholm in the show Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction. The study of the positions of proponents and opponents leads to the conclusion that, until now, Hilma af Klint has had the necessary accomplices to get her work known, exhibited and even, inside the art world, become somewhat famous. Time will tell, and sociological analysis suggests short term negative results, if in the future she will have the decisive accomplices for obtaining the prestige of being considered mostly as a pioneer of abstract art.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is ascertain if the hotel concierge service will continue to be relevant in a technological world where consumers have increasing access to information about their destination. To trace the origins of the hotel concierge, their route into the profession and establish whether the profession is geographically localised. Their role within the hotel, working philosophy, core values and characteristics were considered in relation to creating and delivering an experiential service encounter.Design/methodology/approachEleven participants were selected who worked on the concierge desk in four- and five-star hotels in Edinburgh. All were male, aged between 20 and 64 years old; nine were Scottish, six of whom were from Edinburgh, one from Wales and one from England. Six respondents were members of The Golden Keys Society. A qualitative approach was adopted with semi-structured interviews designed around key themes identified in the literature review.FindingsNo feelings of servility or inferiority were documented in the host/guest relationship. Comparisons were made between the contextual setting and the appearance and manner of the respondents with that of a “performance”. The uniform was deemed to facilitate feelings of empowerment analogous to having superpowers. Technology has been adopted by the concierge department as a tool, but is considered to be ancillary to their personal recommendation and network of business and personal contacts and collaborators.Research limitations/implicationsChanges in the demographics of people travelling and discounted rates being offered in four- and five-star hotels has resulted in general perceptions of a less elite clientele. This may have implications for the future of concierge services.Practical implicationsThe internet seems to have opened up this profession to enable concierges to effectively operate in a location they are not indigenous to. The personal recommendations that the concierge provides through their own knowledge are used in conjunction with technology, but are not in imminent danger of being replaced by it. It may prove beneficial for the hotel to provide some training for older members of staff to keep up with technological developments. This study could prove useful to service providers who aim to gain competitive advantage by elevating their level of guest service to exceed guest expectations through emulating the personalised service that the concierge can offer.Social implicationsThe socio-cultural issues within this study are important. Internet technology is generally perceived to be the panacea of all contemporary communication ills in the twenty-first century. The authors however propose that the concierge is the last bastion of front-line service personnel who are still approached for their individual, sometimes unique, knowledge that cannot be found online.Originality/valueThis study contributes to an area of interest that lacks contemporary research due to the natural gatekeeping that occurs within this “closed” environment.

This paper attempts to further knowledge of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) from the SME network perspective. It offers valuable in-depth insights into personal contact networks (PCNs), illustrating their value in resource leveraging for software technology SMEs. This research is important because networking has been identified by EM researchers as central to this developing concept, while there is a paucity of research concerning software marketing and marketing in SME technology firms. An extended case study was conducted; methods used included participant-observation, desk research, and interviews with owner-managers and employees. The research focus was on firm usage and outputs of PCNs. Identified networks included business and customer networks. Findings offer insights into the role of PCNs in enhancing business, innovation and marketing capacities, areas of overlap of these networks, and the role of customer relationships in building innovation and marketing capacity.

Is the American Chemical Society your professional network, or is it your social network? For me, the line between my professional and personal contacts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn has blurred. This is partly because my professional contacts have become friends, and social media friends have become colleagues. But the line has also blurred because my professional contacts often communicate their chemistry to me through social media. That doesn’t mean I will necessarily listen—which is why the brick-and-mortar part of ACS is so crucial. That is, I am more likely to interact with people on social media whom I recognize as chemists from my ACS interactions, and I then look for them at my next ACS national meeting. A professional network like ACS can serve as your local coffee shop if you interact with it through your student chapter or your local section. Just like at a coffee shop, the

Personal contact networks that represent social interactions can be used to identify who can infect whom during the spread of an epidemic. The structure of a personal contact network has great impact upon both epidemic duration and the total number of infected individuals. A vaccine, with varying degrees of success, can reduce both the length and spread of an epidemic, but in the case of a limited supply of vaccine a vaccination strategy must be chosen, and this has a significant effect on epidemic behaviour.In this study we consider four different vaccination strategies and compare their effects upon epidemic duration and spread. These are random vaccination, high degree vaccination, ring vaccination, and the base case of no vaccination. All vaccinations are applied as the epidemic progresses, as opposed to in advance. The strategies are initially applied to static personal contact networks that are known ahead of time. They are then applied to personal contact networks that are evolved as the vaccination strategy is applied. When any form of vaccination is applied, all strategies reduce both duration and spread of the epidemic. When applied to a static network, random vaccination performs poorly in terms of reducing epidemic duration in comparison to strategies that take into account connectivity of the network. However, it performs surprisingly well when applied on the evolved networks, possibly because the evolutionary algorithm is unable to take advantage of a fixed strategy.

BackgroundSince the outbreak of pandemics, influenza has caused extensive attention in the field of public health. It is actually hard to distinguish what is the most effective method to control the influenza transmission within airport terminal. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the influences of passenger source, immunity difference and social relation structure on the influenza transmission in terminal.MethodsA method combining hierarchical structure of personal contact network with agent-based SEIR model was proposed to analyze the characteristics of influenza diffusion within terminal. Based on the spatial distance between individuals, the hierarchical structure of personal contact network was defined to construct a complex relationship of passengers in the real world. Moreover, the agent-based SEIR model was improved by considering the individual level of influenza spread characteristics. To evaluate the method, this process was fused in simulation based on the constructed personal contact network.ResultsIn the terminal we investigated, personal contact network was defined by following four layers: social relation structure, procedure partition, procedure area, and the whole terminal. With the growing of layer, the degree distribution curves move right. The value of degree distribution p(k) reached a peak at a specific value, and then back down. Besides, with the increase of layer α, the clustering coefficients presented a tendency to exponential decay. Based on the influenza transmission experiments, the main infected areas were concluded when considering different factors. Moreover, partition of passenger sources was found to impact a lot in departure, while social relation structure imposed a great influence in arrival. Besides, immunity difference exerted no obvious effect on the spread of influenza in the transmission process both in departure and arrival.ConclusionsThe proposed method is efficient to reproduce the evolution process of influenza transmission, and exhibits various roles of each factor in different processes, also better reflects the effect of passenger topological character on influenza spread. It contributes to proposing effective influenza measures by airport relevant department and improving the efficiency and ability of epidemic prevention on the public health.

The 15M demonstration (the origin of the indignados movement in Spain and the seed of the occupy mobilizations) presents some outstanding characteristics that defy the established principles of the collective action paradigm. This article develops some observable implications of the concept of connective action and tests them against the case of the 15M demonstration. Cases of self-organized connective action networks are expected to be different from traditional collective action cases with regard to the characteristics of the organizations involved, the prevalent mobilization channels and the characteristics of participants. Based on a comparative analysis of data gathered from participants and organizations in nine demonstrations held in Spain between 2010 and 2011, relevant and significant differences were found in the characteristics of the 15M staging organizations (recently created, without formal membership and mainly online presence), the main mobilization channels (personal contact and online social networks rather than co-members or broadcast media), and participants (younger, more educated and less politically involved). These findings help to understand the large turnout figures of this movement and have important implications for the mobilization potential of social networks, particularly as it can affect the political participation of the less-involved citizens.

BackgroundTransmission of respiratory pathogens in a population depends on the contact network patterns of individuals. To accurately understand and explain epidemic behaviour information on contact networks is required, but only limited empirical data is available. Online respondent-driven detection can provide relevant epidemiological data on numbers of contact persons and dynamics of contacts between pairs of individuals. We aimed to analyse contact networks with respect to sociodemographic and geographical characteristics, vaccine-induced immunity and self-reported symptoms.MethodsIn 2014, volunteers from two large participatory surveillance panels in the Netherlands and Belgium were invited for a survey. Participants were asked to record numbers of contacts at different locations and self-reported influenza-like-illness symptoms, and to invite 4 individuals they had met face to face in the preceding 2 weeks. We calculated correlations between linked individuals to investigate mixing patterns.ResultsIn total 1560 individuals completed the survey who reported in total 30591 contact persons; 488 recruiter-recruit pairs were analysed. Recruitment was assortative by age, education, household size, influenza vaccination status and sentiments, indicating that participants tended to recruit contact persons similar to themselves. We also found assortative recruitment by symptoms, reaffirming our objective of sampling contact persons whom a participant may infect or by whom a participant may get infected in case of an outbreak. Recruitment was random by sex and numbers of contact persons. Relationships between pairs were influenced by the spatial distribution of peer recruitment.ConclusionsAlthough complex mechanisms influence online peer recruitment, the observed statistical relationships reflected the observed contact network patterns in the general population relevant for the transmission of respiratory pathogens. This provides useful and innovative input for predictive epidemic models relying on network information.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-015-1250-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.