Essential Stakeholders Research Articles

Survey on Placement Methods in the Edge and Beyond

Edge computing is a (r)evolutionary extension of traditional cloud computing. It expands central cloud infrastructure with execution environments close to the users in terms of latency in order to enable a new generation of cloud applications. This paradigm shift has opened the door for telecommunications operators, mobile and fixed network vendors: they have joined the cloud ecosystem as essential stakeholders considerably influencing the future success of the technology. A key problem in edge computing is the optimal placement of computational units (virtual machines, containers, tasks or functions) of novel distributed applications. These components are deployed to a geographically distributed virtualized infrastructure and heterogeneous networking technologies are invoked to connect them while respecting quality requirements. The optimal hosting environment should be selected based on multiple criteria by novel scheduler algorithms which can cope with the new challenges of distributed cloud architecture where networking aspects cannot be ignored. The research community has dedicated significant efforts to this topic during recent years and a vast number of theoretical results have been published addressing different variants of the related mathematical problems. However, a comprehensive survey focusing on the technical and analytical aspects of the placement problem in various edge architectures is still missing. This survey provides a comprehensive summary and a structured taxonomy of the vast research on placement of computational entities in emerging edge infrastructures. Following the given taxonomy, the research papers are analyzed and categorized according to several dimensions, such as the capabilities of the underlying platforms, the structure of the supported services, the problem formulation, the applied mathematical methods, the objectives and constraints incorporated in the optimization problems, and the complexity of the proposed methods. We summarize the gained insights and important lessons learned, and finally, we reveal some important research gaps in the current literature.

Heuristics and Think-aloud Method for Evaluating the Usability of Game-based Language Learning

Digital learning environments are increasingly becoming popular in recent years. The rising usage of cell phones has invited researchers to design and develop learning applications and games for mobile phones. Specifically, game-based language learning is being promoted by researchers in many parts of the world. “Language Learning Serious Game (LLSG)” is based on a theoretical model constructed by the researcher that supports children learning English as a second language in a cultural context. The usability of such games is evaluated based on well-defined heuristics and other standard methods. This research aims to appraise the usability of LLSG through heuristics and think-aloud approaches while involving all essential stakeholders, including language experts, students, teachers, and game developers. The researcher proposed the heuristics in a cultural context, whereas the think-aloud review is compiled from the rigorous discussion session involving these stakeholders to evaluate the LLSG. The findings obtained from the heuristics evaluation reveal that the usability of LLSG is acceptable. On the other hand, various interesting suggestions and reviews were gathered from the discussion between experts and students. This evaluation will further improve the future versions of the game.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Banks

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Banks

Participatory process for land readjustment as a strategy to gain the right to territory: The case of San José–Samborondón–Guayaquil

Urban development in Latin America in the last decades is the result of the formal and informal processes of land occupation. As the largest city and main port of Ecuador, Guayaquil is no exception and as a case study, offers new insights into the dynamics of these processes. This city’s metropolitan expansion has exceeded its natural geographic limits (e.g. hills, rivers, estuaries), resulting in segregated populations and a fragmented urban landscape that exacerbates social inequalities. This paper explores the potentialities and limitations of a participatory process as a strategy to gain the right to territory, by investigating the case of the San José site, a rural area of Samborondón Canton, and metropolitan Guayaquil. The study assessed whether the methods used in combination with land management tools were appropriate for the community’s process and needs and whether they contribute to the empowerment of rural and peripheral communities in the fight to claim land rights. Surveys and testimony concerning a participatory design in land readjustment are used. The research considers how a participatory process can allow inhabitants to become essential stakeholders in their community-planning process, to create a more equitable and inclusive city. Simultaneously, the process can contribute to providing essential knowledge for the different actors (public, private, and academic). The study discusses the potential and critical issues, limitations, and challenges of a participatory approach.

Institutional Investors’ Corporate Site Visits and Firms’ Sustainable Development

Institutional investors are essential stakeholders of the firm, and they care about firms’ sustainable development. In this study, we focused on a prevalent and essential type of information acquisition activity of institutional investors: corporate site visits, which refers to their trip to the firms’ headquarters and factories. We investigated the impact of institutional investors’ corporate site visits on firms’ likelihood of environmental violation. Using Chinese listed manufacturing firms in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2017, the econometric analysis shows that institutional investors’ corporate site visits significantly decrease firms’ likelihood of environmental violation. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced for firms in heavily polluting industries, firms not owned by the government, and firms with less institutional shareholding. Furthermore, we show that institutional investors’ corporate site visits prevent environmental violations by increasing firms’ environmental investment. Our study highlights the importance of institutional investors’ corporate site visits by showing that they are beneficial to the firms visited.

The impact of political ideology on consumer perceptions of their rights and responsibilities in the sharing economy

PurposeDespite consumers being essential stakeholders in the exponential growth of the sharing economy, consumers’ attitudes towards their rights and responsibilities are relatively unknown. This study aims to test a novel hypothesised model mapping consumers’ attitudes towards their consumer rights and responsibilities with that of their political ideology (liberalism, conservatism and libertarianism) and moral foundations (avoiding harm/fairness, in-group/loyalty, authority/respect and purity/sanctity).Design/methodology/approachTwo survey studies were conducted with consumers of the Uber ride share service; the first being to test measures of political ideology and consumer rights/responsibilities. These measures were then taken into the second study along with the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. The hypothesised model was tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings suggest that political ideology associates with similarities and differences in how consumers perceive their rights and responsibilities in the sharing economy, including mutual self-regulation. Support for these findings is established by identifying links with specific moral foundations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study considers a single participant in the sharing economy.

What Diplomacy Can Do for You

This paper based on Ambassador W. Robert Pearson’s inaugural lecture of the DUCIGS/Rethinking Diplomacy Program at Duke University focuses on how the combination of the disciplines of diplomacy and science plays an important role in facilitating the solution of complex issues. The author introduces a “collaboration model” for modern problem solving of complex problems, including those where good science is a key factor, with many stakeholders. In this model, diplomacy can act as the “facilitator” or the “mediator” to manage that process. In order to succeed with a “collaboration model,” five elements are required: (1) involvement of all the essential stakeholders (those that could make or break an agreement), (2) consensus definition of the problem, (3) sufficient common interests to generate a productive dialogue, (4) a shared commitment by the stakeholders to finding a solution, and (5) successful post-agreement implementation that stands the test of time. Examples of successful stories include the international Ozone Agreement and the agreement on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The author concludes that in today’s world all science is also politics. Knowing what is needed to solve a problem is not enough. Knowing how to persuade the broader public, businesses and governments to do what is needed requires knowing the best way to make that happen. The best way to help make that happen is to use the best tools of diplomacy. Science and diplomacy thus become indispensable partners for human progress.

Insurance Customers' Expectations for Sharing Health Data: Qualitative Survey Study.

BackgroundInsurance organizations are essential stakeholders in health care ecosystems. For addressing future health care needs, insurance companies require access to health data to deliver preventative and proactive digital health services to customers. However, extant research is limited in examining the conditions that incentivize health data sharing.ObjectiveThis study aimed to (1) identify the expectations of insurance customers when sharing health data, (2) determine the perceived intrinsic value of health data, and (3) explore the conditions that aid in incentivizing health data sharing in the relationship between an insurance organization and its customer.MethodsA Web-based survey was distributed to randomly selected customers from a Finnish insurance organization through email. A single open-text answer was used for a qualitative data analysis through inductive coding, followed by a thematic analysis. Furthermore, the 4 constructs of commitment, power, reciprocity, and trust from the social exchange theory (SET) were applied as a framework.ResultsFrom the 5000 customers invited to participate, we received 452 surveys (response rate: 9.0%). Customer characteristics were found to reflect customer demographics. Of the 452 surveys, 48 (10.6%) open-text responses were skipped by the customer, 57 (12.6%) customers had no expectations from sharing health data, and 44 (9.7%) customers preferred to abstain from a data sharing relationship. Using the SET framework, we found that customers expected different conditions to be fulfilled by their insurance provider based on the commitment, power, reciprocity, and trust constructs. Of the 452 customers who completed the surveys, 64 (14.2%) customers required that the insurance organization meets their data treatment expectations (commitment). Overall, 4.9% (22/452) of customers were concerned about their health data being used against them to profile their health, to increase insurance prices, or to deny health insurance claims (power). A total of 28.5% (129/452) of customers expected some form of benefit, such as personalized digital health services, and 29.9% (135/452) of customers expected finance-related compensation (reciprocity). Furthermore, 7.5% (34/452) of customers expected some form of empathy from the insurance organization through enhanced transparency or an emotional connection (trust).ConclusionsTo aid in the design and development of digital health services, insurance organizations need to address the customers’ expectations when sharing their health data. We established the expectations of customers in the social exchange of health data and explored the perceived values of data as intangible goods. Actions by the insurance organization should aim to increase trust through a culture of transparency, commitment to treat health data in a prescribed manner, provide reciprocal benefits through digital health services that customers deem valuable, and assuage fears of health data being used to prevent providing insurance coverage or increase costs.

User trusts: broad-based ownership for online platforms

This essay introduces what promise a novel broad-based capital strategy—trusts serving platform users—might hold for the online economy, especially as an enabler of more widespread, organized, and democratic user accountability. It draws on lessons from the experience of employee ownership alongside emerging opportunities for other kinds of broad-based ownership structures. User-oriented trusts could enable meaningful co-governance and profit sharing among essential stakeholders, a prospect that merits research and experimentation.

Support for E-cigarette and Tobacco Control Policies Among Parents of Adolescents.

Parents are essential stakeholders for policy implementation. However, data on parents' support for e-cigarette- and tobacco-related policies is limited. This study examines parents' support for five e-cigarette- and tobacco-related policies targeted to prevent youth initiation and exposure to industry marketing practices. Data were from a 2018 nationally representative sample of US parents of 11- to 18-year-old middle and high school students. Weighted adjusted logistic regression models examined correlates of support for policy outcomes, controlling for demographics. Analyses were performed among the full sample (n = 2743) and among current tobacco users (n = 355). The majority of parents, including current tobacco users, supported tobacco control efforts to protect adolescents. More than 90% of all parents supported restrictions on e-cigarette marketing to youth and 75% supported a ban on flavored e-cigarette sales. Additionally, more than 80% of all parents supported increasing the age of tobacco product sale to 21, limiting tobacco retailer density near schools, and keeping tobacco products out of view where youth shop. Presence of strict home tobacco rules or reporting a high priority to prevent child's e-cigarette use were significantly associated with higher odds of policy support. Results were similar among current tobacco users. Parents are an important group of tobacco control stakeholders and should be utilized to garner support for tobacco control policies in the context of the recent growth in youth tobacco and e-cigarette use. Parents' public support for tobacco control policies, particularly regulations on e-cigarette sales and marketing, can motivate advocates and policymakers to advance tobacco control policy agendas. Youth tobacco and e-cigarette use in the United States has increased in recent years. Parents are important stakeholders to inform policy agendas and advance efforts to restrict youth access and exposure to tobacco products. This study provides evidence that parents of adolescents are highly supportive of youth-centered tobacco control policies, particularly those that restrict access to youth-targeted e-cigarette marketing and the sale of youth-appealing flavored e-cigarettes. Utilizing policy support to mobilize parents may be an important advocacy strategy to advance tobacco control policy agendas and curb rising rates of youth e-cigarette and tobacco use.

Components of team science—What contributes to success?

Abstract A qualitative inquiry with front line caregivers and administrators was conducted to determine the perspectives of healthcare team members on the current state of team training. This project expands the knowledge base of team science in order to close the gap of a lack of rich information and perspectives from essential stakeholders in team training. The study team interviewed 40 multidisciplinary participants, including front line caregivers and administrators, with open ended questions regarding past and/or current experiences with team training. By analyzing the data qualitatively using an implementation science framework (the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research), themes were identified relating to team training that impact team science knowledge and may contribute to practical clinical outcomes. Themes identified included Organizational Commitment, Personal Commitment, and Improved Patient Care.

Importance-performance analysis of local resident greenway users: Findings from Three Atlanta BeltLine Neighborhoods

Urban greenways are growing recreation and transportation amenities around the world, providing users opportunities to increase physical health, interactions with nature, and community cohesion. Their linear, connective nature specifically helps greenways offer unique benefits to urban communities compared to parks. Though studies have investigated users’ perceptions and preferences of greenways, only scant attention has been paid to differences between residential and non-residential users’ perceptions of greenways. Arguably, those living near greenways are the most essential stakeholders because they have to live with both the positive and negative impacts of greenways in their neighborhoods. Additionally, many greenways are woven into the urban fabric of communities and become part of the daily infrastructure with which residents interact. This study focused solely on local residential users and their perceptions of the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile greenway around the city’s core, using Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). Participants from three, heterogenous BeltLine-proximate communities in Atlanta, Georgia were asked about the importance of 25 greenway attributes and how their neighborhood’s portion of the BeltLine performed on that same set of attributes. Using IPA, we analyzed residential users’ satisfaction (performance minus importance) with trail attributes. Though each of the three neighborhoods had different levels of satisfaction for different attributes, residential BeltLine users overall were especially dissatisfied with various forms of safety (i.e., both environmental factors and physical harm) on the trail. On the other hand, participants were satisfied with having a smooth paved trail surface, a beautiful natural environment, and trail cleanliness. Given the unique histories of the various communities along the BeltLine, it is important to understand how BeltLine attributes may be perceived by people in various parts of the city. Additionally, findings suggest, safety (in all its forms) should be a priority for greenways managers and planners alike.

Promoting Long-Term Shareholder Value by “Competing” for Essential Stakeholders: A New, Multisided Market Logic for Top Managers

The single-minded pursuit of a short-term shareholder value maximization “mantra” by top managers often results in long-term value destruction for shareholders. We explain this paradox and develop ...

The Relationship between Service Quality Dimensions and Customer Satisfaction in Public Service Organizations with Application to EgyptAir

It is obvious that customers are essential stakeholders in organizations and their satisfaction is a priority to the management. Satisfying customers by ensuring good quality services is the latest organizational strategy in today’s business world. So, service quality nowadays has become ever more important to the achievement of customer satisfaction and competitive advantage as well. This coupled with the mounting complexities of the needs and expectations of customers in general. Prior research has suggested that customers’ expectations and perceptions are more likely to be different across service sectors. Additionally, much of the research conducted about this theme has concentrated on the private sector. However, public sector organizations, especially in developing countries, play more dominant roles in service delivery. For that reason, the primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between service quality and customer (citizen) satisfaction in public service sectors with respect to service quality dimensions. The paper aims at identifying the determinants of service quality from the customers’ perspective, and how they affect their satisfaction. The SERVQUAL tool developed by Parasuraman, et al. (1988) was used with its five dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy), to find out how applicable it is in the context of the public sector. Empirically, the paper explores the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction at EgyptAir. Finally, the research provides useful and beneficial findings and recommendations which can be adopted by public service providers, in an attempt to build up and promote sustainable quality and successful customer satisfaction strategies, particularly in the Egyptian public sector.

Looking beneath the surface of a preceptor-training programme through a realist evaluation

South Africa’s department of health devoted themselves to the clinical nursing education and training model, which indorses preceptors as essential stakeholders to promote competence in students. A preceptor-training programme was developed that build on this model and implemented through an intervention. The initial programme theory hypothesised that trained preceptors would promote support and develop competence in students in comparison to untrained preceptors. Results showed a poor outcome because few preceptors participated and a high student attrition rates. The authors then posed the question “Why did the preceptorship training programme not work?” This article offers insight into the context, mechanism, and outcome of the preceptor-training programme through a realist evaluation. Reflective field notes, gathered during the intervention, were used and gave insight regarding how, for whom, and under which circumstances the programme could work and offered a refined programme theory for preceptorship. The main conclusion drawn showed that a preceptor-training programme alone is not the sole determining factor to ensure preceptors’ motivation to transfer their learning; a systems approach, ensuring the effectiveness of the programme, should be followed. Reflection on findings indicated the implementation context as a major determining factor of the training programme.

The shared benefit approach to competitiveness

The purpose of this article is to show a new approach to measure competitiveness in organizations by introducing a measurement of processes capabilities index concerning meeting needs and expectation of essential stakeholders. The argument initiates of considering a logical syllogism that relates identifying and fulfilling stakeholders needs and expectations with organization competitiveness, second compare two-way investments and benefits received among stakeholders and organizations and then proposes the use of process capability index to measure the competitiveness regarding stakeholder’s management. An example of any given company is used to explain a quantitative approach and the use of a calculated cpk index to measure organizations capabilities regarding shared interest. The proposition shows a proposed general model of equilibrium in the shared benefit that can explain a quantitative approach of the capacity of the organization to manage stakeholders.

Inequalities and the reasonable utopia of corporate governance democratisation: a viable proposal for Works and in-Company Citizenship Councils

Through taxation, the redistributive policy of the welfare state has an important impact on income inequality. Yet it is not capable of making significant corrections to a disproportionate inequality in ‘market’ income, which (i) develops out of the unequal distribution of property and control over resources, capabilities and rights; and which (ii) then increases through market mechanisms and the institutions operating in the market – especially firms, i.e. institutions wherein residual control rights base authority relations and are far from being neutral when it comes to the distribution of wealth and income (in other word, authority relations based on the allocation of residual control rights substantially affect the appropriation of the firms’ surplus obtained through the cooperation of its essential stakeholders). This happens not only as a result of the different professional qualifications of those who are involved in the labour market, or their marginal productivity, but because the initial unequal distribution of control and decision-making rights generates inequalities in terms of distribution of the corporate earnings, increasing the income and wealth gap well beyond any level that could be justified in terms of desert or personal contribution. Consequently, any aspiration to put a brake on inequality requires not only redistribution (through taxation) but also the pre-distribution of resources, abilities and rights (of ownership, decision-making and participation) that will allow individuals to take part in market operations and shape the functioning and outcomes of market institutions and organization – first of all the firms.

The Why and How of Design-led Multidisciplinary Innovation Education: Context and Curriculum

This study charts the design and development of a pioneering design-led multidisciplinary innovation Master’s degree; a degree in Design Thinking. It reviews a decade of delivery of the programme and considers the contextual factors that influenced its original design and subsequent iterations. The study uses a critical participatory action research methodology and draws on previous research conducted on and through the programme in question, together with stakeholder surveys and interviews. The programme in question has evolved from its original manifestation as a teaching programme to an entity that acts as a locus for education, research and practice in design-led innovation. As such, the study identifies four essential stakeholders; students, partner organisations, society and academia, whose priorities have formed the contextual elements that have driven the programme’s introduction and development. It considers their influence on the programme design and the values derived by each from the programme. Furthermore, the study reveals the underlying pedagogic principles and aspects of delivery that have ensured that these values are delivered.

A Study of Parental Attitudes to Teacher Pronunciation in Very Early English

Abstract Teaching English as a foreign language at an early (7–12) and even at a very early (under 7) age is becoming more and more popular and accessible, mainly due to the pressure from parents. Parents are essential stakeholders in the TEFL of these ages, and thus it is beneficial for the future of TEFL to do research into parental attitudes in order to be able to assure that expectations and outcomes meet. Our study examines parental attitudes towards the teacher and the ideal age to start learning a foreign language. Fifty Hungarian parents of children aged 0–7 completed our online questionnaire, which mapped the demographics and linguistic profiles of respondents and their views and attitudes related to language learning. Furthermore, attitudes towards teachers’ pronunciation (American, British, or Hungarian) were measured on a 5-point Likert-scale. The 8-item attitude scale showed good reliability (N = 50, Cronbach α = 0.772, p < 0.001). Parents generally placed high emphasis on native-like pronunciation. However, accent-related attitudes varied among parents preferring different ages to start FL learning. Parents favouring an early start preferred native-speaking teachers, with no preference for a British or American accent.

A stakeholder synergy perspective of ecological value creation

Firms are increasingly being considered a central actor in both causing the underlying problems of grand challenges, such as global climate change, as well as facilitating efforts to potential solutions. Through their commitment to various stakeholder groups, firms may create different types of value, not just monetary, in appeasing expectations. Recent theoretical perspectives posit the balancing of multi-attribute utilities of essential stakeholders group within a business system to co-create value in ways that overcome the conventional trade-off narrative discussed in traditional literature on stakeholder value creation. However, the relevance and boundary conditions as it relates to firm impacts on the natural environment is missing. This distinction, as crucial as it is for the current perspective, is still lacking in in both conceptualizing and empirical attestations in extant literature. We bridge this gap by empirically testing the conditions under which firms are more likely to create ecological value amidst the utility sources of shareholders. Findings from a panel of 3,182 firm-year observations (2012-2016) generally support our arguments related to the external conditions in which groups exert both direct and indirect pressure on firms to address environmental issues.