External Expertise Research Articles

A professional development practice to enhance principals' instructional leadership – enabling and constraining arrangements

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase the knowledge of principals' professional development (PD) by focusing on the arrangements that shape a PD practice initiated to enhance principals' instructional leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on findings from a three-year PD initiative in a Swedish school district. The data consist of field notes and semi-structured interviews with principals and managers. Theoretically, the paper takes its starting point in the theory of practice architectures and the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that shape practices.FindingsPractices for principals' PD require a fine balance to prevent the perception of hierarchical control. Designated time, common artifacts and external expertise are arrangements of practice that enable principals' PD. High expectations and relations between principals and managers both enable and constrain principals' PD. As trustful relations are of particular importance, the implication for managers and others organizing for principals' PD is to make sure that collaborative work settings also become a natural way of working for principals. As building relations takes time, a longer time perspective is also recommended.Practical implicationsThe findings have practical implications for educational leaders responsible for organizing PD practices for principals in any context.Originality/valueThis paper adopts a practice theory approach to its study of principals' PD and provide an elaborated illustration of arrangements that enable and constrain principals' PD in collegial settings.

New farmers in the south of Italy: Capturing the complexity of contemporary strategies and networks

Though obscured by agricultural modernization efforts in the 1950s, peasant and peasant-like farm realities persist. Since the 1990s, Italy, like the rest of Europe, witnessed a wave of re-peasantization—a conceptual framework introduced by rural sociologist Jan Douwe van der Ploeg to mark the emergence of a mode of agriculture that is distinctively more peasant-like. Using a qualitative, field-based two-case design, this study explored this phenomenon in two new entrant farms in Campania and Sicily, in Italy. Each farm's practices and pursued objectives, as well as its social networks were analyzed. Findings revealed that the two farms adopt strategies grounded in the material and immaterial resources of their territories, thus minimizing their dependence on external inputs and expertise. Built social networks support the diversification of their activities, of their market circuits and of their knowledge sources. This study contributes to the documentation of new peasant realities in Italy, while highlighting the importance of contextual specificities for understanding new farming models and farmer identities.

Exploring the determinants of university students’ contribution intention on crowdsourcing platforms: a value maximization perspective

ABSTRACT Crowdsourcing is an emerging web-enabled method to gain external expertise and ideas on tasks or projects. Mass contributions from the crowd are the key to the success and effectiveness of crowdsourcing. University students are important potential users and promising sources of contributions in the crowdsourcing context. However, little is known about the factors that shape university students’ intention to participate in this new web frontier. Thus, the current study investigates the determinants of university students’ contribution intention on crowdsourcing platforms. Based on the value-based adoption model (VAM) and crowdsourcing characteristics, this study develops a model to understand the determinants of university students’ intention to contribute ideas and solutions on crowdsourcing platforms. Data collected from 135 university students in Taiwan were tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) method. The results indicate that perceived value and perceived behavioral control are key determinants of university students’ contribution intention on crowdsourcing platforms, and that reputation, perceived enjoyment, task autonomy, and trust are significant factors affecting perceived value. This study contributes to extend the knowledge regarding how to better promote crowdsourcing contributions, as well as how to foster and encourage university students to participate in crowdsourcing activities.

Capacity Improvement for Transfer Molding Trough Reduction of Mold Curing Time

This paper will discuss the improvement made to increase machine capacity in order to be prepare for incoming demand ramp-up and to free up machine allocation to back-up automotive machine. Using DMAIC methodology (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) approach, mold curing time identified as the top contributor during time study of the process with 120 secs consumed time per shot. A Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Curability Curve study for molding compound was conducted from both internal and external expertise to get the optimum lower range of cure time. Considering all the quality risk using Risk assessment, the success of reducing Mold curing time from 120secs to 80secs increases 25% machine capacity of transfer Molding for Quad Flat No leads(QFN) / Quad Flat No leads multi-Row(QFN-mR) with significant cost savings. The project was able also to free up 3 molding system to support upcoming products.

The politics of scale in global governance: Do more stringent international forest certification standards protect local rights in Russia?

This paper interrogates how the increasing stringency of international rules on Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), as reflected in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)’s certification standards, is shaping the rights afforded indigenous and local communities in Russia. Viewing the FSC as a ‘global governance generating network’ (GGN) that gains rule-making authority through diverse ‘forums of negotiation’ at multiple scales, we examine how international rules are negotiated and re-configured regarding 1) the ‘scope’ of requirements – who is included or excluded from FPIC and 2) ‘prescriptiveness' – the level and specificity of the rights afforded to FPIC holders.We find that Russian stakeholders perceive the increasing prescriptiveness of FSC's global FPIC policies as disrupting their existing norms of negotiated compromise, and originating from well-defined and politically influential indigenous populations elsewhere in the world. This has spurred intense debate on the scope of who should qualify for FPIC in Russia. While FSC-Russia's Social Chamber members have used formal standard-setting processes to negotiate for the increased stringency and scope of some FPIC requirements, industry-backed forums have inserted numerous exceptions, and drawn on external expertise and legal counsel to further restrict who counts as an FPIC rights-holder. These ongoing contestations highlight the risk that prescriptive international standards protecting local rights may narrow the scope of whose rights matter in their local implementation.

Stakeholder Engagement and Performance of Community Based Conservation Projects: A Case of Laikipia Conservation Region Conservancies

This study examined the influence of stakeholder engagement on the performance of Community Based Conservation (CBC) projects in Kenya. Guided by theory of change, participatory development and stakeholder theories, the philosophical underpinning employed was pragmatism where cross sectional study design that adopted convergent mixed methods approach composed of quantitative and qualitative strands was utilized. Questionnaires, focused group discussions and document analysis were used to collect data from seven community conservancies dotting Laikipia Ecosystem. The quantitative strand was composed of a survey that targeted 911 conservancy members involved in alternative livelihood projects from whom a sample of 270 was selected. The qualitative strand was made of eight conservancy officials in the focused group discussion and 11 documents. Quantitative data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics to test the nature and strength of the relationship between the variables and to predict performance of CBC projects based on the stakeholder engagement. Qualitative data was analyzed using framework analysis anchored on aprioristic set of categories viewpoint based on the indicators of the variables under study in order to triangulate the quantitative results. The results showed that stakeholder engagement positively and significantly influenced the performance of CBC projects since r=.641, R 2 =.410, F ( 1,237 ) =164.169 at p=.001<.05. Moreover, Welch's t-test showed that the level stakeholder engagement in CBC project design differed in the sampled community conservancies as F= 17.491 df ( 6,231 ), p = .001), t = 19.944 df ( 6,75.765 ) at p = .001<.05. It is recommended that external expertise should only be used as a compliment to the local one, therefore, local stakeholders should be engaged for their customary and the traditional knowledge. Innovations and practices of local communities relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity ought to be encouraged. Given the importance attached to local knowledge in CBC projects, there is need to have effective communication and outreach to and with local stakeholders, particularly the local cultural institutions who retain traditional ecological knowledge. Keywords: Conservation, Development, Stakeholder Engagement, Community Empowerment, Acceptance of Conservation, Sustainable Resource Use, Biodiversity Regeneration DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-4-07 Publication date: February 28 th 2021

The Use of Energy Models in Local Heating Transition Decision Making: Insights from Ten Municipalities in The Netherlands

In 2018, the Dutch national government announced its decision to end natural gas extraction. This decision posed a challenge for local governments (municipalities); they have to organise a heat supply that is natural gas-free. Energy models can decrease the complexity of this challenge, but some challenges hinder their effective use in decision-making. The main research question of this paper is: What are the perceived advantages and limitations of energy models used by municipalities within their data-driven decision-making process concerning the natural-gas free heating transition? To answer this question, literature on energy models, data-driven policy design and modelling practices were reviewed, and based on this, nine propositions were formulated. The propositions were tested by reflecting on data from case studies of ten municipalities, including 21 experts interviews. Results show that all municipalities investigated, use or are planning to use modelling studies to develop planning documents of their own, and that more than half of the municipalities use modelling studies at some point in their local heating projects. Perceived advantages of using energy models were that the modelling process provides perspective for action, financial and socio-economic insights, transparency and legitimacy and means to start useful discussions. Perceived limitations include that models and modelling results were considered too abstract for analysis of local circumstances, not user-friendly and highly complex. All municipalities using modelling studies were found to hire external expertise, indicating that the knowledge and skill level that municipal officials have is insufficient to model independently.

“The Lady from North Carolina: The Perils and Limitations of External Expertise”

This paper examines a state department of education’s (SDE) decision to contract a consultant to “turnaround” schools, per a logic of outsourcing for external expertise. Our ethnographically informed case study explores whose knowledge had the most worth in diagnosing areas for improvement and identifies this case as part of a trend to rent competencies, under a neoliberal guise of efficiency, but at the expense of system capacity or learning.

Оценка инклюзивного процесса как инструмент проектирования инклюзии в образовательной организации

The paper presents results of a study aimed at exploring how comprehensive assessment of inclusive process may be used as a tool for designing inclusion The paper presents results of a study aimed at exploring how comprehensive assessment of inclusive process may be used as a tool for designing inclusion within an educational institution. The assessment technique is based on three methodological foundations: activity, participatory and human rights based approaches which imply active involvement of the key subject groups in joint activities aimed at developing inclusion. The assessment model is built into the development cycle of an inclusive process and includes, along with self-examination and external expertise, the analysis of the assessment results by the school community with the participation of an external expert, the design of changes, their implementation and re-assessment. The participatory approach enabled us to involve the parent community as one of the subjects of assessing the state of the inclusive process at school. We focused on the following research tasks: to describe the stages in the assessment of inclusive educational process by its participants; to show, using the case of one of the schools involved in testing as an example, how the assessment and its discussion by the participants of the educational process and by the external expert affect the choices in the design of changes, making the educational institution more inclusion-oriented. To analyze the results of applying the assessment technique, one of the Moscow schools was selected which has extensive experience in the implementation of inclusive education and has reached the stage of change design in the cycle of inclusion development. The participatory approach made it possible, on the one hand, to involve the parent community as one of the subjects of assessing the state of the inclusive process at school. On the other hand, the assessment by an external expert was used as a tool for developing the institution’s inclusiveness. All groups of respondents gave a fairly high level of assessment of the inclusive process, although there were statistically significant differences (p <0.01) between the assessments of the teaching staff and parents (lower) in all indicators, except for Redeployment of Resources, Community Building, and Information Accessibility. These differences in the assessments, including the expert ones, were used by the institution to design changes and increase the involvement of the parent community in this process. Thus, the offered methodology can be used as a mechanism for self-analysis and a tool for designing inclusive process in an educational institution within the cycle of inclusive development.

Programmes design for teachers’ professional development as a way of organizational development for the human’s capital of the university

The relevance of the article is caused due to the importance of teacher’s professionalism in achieving success of university’s educational activity, and quality of higher education which defines the need for teacher’s continuous professional growth in higher school according to the pedagogical career strategy. It is determined by teacher’s individual needs and abilities, as well as the inquiries of the university. The leading role in the complex of training materials for additional professional education belongs to additional programmes of teachers’ professional development. The purpose of the article is to design additional programmes for teachers’ professional development and to identify the criteria for their efficiency. Packages of modular-based programmes, stages for design of the program for teachers’ professional development, characteristics of modular-based educational programmes, groups of quality criteria for the additional program for teachers’ professional development and a matrix of an expert assessment of programmes for teachers’ professional development (online mode) within external expertise are presented in the article. The authors emphasize the special role of personnel’s potential in the system of additional professional education. The article is intended for scientists, teachers, experts of the system of additional professional education, post-graduate students and students.

Bootstrapping implementation research training: A successful approach for academic health centers.

Demand for building competencies in implementation research (IR) outstrips supply of training programs, calling for a paradigm shift. We used a bootstrap approach to leverage external resources and create IR capacity through a novel 2-day training for faculty scientists across the four Texas Clinical & Translational Science Awards (CTSAs). The Workshop combined internal and external expertise, targeted nationally established IR competencies, incorporated new National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute OpenAccess online resources, employed well-known adult education principles, and measured impact. CTSA leader buy-in was reflected in financial support. Evaluation showed increased self-reported IR competency; statewide initiatives expanded. The project demonstrated that, even with limited onsite expertise, it was possible to bootstrap resources and build IR capacity de novo in the CTSA community.

“Diploma mill” issues in the higher education system: the case of the United Kingdom

In the article, the authors explore the evolution of the formation of higher education institutions in the UK, analyze the formation of the education system as a whole. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that the reforms that were carried out in the 1960s in the UK higher education system led to accessibility among the general population and massification. And this, in turn, affected the quality of the educational services provided. An important fact in the reforms of higher education in the UK, was the lack of opportunities to compete with the “old”universities in terms of basic research and social prestige, “universities without pedigree”chose a different development strategy, in which the main role was given to the internationalization of learning. In order to avoid the emergence of “diploma mills”, the requirements for the activities of universities are being strengthened, and a number of measures are being taken. The external examination of the university is carried out by the State Council for the Financing of Higher Education. Experts check universities once every five years, conduct surveys of students and teachers according to a formalized methodology, as well as check the specific results of educational and scientific work and make their recommendations. Expert advice from employers is also a form of external expertise. One of the most important aspects of assessing the quality of a university is accreditation. Obtaining accreditation by the university is a prerequisite for the employment of its graduates. All the above-mentioned bodies conduct strict control and it is not profitable for universities to violate the requirements. All of the above measures have practically eliminated the problem of “diploma mills”.

Extend Theory of Planned Behavior for Recycling in Electronic Waste

Electronic waste (e-waste) is generated at a rapid pace when there are millions of electronic appliances including mobile phones, televisions, computers, laptops, and tablets have very short time lifespans. In addition, e-waste is classified as any types of electric and electronic merchandises that have no value to consumers. Even though e-waste is known as trash, but it can be used as a secondary resource to decrease the number of hazardous contents that may harm the environment. Despite being thrown away,e-waste can be reused, resold, recovered, remanufactured, and recycled. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used as an underpinning theory to examine the factors that influence consumer’s behaviour towards e-waste recycling in Malaysia. TPB is a classical theory to predict one’s beliefs and behaviour. The theory shows that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control could explain an individual’s behavioural intentions and behaviours. However, TPB is insufficient to explain pro-environmental actions such as returning e-waste. Recycling behaviour involves external resources and expertise. Thus, this study extended the theory by incorporating other factors such as awareness of the environment consequences, perceived convenience, and moral obligation. This study will use an online survey. Data will be selected and collected from respondents in Malaysia who age above 18 years old and use electronic products via purposive sampling method. Structural equation modelling (SEM) approach will be employed for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The findings of this review are significant to the government, organizations, electronic consumers and researchers that e-waste recycling can be enhanced using extended TPB. Keywords: Electronic waste (e-waste), Electronic Appliances, Recycling, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

DATA DRIVEN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION IN SHIPBUILDING

Rapid development in data science keeps paving the way for use of data for many purposes in shipbuilding, both for product development and production, such as Industry 4.0 have been developing many industries. Similar to other industries the evaluation of performance in shipbuilding is the key to success which is closely connected to productivity and lowered costs. Data mining and analysis techniques are used to create effective algorithms to evaluate the performance, also by means of cost estimation based on parametric methods. However, it is usually not very clear how data are collected, organised and prepared for analysing and deriving valuable knowledge as well as algorithms. In most of the cases, having this data requires either continuous investment in expensive software or expensive external expertise which are generally not available for small and medium size shipyards. In this study, considering the needs of the small and medium sized shipyards, a step-by-step methodology is proposed which could be easily applied with widely available low budget software. The application is demonstrated with a case to evaluate the performance of early phase structural design with a data driven cost estimation algorithm.

Assessment of coastal risk reduction and adaptation-labelled responses in Mauritius Island (Indian Ocean)

This study assesses changes in coastal risk reduction and adaptation-labelled responses in Mauritius Island since the 1960s. Using research documents, interviews, field observations, image analysis, and case studies, it analyses evolutions in public and private stakeholders’ strategies, and the levers and barriers at play. Based on 60 beach sites, it reveals the prevalence (76.7%) of hard protection compared with no response (8.3%), ecosystem-based responses (3.3%), and combined responses (11.7%) and a nation-wide shift from hard and one-size-fits-all responses to soft and place-specific responses. This shift was driven by the failure of initial hard protection measures, which has pushed the Government of Mauritius to improve beach management practices, promote retreat where hard protection had failed, resort to external expertise and funding to design a well-informed risk reduction and adaptation policy, and implement demonstration projects. The “learning-by-doing” process and increased external support have thus allowed progress in risk reduction and adaptation at publicly managed beach sites. In contrast, privately managed (i.e. by residents and hotel companies) beach sites often exhibit increased risks, as a result of the proliferation of uncoordinated technical interventions, related cascading (beach loss, spread of coastal erosion downdrift), and lock-in effects. This study provides guidance for the ground-rooted and systematic analysis of coastal risk reduction and adaptation responses and their drivers at the local and national scale. It could serve as a first basis for framing nation-wide assessments aimed at taking stock of recent progress in coastal risk reduction and adaptation worldwide and help overcome barriers to adaptation.

Venturing with Caution: Insights into the Investment Strategy of Venture Capital Firms

The literature on portfolio diversification in venture capital contrasts industry specialization as a strategy that helps venture capital firms leverage accumulated industry expertise to diversification as strategy that spreads risk and allows venture capital firms to select riskier, higher-ceiling ventures within each industry. These strategies are generally treated as mutually exclusive and focus on firms' internal expertise. We introduce a social perspective to this literature to argue that firms at different positions in the inter-firm status hierarchy have varying strategic incentives for diversifying their portfolios and also to resolve the trade-off between diversification and specialization. For venture capital firms at the bottom of the status hierarchy, diversification provides a means to seek out riskier ventures that offsets accessing relatively worse equity positions within syndicated investments. For firms with moderate status, specialization provides a means to improve confidence in their credibility to manage investments successfully, improving their ability to gain better equity positions. Firms at the top of the status hierarchy leverage their social influence to coordinate closely related external expertise of syndicate co-investors when the diversify and spread their risk across industry categories while still leveraging specialized knowledge to manage ventures successfully. Analysis of investments made by venture capital firms from 1990 to 2018 reveals that firms low and high in the status hierarchy diversify their portfolios more than firms in the middle of the status hierarchy. When firms higher in the status hierarchy diversify their portfolios, their syndicated investments involving other co-investing firms reflect domain expertise more closely related to the venture company's industry category.

WHY AND HOW TO INVOLVE PURCHASING IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT?

In new product development (NPD) firms increasingly have to rely on external expertise from suppliers. However, results of early supplier integration have been found to be ambiguous. This research empirically tests the hypothesis that the participation of professional purchasing agents early on in the supplier integration process plays a decisive role to distinguish successful projects. Our sample gave evidence that early supply management integration positively moderated supplier involvement’s effect on firm success. Hence, firms may benefit from avoiding supplier integration without professional purchasing management. Still, in many firms the procurement department is not yet integrated in NPD processes early on. Our research identifies four measures those firms applied, in which purchasing got fully embedded in the innovation process: top-management support, structural differentiation, explicit processes, and a collaborative corporate culture. This finding can serve as blue print for implementing purchasing integration and therewith improve the success of supplier integration in NPD.

Public service broadcasting and the emergence of LGBT+ visibility: A comparative perspective on Ireland and Flanders

Public Service Broadcasting in Europe and its centrality to cultural diversity has been established in relation to race, multiculturalism and gender, but LGBT+ sexual identity remains relatively absent from research. This article aims to address this gap by fostering a historical approach to examine the ways in which LGBT+ identities emerged on Public Service Broadcasting within Western Europe, specifically in Ireland and Flanders during the 1950s–1990s. Through a small-scale comparative case study analysis between these two regions, this article contends that the emergence of LGBT+ visibility is intrinsically linked to Public Service Broadcasting in both landscapes. Specifically, the article argues that this emergence shares two distinct structural qualities in the emergence of this LGBT+ visibility. First, the comparison points to the ways in which Public Service Broadcasting production cultures incorporated external expertise regarding LGBT+ diversity, presenting itself as a practical operationalisation of the social responsibility of publicly funded media in both regions. Second, later parallels in the introduction of LGBT+ characters to television fiction series illustrate how Public Service Broadcasting responded to various forms of competition from international and commercial broadcasters, engendering particular implications for the visibility of same-sex desire. While contributing to historical treatments of LGBT+ visibility familiar within Queer Media Studies, this article goes against the Anglo-American dominance of the field by examining more local contexts outside the US/UK centric paradigm, diversifying the contexts in which Queer Media Studies research takes place.

Adding value to the intelligence community: what role for expert external advice?

ABSTRACT Reviews of intelligence failures have recommended greater use of external expertise in challenging intelligence community assessments. External contributions were expected to augment covert collection and to provide open-source challenge to analysts, rather than to directly contribute to decision support. The structural limitations of the scope and machinery of intelligence have limited the value agencies can extract from external experts. Creating an Open-Source Intelligence Agency of commensurate size to primary intelligence organisations would enable decision support to be provided to all government departments. It would widen the pool of sources and experts, providing for greater extraction of value from experts who are only partially included in this government activity.

Exploring the enabling effects of project management for SMEs in adopting open innovation – A framework for partner search and selection in open innovation projects

Open Innovation (OI) facilitates a multitude of innovation opportunities through allowing access to a broad variety of external partners, expertise and knowledge. Although OI has been established in academia and the corporate world, implementation by SMEs remains a formidable challenge, especially concerning the identification and selection of suitable OI partners. Given methodical support for such an endeavour is currently lacking, this article investigates how project management can support OI projects. Based on evidence from an exploratory multi-case study with four SMEs, this article develops a Situational Open Innovation framework that provides methodical support for SMEs in leveraging the complementarities between OI and project management towards effective partner search and selection. The findings illustrate how sensing capabilities for OI opportunities can benefit from systematic problem and stakeholder analyses as they allow for identifying and focussing on the most relevant innovation tasks and partners.