Large-scale Questionnaire Survey Research Articles

Establishing current practice in pilates. Large scale questionnaire surveys of instructors and clients

Establishing current practice in pilates. Large scale questionnaire surveys of instructors and clients

Identifying the drivers of enterprise resource planning and assessing its impacts on supply chain performances

Purpose – Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is intended to integrate all facets of a company’s business operations encompassing production planning, material purchasing, inventory control, logistics, accounting, finance, marketing, and human resource management by creating a single depository of the database that can be shared by the entire organization and its trading partners. Through an empirical study, the purpose of this paper is to identify a multitude of drivers that facilitate or hinder the implementation of ERP in business environments. Also, this paper determines its role in supply chain operations and assesses its impact on supply chain performances. Design/methodology/approach – To examine which factors drive the ERP adoption and gauge the level of the ERP success, the authors develop a research framework based on two well-known theories in the strategy literature: a contingency theory; and a resource-based view of the firm. This research framework allowed us to develop a series of hypotheses regarding the use of ERP for strategic sourcing. To test hypotheses, the authors carried out the study in three phases: a pre-pilot; a pilot; and a large-scale questionnaire survey. In the pre-pilot phase, the authors generated potential survey items through theory development and a literature review. In the pilot phase, the authors develop a structural equation model along with the identification of valid constructs based on structural interviews and the Q-sort method. At the last stage, the authors conducted a large-scale survey via mail questionnaires primarily targeting the Korean industry comprised of manufacturers and their suppliers and customers. Findings – The firm’s ERP adoption and implementation decision is mainly affected by its internal environment. Defying the conventional wisdom, the firm’s external environment has little influence on its decision to adopt and implement ERP. However, through the mediating role of an internal environment, an external environment still indirectly influences the ERP adoption and ERP implementation decision. Also, the authors found that ERP could enhance the ERP adopter’s organizational capability and supplier capability. Originality/value – This study is one of a few attempts to investigate the role of ERP in the supply chain and identify important determinants influencing the ERP adoption and implementation decisions. Especially, in contrast with the previous literature which often gauged the benefits of ERP from an ERP adopter’s standpoint, this paper is one of the few to assess the benefits of ERP from the ERP adopter’s supply chain partners standpoints. Also, it is one of the first to assess the impact of ERP on supplier capability, organizational capability, and customer value.

Factors Associated with the Development and Remission of Allergic Diseases in an Epidemiological Survey of High School Students in Japan

Allergic diseases are an important health problem for children and adults. It is important to know how allergic diseases develop and remit from infancy to adolescence. Early intervention is effective in treating allergic diseases. We performed a large-scale questionnaire survey of high school students in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, and analyzed the factors associated with the development and remission of allergic diseases. A total of 21,802 students participated in the epidemiologic survey, and the valid response rate was 89.3% (19,461). We applied an inverse probability weighting method with propensity scores. The present prevalence rate of allergic rhinitis (AR) was 19.2%. The remission rate of AR was 15.3%. Only children and firstborns had a significantly higher risk of developing symptoms of allergic diseases [only child: AR, 1.37; bronchial asthma (BA), 1.30; food allergy (FA), 1.33 and firstborn: AR, 1.38; BA, 1.10]. Constipation was an associated factor for development of atopic dermatitis (AD) (1.17) and AR (1.17), regular intake of lactic acid bacteria was not an associated factor for development of allergic diseases but was a factor for remission of AD (1.22). Hypohidrosis was an associated factor for development of AD (1.25). High academic performance was an associated factor for development of AR (1.20) but was a negative factor for development of BA (0.89). The values in parentheses are significant adjusted odds ratios. This epidemiologic survey showed that the hygiene hypothesis and intestinal bacterial flora might influence the development of symptoms and remission of allergic diseases.

The development of regional differentiation of office construction in the Czech Republic: 1990–2010

Abstract The factors that were crucial for the construction of administrative buildings in the regional capitals of the Czech Republic are subject to examination in this article. One primary question is whether the development of office construction reflects the qualitative importance of the cities, or whether there are some other regularities in the spatial distribution of construction. To identify the key factors, controlled interviews with experts professionally involved in the construction of administrative buildings were carried out, and these data were then extended as part of a large-scale questionnaire survey with other experts on the issue. The results have confirmed the dominant position of the capital city of Prague in terms of its qualitative importance, as the remaining regional capitals have less than one-tenth of the volume of modern office building areas. The greatest differences in the construction of administrative buildings have been noted in Brno and Ostrava, despite the fact that they exhibit similar characteristics when considered in the light of respondent-determined factors.

<b>新しい医療用医薬品添付文書モデル(案)の提案 </b>

Prescription drug labeling currently used in clinical practice is legally required drug information, and is regulated by the MHLW notification entitled “Guidance to describe prescription drug labeling” issued in 1997. Previous research has revealed that the majority of physicians and pharmacists, who are real users of the drug labeling, acknowledged the importance of drug labeling and recognized that the order of description in the labeling is appropriate. However, over a half of them did not recognize that “conditions for approval” are described in the labeling. The aim of the present study was to develop new format and contents of prescription drug labeling and to verify the new labeling by a large-scale questionnaire survey on physicians and pharmacists who work in clinical practice. New format and contents of prescription drug labeling were created to solve the problems indicated by previous studies. The questionnaire was distributed by post to 2,004 physicians and pharmacists to verify the new format and contents of prescription drug labeling, and 1,100 questionnaires were returned (response rate: 54.9%). Over 85% of respondents agreed to number all the items in drug labeling. Over 84% of them agreed to group the information of patients included in “administration with caution”, “pediatrics”, “pregnant and lactating women” and “elderly” into a single item of “information on special populations”. Regarding the newly created item “information on medical insurance coverage”, the majority of the respondents (over 96%) agreed. The proposed new format and contents of prescription drug labeling were verified and supported by physicians and pharmacists. Further activities are needed to distribute the proposed new format and contents of prescription drug labeling to a wide range of medical professionals to collect more opinions.

Survey of Hypoglycemia in Elderly People With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Japan.

BackgroundThe number of elderly type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in Japan is increasing continuously. Hypoglycemia is a significant issue in their treatment. However, the actual situation and related details of their hypoglycemia remain unclear. In order to elucidate them, the Japan Physicians Association conducted a large-scale questionnaire survey for physicians and their outpatients all over Japan.MethodsTargeted elderly T2DM outpatients were 65 years old or older in 2011. Specialized questionnaire survey forms were distributed to both of physicians and patients. The forms for physicians included questions whether patient had hypoglycemia in the last 1 month or 1 year; those for patients included whether they experienced it in the same durations and any of the 28 symptoms that are suggestive of hypoglycemia or pertaining to geriatric syndrome in the last 1 month, as well as questions about knowledge regarding hypoglycemia. We analyzed associations between hypoglycemia and the symptoms, and between hypoglycemia and medications.ResultsOf 15,892 T2DM patients (age, 74.2 ± 6.3 years; diabetes duration, 12.8 ± 8.9 years; HbA1c, 7.0±1.0%), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor (DPP-4i) was the most prescribed medication among all oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs). The frequencies of hypoglycemia in the last 1 month recognized by physicians and experienced by patients were 7.8% and 10.4% (P < 0.0001), and in the last 1 year were 15.5% and 21.1% respectively (P < 0.0001). The most common symptom was “weakness, fatigue/feeling languid” and the majority of all patients reported neuroglycopenic or autonomic symptoms. Regarding monotherapy, hypoglycemia was observed in 32.7% of the patients with insulin, 4% in sulfonylurea (SU), 3.8% in glinide, and 3.5% in pioglitazone. The questions asking knowledge about hypoglycemia revealed that SU or insulin users had significantly more knowledge of hypoglycemia than others (P < 0.001); however, 63% of patients using insulin, and 31% of patients using SU always carried glucose or a similar medication with them.ConclusionsThe present study suggested two types of “hidden hypoglycemia”, one is that physicians did not detect and the other one is that patients were not aware. It is vital that physicians strive to prevent hypoglycemia by paying closer attention to symptoms of “hidden hypoglycemia” in their elderly patients.

Antecedents of behavioural commitment in inter-organizational relationships: a field study of the UK construction industry

Commitment is vital in inter-organizational relationships. It is important to understand what drives commitment which then affects the relationship between organizations. Commitment is a multidimensional construct and its dimensions can be broadly categorized into attitudinal and behavioural perspectives. In conventional practice, commitment researchers have tended to focus on the attitudinal perspective, while the behavioural perspective is largely ignored. In an attempt to buck that conventional trend commitment research is proposed along the unconventional but widely accepted as important behavioural perspective, building up a more complete understanding of the importance of behavioural commitment, as well as developing and validating a theoretical model that depicts precisely the relationship between behavioural commitment and its key driving factors. Accordingly a large-scale questionnaire survey has been conducted in the UK construction industry and 636 responses were collected. Structural equation modelling was then used to test the theoretical model. Results validate trust, reliance and dependence as the major antecedents of behavioural commitment. A new direction in commitment research adds new findings to the current body of commitment literature.

The development of an implementation model for ICT in education: an example of the interaction of affordances and multimodality

This paper discusses the development of a model targeted at non-specialist practitioners implementing innovations that involve information and communication technology (ICT) in education. It is based on data from a national evaluation of ICT-based projects in initial teacher education, which included a large-scale questionnaire survey and six in-depth case studies. It draws on affordance and multimodality theory to address, and move beyond, considerations of the role played by the usability and utility of technology in any implementation. It argues that the perceived ‘status’ of technologies is a key factor in the success of an innovation.

Research on the relationship of institutional innovation, organizational learning and synergistic effect: An empirical study of chineses university spin-offs

Purpose: At present, the Central Government of China pays more attention to the synergistic innovation, and the national strategy policy of “innovation driven development” are made to implementations. Thus, the university plays an important role in the national system, so that how the university gets involved in innovative activities becomes the primary problem of strategy. This paper utilizes Chinese university spin-offs survey data to identify the influence process from and to synergistic effect of organization. Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, we found that following the procedural view, each one of these three elements can be divided into two parts. Then, we established structural equation modeling with the connections between these six subdivisions. Secondly, by taking 270 university Spin-offs in China as samples, we verified the fit of the model through statistical data on the questionnaire survey. Thirdly, we analyzed the relationship and influence path of the innovation, and synergistic effect. Findings: The results of empirical research show that implementation process is positive correlation on both sides of synergistic effect, and, the intermediary role is obvious that external played a regulatory role between synergistic effects. Research limitations/implications: A large-scale questionnaire survey showed that the influence path of “institutions -organization-innovation performance are existed. Therefore, the system analysis framework should be introduced to the emergence and development of University spin-offs, and further explored the synergistic process of change and evolution. Practical implications: University spin-offs are a mode of university - industry cooperation, and it takes participation in market competition also as enterprise. This result of study pointed that. “Institutions” and “organizations” are the two important factors in synergistic innovation, so the synergy mechanism design should be followed by the interaction relationship between these two above. Originality/value: Synergistic is the guidance theory which leads the development trend of university-industrial cooperation in China. In this paper, the institution and organization, as the two primary elements, are introduced to analyze the process of synergistic innovation. Then, the authors discussed the role of the institutional innovation and organizational learning in the process of synergistic innovation, aimed at study on the operational mechanism of the influence factors.

‘Invisible’ bilingualism – ‘invisible’ language ideologies: Greek teachers' attitudes towards immigrant pupils' heritage languages

This paper presents data from two studies – a nationwide quantitative research and an ethnographic study – on Greek schoolteachers' attitudes towards immigrant pupils' bilingualism. The quantitative data come from a large-scale questionnaire survey, which aimed at the investigation of the needs and requirements for the implementation of a pilot programme teaching migrant languages in Greek state schools. The findings provide an updated comprehensive view on how Greek teachers perceive their pupils' bilingualism and the inclusion of their heritage languages in the state school. Complementing and enhancing the quantitative data, the analysis of four teachers' semi-structured interviews, which were conducted in the context of the ethnographic study, provides insights into their language ideologies, which underlie their language views and school practices.

Stakeholders’ perceptions of IELTS as an entry requirement for higher education in the UK

This project explores stakeholders’ perceptions of the role of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in the admissions processes of UK higher education (HE) institutions. The term ‘stakeholders’ here refers to HE academic and administrative staff responsible for the acceptance of students whose first language is not English onto academic programmes in UK HE institutions. It draws on two pieces of empirical study: a large-scale questionnaire survey of those responsible for admissions decisions in a range of HE institutions in the pre- and post-1992 sectors, and a smaller scale interview-based qualitative study of a subset of these participants. The empirical data gathered offers insights into the processes of standard-setting in various contexts, highlights tensions between standard-setting and a growing economic imperative to recruit, and identifies a niche for development opportunities in raising stakeholders’ awareness of the content and process of IELTS to enhance the quality of decision-making in this area. The study offers a number of recommendations for the designers/producers of IELTS and for HE institutions, and also highlights a number of directions for further complementary research.

Reflecting on participatory methodologies: research with parents of babies requiring neonatal care

This article concerns a study that examines the attitudes of parents, who have had babies in neonatal care, to sharing their babies’ routinely collected health data for research purposes. A participatory methodology was applied to the design of the study; a group of eleven parents who had all previously had babies in neonatal care were involved in designing a large-scale questionnaire survey. The article addresses the rationale for taking this approach, highlighting how it differs from the more common models of patient and public involvement. It presents the five themes that emerged from parents’ discussion in the course of engaging in the questionnaire design: legitimation, expertise, experiential knowledge, a different epistemology, power and control. How these shaped the design of the survey is employed in this article as a means of providing a commentary on the participatory research process itself. The article concludes by reflecting on whether participatory research can achieve its aims of promoting social justice when used for instrumental purposes such as the refinement of a data collection tool.

The application of a revised Chinese version of the state-trait anxiety inventory in migrant children

Objective To conduct a preliminary examination of the factor structure and the reliability and validity of a revised Chinese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y (STAI-Y) by using the large sample of migrant children. Methods Perform Exploratory Factor Analysis with half of the data (n=5477) from a large-scale questionnaire survey of students in Grades 4-9 at 58 schools for migrants in Beijing, then conduct Confirmatory Factor Analysis with the other half (n=5476). Results The results of state anxiety and trait anxiety both showed two factors. However, the indicators of trait anxiety were not ideal as seen from the following: the total explained variance was 39.22%, the relationship between the factors and items was not in accordance with the original English version, and the correlation between the two factors was unstable in the different samples(r=-0.17, P<0.001; r=-0.06, P<0.001). In addition, the factor loading of items 24 ( I wish I could be as happy as others ) was low. Conclusion The state anxiety portion of this revised Chinese version of the STAI-Y is structured by the factors state anxiety present and state anxiety absent , and with good reliability and validity as well. Nevertheless, the trait anxiety portion of this revised Chinese version of the STAI-Y is structured by the factors trait anxiety present and trait anxiety absent , it shows unstable reliability and validity. Key words: State anxiety; Trait anxiety; Migrant children; Factor analysis

“Just wanna give you guys a bit of an update”: Insider perspectives on business presentations in Hong Kong

Oral presentations are a core component of many business English courses and yet they have been the subject of surprisingly little research in contexts where English functions as a business lingua franca. This article seeks to narrow the gap between the office and the classroom by examining the nature and frequency of English-language presentations in Hong Kong’s major service industries and the challenges that Cantonese-speaking professionals working in these industries experience when planning, organising and delivering presentations in a second language. The article draws on a substantial set of quantitative and qualitative data: two large-scale questionnaire surveys, 31 semi-structured interviews, four case studies and 10 English-mediated conference calls. The findings indicate that presenting in English is a regular part of local professionals’ lives, particularly those working for foreign-owned companies, and that they find four aspects of presentations particularly challenging: engaging the interest of their audience, dealing with questions spontaneously and authoritatively, communicating in a natural spoken style and incorporating PowerPoint slides smoothly into the flow of their presentations.

Green Universities in China – what matters?

There has been an increasing level of attention to sustainability issues in higher education by academic leaders, students and by policy makers and the public, at large due to significant impacts of university activities have upon society environmentally and socially in the short and long-term. The last decade has witnessed the promotion of “Green University” in China with an aim of fostering sustainable development in higher education. This paper was developed, based upon research designed to investigate the awareness of faculty, alumni and student's parents on sustainable development and their perceptions on the ‘Green University’. A large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted with representatives of each of these three groups of stakeholders in the Shandong University, one of the largest academic institutions in China. The main focus of this study was placed on exploring the most important factors that contribute towards achieving ‘Green University’ goals from different stakeholders' points of view. These factors were broadly grouped into seven categories, i.e. management systems, environmental sustainability, sustainable curricula, research and development, staff development and rewards, student opportunities and social responsibility. This research compared the perceptions of these three stakeholder groups with those of the student's perspectives, which were also researched several months earlier at Shandong University. Implications on the ‘Green University’ development are presented. The research findings provide a useful reference to improve both the sustainability performance in higher education at Shandong University as well as for ‘Green Universities’ more broadly throughout China and other parts of the world.

The adoption behaviours of freeway electronic toll collection: A latent class modelling approach

This study develops an electronic toll collection (ETC) disaggregate choice model based on a large-scale questionnaire survey of car drivers in Taiwan. To acknowledge the difference in preferences among car drivers, the latent class logit model is used to classify respondents into different groups without subjective segmentation. The estimation results show that six groups of car drivers are optimally distinguished. The price of an e-pass and the discount for ETC tolls are identified as the two most important factors affecting ETC adoption. The study also finds that significant differences in adoption behaviours exist among groups. Effective marketing strategies for different groups are then proposed accordingly.

Surveying rip current survivors: preliminary insights into the experiences of being caught in rip currents

Abstract. This paper begins a process of addressing a significant gap in knowledge about people's responses to being caught in rip currents. While rip currents are the primary hazard facing recreational ocean swimmers in Australia, debate exists about the best advice to give swimmers caught in rip currents. Such surf rescue advice – on what to do and how to respond when caught in a rip – relies on empirical evidence. However, at present, knowledge about swimmers reactions and responses to rip currents is limited. This gap is a considerable barrier to providing effective advice to beach goers and to understanding how this advice is utilised (or not) when actually caught in the rip current. This paper reports the findings of a pilot study that focussed on garnering a better understanding of swimmers' experiences when caught in rip currents. A large scale questionnaire survey instrument generated data about rip current survivors' demographics, knowledge of beach safety and their reactions and responses when caught in a rip current. A mix of online and paper surveys produced a total of 671 completed surveys. Respondents were predominantly an informed group in terms of rip current knowledge, beach experience and had a high self-rated swimming ability. Preliminary insights from the survey show that most respondents recalled a "swim across the rip/parallel to the beach" message when caught in the rip and most escaped unassisted by acting on this message. However, while nearly a quarter of respondents recalled a message of "not to panic", short answer responses revealed that the onset of panic inhibited some respondents from recalling or enacting any other type of beach safety message when caught in the rip current. Results also showed that despite the research sample being younger, competent and frequent ocean swimmers, they were more likely to swim at unpatrolled beaches and outside of the red and yellow safety flags. Moreover, they were still caught in a rip current and they panicked. The findings of this study have significant implications for a range of demographic groups of differing beach safety knowledge and swimming ability who may be caught in rip currents behave, we know very little about how beach goers may respond to being caught in them.

An empirical investigation of students’ motivational impact upon university service quality perception: a self-determination perspective☆

Based on Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, this study examines the impact of an individual’s motivation in pursuing higher education towards university service quality perception, with the individual’s learning style posited as the moderator of the proposed relationship. The consequent effects upon satisfaction and behavioural intentions are also assessed. From a large-scale questionnaire survey with a sample of 1919 business undergraduate students in Malaysia, this study found that those who are more self determined to participate in higher education tend to have a more favourable university service quality perception, which then leads to a greater level of satisfaction and student loyalty. The moderating effect of learning style was also found in the interaction between a student’s motivation to participate in higher education and university service quality evaluation. The implication of this study underscores the complexity of the service quality construct as well as the effect of motivational differences and learning style upon university service quality evaluation.

Feeding Bottles Usage and the Prevalence of Childhood Allergy and Asthma

This study aimed to examine the association between the length of use of feeding bottles or pacifiers during childhood and the prevalence of respiratory and allergic morbidities. A large-scale questionnaire survey was performed in day care centers and kindergartens (with children's ages ranging from 2 to 7 years) in southern Taiwan, and a total of 14,862 questionnaires completed by parents were finally recruited for data analysis. Effects of using feeding bottles on children's wheezing/asthma (adjusted OR: 1.05, 95% CI 1.00–1.09), allergic rhinitis (adjusted OR: 1.04, 95% CI 1.00–1.08), and eczema (adjusted OR: 1.07, 95% CI 1.01–1.2) were found. Moreover, significant dose-dependent relationships were further established after an adjustment for confounders was performed that included children's ages, gender, gestational age, birth weight, length of breastfeeding, the age when first given infant formula or complementary foods, family history, parental educational levels, and smoking status, as well as the problem of indoor water damage. This study was the first to reveal the potential risk of using plastic consumer products such as feeding bottles on the reported health status of preschool children in Asian countries.

Developing the index for product design communication and evaluation from emotional perspectives

Often customers make their purchase decision based on price, quality and functionality of the product. Sometimes the decision is influenced by the perceived value, which is always subjective and emotion-driven. In order to ensure successful launch of a product, it is extremely important to predict the perceived value of design alternatives systematically based on the common language understood by both target users and designers. However, the index for communicating and evaluating such value from emotional perspective is not available in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this research is to extract key indexes of perceived value from emotional perspectives and develop an effective algorithm to evaluate products. First, through literature review and the interview of participants, many scenarios of purchase decision were collected. A focus group was invited to identify the essential elements that influence the perceived value of products. Followed by a large scale questionnaire survey and factor analysis, four indexes were extracted. These indexes, named as FASE Index in brief, included features, association, social-esteem, and engagement. Second, by combining the fuzzy mathematics and the pairwise comparison method, an evaluation model was developed. Third, the perception differences of sample products were conducted to verify the validity of FASE index. The findings of this study demonstrated that FASE index was effective for decision making in product design.