Learning Alliance Research Articles

Strengthening decision-making on sustainable agricultural intensification through multi-stakeholder social learning in sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT Increasing and competing demands on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa mean that policy and investment decisions become more complex. Despite growing consensus on the need for sustainable agricultural intensification, there is limited agreement on how to achieve this in practice. Governments and societies face uncertainty and complex choices. This paper explores the potential of Multi-Stakeholder, Social Learning (MSL) approaches, facilitated by National Learning Alliances (NLAs), to improve policy and investment decisions. Comparative evidence from a donor-supported research and learning programme in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia is used in a theory-based evaluation approach to assess the contribution of the NLAs to capacity and practice change amongst individuals, networks and senior decision-makers. Ten outcome cases are explored, including their contribution to systemic changes in the governance of evidence. Key lessons included: the value to decision-makers of engaging with informal networks; importance of combining dialogue, deliberation and experiential learning; the need to create safe spaces in national level MSL processes; the demanding combination of facilitation skills and commitment; and appropriately flexible support. This suggests a need not only for the production of quality research, but crucially support for MSL as a means of contributing to the good governance of evidence and sustainable change.

Doctoral Students’ Academic Supervision: A Systematic Review of Approaches to Conceptualization and Empirical Analysis

The article presents a systematic review of theoretical and methodological approaches to the conceptualization and empirical study of doctoral students’ supervision. Three approaches (mentoring, doctoral student-centered, and environmental) are distinguished depending on the main responsibility for the result. The mentoring approach attributes the responsibility for the result to the supervisor. This approach is generally associated with the so-called «apprentice model», which understands the doctoral student as a «neophyte» introduced to the academic world by the supervisor. The doctoral student-centered approach is characterized by imposing the responsibility mainly on the doctoral student. This approach assumes a more active role of the doctoral student and goes back to the models of student-centered pedagogy. The environmental approach focuses on studying the role of the environment and on the issues related to the academic and social integration of doctoral students. All these approaches notably have a number of limitations due to their concentration on certain factors of the educational process and less attention to the dynamic and relative nature of various aspects of academic supervision and its relationship with the effectiveness of doctoral training. There is substantiated the importance of developing a relational approach, which would synthesize the key points of the three approaches considered, and assume a distributed model of responsibility within the academic supervision. As it understands «learning alliances» more broadly than pairs or teams of scientific supervisors and graduate students, this approach focuses not only on the activity of individual actors, but also on the system of relationships between them.

Effect of university-enterprise alliance orientation on university’s innovation performance and market performance: evidence from Vietnam

ABSTRACT The study seeks to explore the influence of university-enterprise collaboration orientation on university’s performance. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of alliance scanning, alliance coordination, and alliance learning on university’s innovative performance and market performance. The effects were tested on the sample of 191 managers of 37 universities in Vietnam with a survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for testing these effects. The results show that all dimensions of alliance orientation including alliance scanning, alliance coordination, and alliance learning are significantly correlated with innovative performance. For market performance, only alliance coordination and alliance learning are significantly relevant to, but alliance scanning has a non-significant effect. As the pioneering study examing the effect of dimensions of university-enterprise alliance orientation on university’s innovative performance and market performance, this study extends the extant literature, particularly the modest research domain of university-enterprise cooperation. The study also added empirical evidence of Vietnamese context – an underexplored Asian developing context for studies of university-industry linkages which is vastly different from other contexts like developed Western economies. Furthermore, it offered a revised measure of market performance of university that will be useful for future research.

Knowledge Sharing in Alliances and Alliance Portfolios

We develop a model of knowledge sharing in alliances and alliance portfolios. We show that, once the issue of encouraging effective collaboration is put center stage, many standard intuitions of the learning race view and alliance portfolio literature are overturned or qualified. Partners engage in learning races in some cases, but exhibit “altruistic” behaviors in other cases. They may reduce their own absorptive capacity or increase the transparency of their own operations to facilitate their partner’s learning. In alliance portfolios, we show that not all substitutability between alliance portfolio partners is bad. We distinguish between substitutability in implementation and substitutability in rival benefits and show that the latter is conducive to knowledge sharing. Our work contributes toward putting the literature on learning alliances on a more solid foundation by emphasizing the importance of commitments that leading firms can make to encourage collaboration. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, business strategy.

Resource Scheduling Based on Reinforcement Learning Based on Federated Learning

The emergence of edge computing makes up for the limited capacity of devices. By migrating intensive computing tasks from them to edge nodes (EN), we can save more energy while still maintaining the quality of service.Computing offload decision involves collaboration and complex resource management. It should be determined in real time according to dynamic workload and network environment. The simulation experiment method is used to maximize the long-term utility by deploying deep reinforcement learning agents on IOT devices and edge nodes, and the alliance learning is introduced to distribute the deep reinforcement learning agents. First, build the Internet of things system supporting edge computing, download the existing model from the edge node for training, and unload the intensive computing task to the edge node for training; upload the updated parameters to the edge node, and the edge node aggregates the parameters with the The model at the edge nodecan get a new model; the cloud can get a new model at the edge node and aggregate, and can also get updated parameters from the edge node to apply to the device.

Increasing rabies data availability: The example of a One Health research project in Chad, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali

Rabies is a fatal but preventable disease that remains notoriously underreported. Weak data availability hampers advocacy, constitutes a barrier to resource allocation and inhibits effective prevention and control. To gain better insight into the global rabies burden and human vaccine demand several studies were funded through the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) learning agenda. With the help of this funding, Swiss TPH and local in country partner organizations implemented a One Health research project in Chad, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali to collect data at household, public health facility and veterinary level. This paper describes the implementation of this research project and evaluates its success on amount of information gained, achieved capacity building, impact on knowledge creation and influence on national and international policies. The project was based on the One Health concept and guided by the principles of transboundary research partnerships formulated by the Swiss Academy of Sciences. Data was collected on bite incidents and health seeking from over 24’000 households, on access to treatment of over 8’800 bite cases registered in public health facilities and on the status of over 1’800 rabies suspect animals. Selected country specific datasets have contributed to more than 10 scientific articles so far. On the international level, the multi-level data collection provided a unique set of indicators to inform, along with results from other studies, new WHO rabies immunization recommendations and a vaccine investment case scenario to prevent human rabies. New rabies burden estimates based on the data gathered are published for Mali and will be modelled for the whole West and Central African region. On the national level, the project facilitated communication between animal health and human health workers catalyzing creation of local and national committees and formulation of national action plans for Mali and Côte D'Ivoire. Major challenges arose from lack of data collection and documentation experience of human health and veterinary workers and weak infrastructural capacities of the veterinary and human health systems of the project countries. Through adherence to the principles of transboundary research partnerships, project team members acquired valuable research and networking skills despite language barriers, enabling them to play key roles in the future agenda towards national, regional and global canine rabies elimination. Project external collaborations with local public institutions was facilitated through long-term local partnerships. Both factors enabled success in project implementation and outcomes by identifying and mitigating risks in advance, resolving challenges amiably and enabling mutual knowledge creation as a fructuous ground for sustained commitment. Lack of immediate follow-up funding did not allow to maintain activities beyond the project timeframe. However, the national and international policy changes triggered, as well as the strengthened local disease control and research capacities provides sustainable basis for the elimination of dog transmitted human rabies.

An analysis of factors affecting the speed of establishment of field-based farmer learning alliances: A case of Farmer Learning Centres (FLCs) in southern Zimbabwe

Farmer learning alliances are an important vehicle for information dissemination and co-innovation among smallholder communities in southern Africa. However, the process of establishing functional farmer learning alliances tends to be uneven, slow, and costly for many development agents. This study explored factors that can be used to account for the unevenness in the speed of establishment of Farmer Learning Centres (FLCs). Twenty FLCs were initiated in Beitbridge District, southern Zimbabwe, and monitored over two years. Three categories of FLCs were observed in terms of time taken to reach maturity and full functionality: Slow, Medium, and Fast. Discriminant analysis was used to identify significant discriminatory factors among the three FLC categories. Results indicated that the number of meetings attended, the main source of livelihoods, age, sex, marital status, and years of formal education of the household head, and support from local leaders, differentially accounted for the speed of FLC establishment. The study recommends that learning alliances should be introduced through extension and local leaders as they are key information disseminators and custodians of local resources, and enterprise-specific training should be done to encourage full commitment to learning alliances to foster quicker establishment.

Sexual Health in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Multi-Site Implementation Through Synchronized Videoconferencing of an Educational Resource Using Standardized Patients.

Objective: Matters of sexuality and sexual health are common in the practice of child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP), yet clinicians can feel ill-equipped to address them with confidence. To address this gap in training and practice, we developed, implemented, and evaluated an educational module enhanced by videotaped depictions of expert clinicians interacting with professional actors performing as standardized patients (SPs).Methods: We developed an educational resource highlighting common issues of sexual health relevant to CAP practice, including sexual development, psychotropic-related side effects, and sexuality in children with autism. We wrote original scripts, based on which two clinicians interacted with three SPs. Digital recordings were edited to yield 5 clips with a cumulative running time of 20 min. The clips were interspersed during a 90-min session comprising didactic and interactive components. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we used synchronous videoconferencing, which allowed content dissemination to several training programs across the country.Results: We recruited 125 learners from 16 CAP training programs through the American Academy of CAP's Alliance for Learning and Innovation (AALI). Routine inquiry into adolescent patients' sexual function was uncommon, reported by only 28% of participants, with “awkward” and “uncomfortable” the most common terms mentioned in reference to the clinical task. The didactic intervention led to measurable improvements after 2 weeks in skills and knowledge (p = 0.004) and in attitudes (p < 0.001). The three items with the greatest improvement were: (a) availability of developmentally tailored resources; (b) comfort in addressing sexual development with underage patients; and (c) with parents or guardians of neuroatypical or developmentally disabled patients (p < 0.001 for each).Conclusions: A sexual health curriculum enriched by video-based examples can lead to measurable improvement in outcomes pertinent to the clinical practice of CAP. These educational materials are available for distribution, use and adaptation by local instructors. Our study also provides proof-of-principle for the use of multisite educational initiatives in CAP through synchronized videoconferencing.

Introduction to the GaLA Conf 2019 Special Issue

It is a great pleasure for us to introduce this issue of the IJSG, which is dedicated to the Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GaLA Conf) that was held in Athens, November 27-29, 2019. Almost 70 participants converged in this beautiful, historic city in order to share knowledge and experiences related to serious games and gamification, their techniques and their application.&#x0D; A number of the best conference papers were selected, and the authors were invited to extend their paper with at least one-third new content, and to submit their paper to IJSG for a regular peer-review process. This issue contains three of the resulting articles, which gives an overview of the rich field of serious games.

Inter-firm learning: Learning Opportunities in R&amp;D Alliances, and Learning Capacities of the Firms

Received research has focused on knowledge domain distance to conceptualize the cognitive distance in inter-firm learning. In this research, we revisit this approach. We conceptualize the cognitive distance based on two dimensions: knowledge domain distance and knowledge architecture distance, and theorize the association of each dimension with firm learning in alliances. We test our theory on a sample of 278 dyadic R&D alliances in the semiconductor industry. We use content analysis to identify the technological scope of each alliance to minimize the noise in the operationalization of cognitive distance dimensions. Our findings show while knowledge architecture distance has an inverted-U shape association, knowledge domain distance has a negative association with firm learning.

Strategic Alliances and Inventor Mobility - Evidence from US Pharmaceutical Industry

Attention on the same domain (e.g. industry, technology) often leads intensive competition between the firms; and such an attention also increases the likelihood of alliance formation, too. Particularly, in learning alliances, those ‘competitors turned collaborators’ often have a tension between to collaborate more to create new knowledge and compete within the alliance to misappropriate each other’s knowledge. While sustaining collaboration with good faith and trust would help to generate more technological innovation, poaching of the partner’s corporate scientists is often a result of such an effort of knowledge misappropriation. While the non-poaching mobiltiy is held stable, within-alliance compeittion increases poaching as the returns from learning-by-hiring exceeds those from the learning allaince. Integrating datasets of R&D alliances, corporate scientist mobility, and product market competition in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry from 1985 to 2008, we found that a firm’s competitive aggressiveness toward its alliance partner in the pre-alliance period positively affected the number of corporate scientists it poaches from its partner during the post-alliance period. This main effect is negatively moderated by the geographical and technological proximities between the paired partner firms and positively moderated by the firm specificity of the partner’s knowledge base.

Using social science in National Park Service climate communications: A case study in the National Capital Region

Author(s): Campbell, Eryn; Patzer, Shaelyn; Beall, Lindsey; Gallagher, Ann; Maibach, Ed | Abstract: Since 2012, the National Park Service’s (NPS’s) Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance (UERLA) and George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication have partnered on a collaborative “research-to-practice” internship program that employs undergraduate and graduate-level students to produce interdisciplinary, science-based climate change communication products for parks in the NPS National Capital Region (NCR). Materials created through this program are rooted in social science insights (e.g., trusted sources, social norms, place-based learning), climate science, and the communication needs of participating regional parks. As a result, the end products (e.g. websites, videos, ranger toolkits) produced by this program fulfill many functions: increasing public awareness of climate impacts on park resources, nurturing the connection between people and places, meeting evolving interpretation demands by developing material for a variety of channels, effectively engaging visitors in climate dialogue, and helping parks lead by example by addressing how a changing climate can alter cultural, natural, historical, and recreational resources. The success, adaptability, and longevity of this program have provided NCR parks with a wealth of innovative products that support the park stewardship mission to preserve resources for future generations. Five examples will demonstrate the breadth of work undertaken by interns.

The dynamics of learning and growth perspective and dynamic capabilities: a study of Indian IT industry

The aim of this research is to study the nature and extent of impact of learning and growth perspectives on dynamic capability. The associated constructs were developed from content analysis from expert interviews and extensive review of literature. The constructs were measured using a Likert scale for a sample of respondents from the Indian IT industry. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for testing reliability, validity of the model and hypothesis testing. Results indicated that information capital and human capital had higher significant impact on alliance management, reconfiguration, learning and integration capabilities. Considering the ever-growing complexity and dynamism in the IT industry, the results from the study helps to gain insights into the nature and extent of impact of learning and growth perspectives on dynamic capabilities in a granular form. Accordingly, the study adds to the current literature in strategic management, particularly on how to win.

Workshop: Developing interventions to improve migrants’ healthcare access in Europe

Abstract The proposed workshop “Developing interventions to improve migrants’ healthcare access in Europe” will present interim results from the cross-disciplinary MyHealth project to discuss them and the early lessons with policymakers, academics, funders and practitioners in the area of migration and health. MyHealth (Models to engage migrants and refugees in their health, through community empowerment and learning alliance) is a three-year project coordinated by Fundació Hospital de la Vall d’Hebrón, Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain and implemented by a consortium of eleven partners with the CHAFEA support in the framework of the 3rd EU Health Program. The goal of the MyHealth project is to improve the healthcare access of vulnerable migrants and refugees (VMR) newly arrived to Europe, by developing and implementing models based on the knowhow of a European multidisciplinary network. This project strongly relies on a participatory approach to ensure a beneficiary-centred approach in implementing a number of interconnected objectives. To ensure a meaningful involvement of the community we applied the Metaplan technique to identify health concerns and needs perceived by vulnerable immigrants and also by professionals from diverse backgrounds working with them at the four partnering sites (Barcelona, Berlin, Brno and Athens). The Metaplan© is a qualitative technique that involves first collecting ideas or information on cards, grouping the cards according to shared characteristics, and ultimately, using a voting system to rank individual ideas or groups of ideas. The research team used this methodology to validate the health needs of immigrants identified by the MyHealth needs assessment methodology and prioritize them, and to generate, categorize and prioritize suggested solutions. These results will be analysed to identify community health strategies and to implement pilot interventions most relevant for the cultural and social reality at each of the sites. Further, the effectiveness of these interventions as a dissemination model will be evaluated. As an innovative approach, the project uses a Learning Alliance methodology to engage multiple stakeholders in the research process through a series of interconnected networks. Each of the he partners aim to document and reflect on best practices for the improvement of the migrants’ access to healthcare and thus provides an opportunity for mutual learning for the consortium members and their respective networks. The workshop will feature presentations by MyHealth partners that will be followed by the moderated Q&amp;A session with the panel of presenters. The workshop participants feedback will be additionally sought through a self-administered workshop evaluation questionnaire. The workshop will facilitate the information exchange and discussion between the MyHealth consortium partners and other ongoing initiatives to improve migrants’ healthcare in European countries. Key messages The community engagement in the development of interventions to facilitate the access to health services while ensuring quality care to migrants community is pivotal in health promotion initiatives. In spite of the notable variability across the sites, the ubiquitous barriers were associated with both host and migrant communities, for which the future interventions would need to account.

Drawing out: Encounter, resistance and collaboration

Abstract This collaborative paper is written against the backdrop of a current crisis in art education and provision in UK secondary schools. Education policy and the introduction of the European Baccalaureate (EBacc) has led to an increasing decline in the hours of arts teaching and number of arts teachers in England's secondary schools (). The results of this educational turn are well documented and the effects are being felt now in higher education, in wider culture and in the outcomes for young people in their creative capabilities, global outlook and wellbeing. Drawing pedagogy is considered with reference to this wider context and through the lens of Gert Biesta's philosophy of education that brings children and young people into dialogue with the world. It juxtaposes Tim Ingold and John Dewey in a discussion of a collaborative drawing project, Ailleurs (Elsewhere), an exchange between Plymouth College of Art (PCA) and Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Montpellier Contemporain (MoCo ESBA) in 2017. The intention is to bring a pedagogy of collaboration, resistance and encounters to bear, to argue for drawing as a singular means of working within this set of tensions. The text concludes that as research or enquiry-led teaching is at the root of an increasing amount of University teaching, finding a route into this from results-led education is a clear challenge to higher education and it sets out a collaborative, peer-to-peer learning strategy as an approach to drawing pedagogy.

Coevolution of environmental sustainability orientation and strategic alliance learning in green supply chain management

Abstract The main aim of this paper is to show how green supply chain (SC) environmental sustainability orientation and strategic alliance learning coevolve over time. Our position is that the level of interfirm learning is a determinant of the formations and mastery mechanisms evolving in a green SC. Therefore, this study discusses the environmental sustainability of the learning processes of firms’ alliances during the life cycle of the alliances. This is done in order to encourage firms to follow green innovation and green SCs through enhancing their environmental performance and increasing their competitive advantage in the global market. In addition, this study develops a research structure and test hypotheses on the basis of survey data from 342 Taiwanese firms listed on the stock market. The results indicate that green knowledge acquisition plays a prominent role in the performance of firms’ alliances, especially when implemented in a green SC management (SCM) context. Moreover, according to one of the main findings, as companies evolve through the different phases of the alliance life cycle, their situation shows high potential for creating knowledge sharing through their exploration capabilities. Finally, when firms focus their internal organizations on learning and environmental requirements, they become better able to expand their learning capacity as well as to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for sustainable and resilient cities: experiences from Europe and Brazil

Although Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is a relatively recent concept, it can provide effective means for cities worldwide to become more sustainable and to enhance urban resilience, thus improving the quality of life of their citizens. Moreover, cost-effective NBS can help improve the urban environment in multiple scales, from buildings to neighbourhoods, from public spaces to peri-urban areas, providing all kinds of co-benefits positively influencing the above-mentioned challenges. Depending on the context and the need, many different stakeholders may be involved in the co-creation of systemic, inclusive and locally attuned NBS supporting social cohesion and urban equality.The learning alliance fostered by the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogue on NBS, is currently working together to identify common research and innovation agendas for cooperation, as well as mapping relevant examples of successful NBS that have been recently implemented or are under development in both Europe and Brazil. The cases selected have been studied and compared with a particular emphasis on their potential for replicability, scalability and adaptation to the local context. In addition, they should address the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, socio-cultural and economic.Therefore, this paper discusses the opportunities offered by NBS (even in periods of economic downturn), but also the limiting factors hindering their wider dissemination. In addition, it will present through a few inspiring case studies from both regions, clear examples of successful implementation of NBS, which could be replicated and scaled in other locations in response to specific local conditions.

Collective social entrepreneurship for sustainable impact: a framework proposal

Collective social entrepreneurship (CSE) has gained in importance over the last decade as a set of new approaches to solve complex social problems. This paper aims to better understand the conditions under which CSE may achieve sustainable impact. To fulfil that goal, we propose a conceptual framework that relates the antecedents, enablers and outcomes of CSE. The framework is applied to assess the maturity of a large cross-sector alliance in the field of work integration through case study research methods (Yin, 1994). Regarding main theoretical contributions and empirical findings, we: 1) propose a set of six key inter-organisational enablers to assess the maturity of CSE towards the creation of a shared value ecosystem; 2) highlight the potential role of integrated and innovative corporate social responsibility as both antecedent and enabler of CSE; 3) shed light on the challenge of measurement of CSE outcomes and their contingency on factors beyond alliance boundaries; 4) illustrate the tensions derived from disparate goals, language differences and asymmetric alliance learning in a CSE.

Collective social entrepreneurship for sustainable impact: a framework proposal

Collective social entrepreneurship (CSE) has gained in importance over the last decade as a set of new approaches to solve complex social problems. This paper aims to better understand the conditions under which CSE may achieve sustainable impact. To fulfil that goal, we propose a conceptual framework that relates the antecedents, enablers and outcomes of CSE. The framework is applied to assess the maturity of a large cross-sector alliance in the field of work integration through case study research methods (Yin, 1994). Regarding main theoretical contributions and empirical findings, we: 1) propose a set of six key inter-organisational enablers to assess the maturity of CSE towards the creation of a shared value ecosystem; 2) highlight the potential role of integrated and innovative corporate social responsibility as both antecedent and enabler of CSE; 3) shed light on the challenge of measurement of CSE outcomes and their contingency on factors beyond alliance boundaries; 4) illustrate the tensions derived from disparate goals, language differences and asymmetric alliance learning in a CSE.

The race is on: Configurations of absorptive capacity, interdependence and slack resources for interorganizational learning in coopetition alliances

Coopetition alliances offer great learning opportunities as well as tensions related to the sharing and protection of knowledge. Interfirm learning advances the complementarities in coopetition while sourcing efficiency advantages and innovation. Sharing and protection tensions in coopetition require firm- and relationship-oriented factors to enable interfirm learning. The present study reveals configurations of strong and weak interfirm learning in coopetition alliances. Absorptive learning capacity is a necessary condition of interfirm learning, while organizational slack resources and interdependence between firms are important additional conditions.