Multidimensional Explanation Research Articles

Power and theory: toward a multidimensional explanation of the dynamic political field

ABSTRACT What theories explain a dynamic political field and its outcome? Can we judiciously combine theories into a better hybrid explanation? To be valid, a theory’s claimed causal factor must manifest in the field as a representative mode of micro power used between actors in dyads (its mechanism). The modes’ relative presence indicates the theories’ relative causal validity. The Integrated Structurational Analysis method analyzes (hundreds of) actor dyads to find evidence on the relative presence of the modes. The results indicate a shifting, multidimensional causal timescape driving the field and its outcome. Findings from a Japanese case study illustrate the method.

Construction of explanations in intelligent systems based on the formation of causal dependencies

The article considers the process of building explanations in intelligent information systems. A causal approach to building explanations in such systems is developed, which creates conditions for automated refinement of explanations in order to make them understandable for users, taking into account their goals and needs. The explanation is built using the indicators of possibility and necessity, which makes it possible to take into account the uncertainty of the intermediate data of the intelligent system presented in the form of a "black box". Within the framework of the proposed approach, the tasks of building explanations in explanatory artificial intelligence systems are structured, a causal model of explanation in an intelligent information system is developed, and a method of building explanations in an intelligent information system using causal dependencies is developed. The following new scientific results were obtained. A generalized causal model of explanation is proposed, combining temporal, causal and target components. The model allows for the construction of a multidimensional explanation that can be used not only after the decision has been made, but also before its implementation. A generalized method for constructing an explanation based on causal dependencies is proposed, which includes stages of formation of temporal, causal and goal description of the explanation. The method offers the possibility of automated construction and iterative refinement of explanations.

Teachers’ attitudes to work and effective teaching of english language in primary schools in akpabuyo local government area of cross river state, nigeria

The study was carried out to examine the relationship between teachers’ attitudes to work and effective teaching of English Language in primary schools in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Variables as they affect teachers’ effective teaching of English Language were briefly surveyed to provide multidimensional explanation. The sub variables of teachers’ development attitudes to work considered in this study were teachers’ attitude towards grading and questioning techniques. The design adopted for the study was ex-post-facto. The population of the study comprised all the teachers in the 15 public primary schools in the study area. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect data and the sample size was one hundred and eight (180) teachers, 80 males and 100 females. The measuring instrument was a questionnaire which the researchers administered on 180 teachers drawn from six (6) public primary schools in the study area. Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis revealed that the teachers’ attitudes to work such as attitudes towards grading and questioning techniques correlate positively with effective teaching of English Language. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that government should ensure that more efficient and competent teachers are recruited to teach in the primary schools. Also teachers should change their attitudes towards grading system, they should stop scoring pupils “zero of something” no matter how bad the child’s work is.

Multi-Dimensional Explanation of Target Variables from Documents

Automated predictions require explanations to be interpretable by humans. Past work used attention and rationale mechanisms to find words that predict the target variable of a document. Often though, they result in a tradeoff between noisy explanations or a drop in accuracy. Furthermore, rationale methods cannot capture the multi-faceted nature of justifications for multiple targets, because of the non-probabilistic nature of the mask. In this paper, we propose the Multi-Target Masker (MTM) to address these shortcomings. The novelty lies in the soft multi-dimensional mask that models a relevance probability distribution over the set of target variables to handle ambiguities. Additionally, two regularizers guide MTM to induce long, meaningful explanations. We evaluate MTM on two datasets and show, using standard metrics and human annotations, that the resulting masks are more accurate and coherent than those generated by the state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, MTM is the first to also achieve the highest F1 scores for all the target variables simultaneously.

COVID-19 and care homes in England: What happened and why?

In the context of very high mortality and infection rates, this article examines the policy response to COVID‐19 in care homes for older people in the UK, with particular focus on England in the first 10 weeks of the pandemic. The timing and content of the policy response as well as different possible explanations for what happened are considered. Undertaking a forensic analysis of policy in regard to the overall plan, monitoring and protection as well as funding and resources, the first part lays bare the slow, late and inadequate response to the risk and reality of COVID‐19 in care homes as against that in the National Health Service (NHS). A two‐pronged, multidimensional explanation is offered: structural, sectoral specificities; political and socio‐cultural factors. Amongst the relevant structural factors are the institutionalised separation from the health system, the complex system of provision and policy for adult social care, widespread market dependence. There is also the fact that logistical difficulties were exacerbated by years of austerity and resource cutting and a weak regulatory tradition of the care home sector. The effects of a series of political and cultural factors are also highlighted. As well as little mobilisation of the sector and low public commitment to and knowledge of social care, there is a pattern of Conservative government trying to divest the state of responsibilities in social care. This would support an interpretation in terms of policy avoidance as well as a possible political calculation by government that its policies towards the care sector and care homes would be less important and politically damaging than those for the NHS.

‘Problems’ in the Concept of Creativity

The study of creativity is marked by the various disciplinary perspectives, diverse conceptual histories and divergent theoretical stands within the discipline of psychology. The mechanism underlying creativity lays both in the human thought process and in culture. After the influential speech of J.P. Guilford in 1950, creativity as a phenomenon has got special attention in every sphere of knowledge. In the present context of changing circumstances due to globalization and technological advancement, creativity becomes omnipresent and indispensable more than ever before. As a result of innumerable studies, creativity is theorized in numerous ways and the theoretical knowledge is applied in various domains. The future of the creativity research is on both deep-down scientific studies involving cognitive science and neurology, and also on the cultural and crosscultural study. Although it is too early to anticipate, yet there is end number scope for its development and growth. Interdisciplinary research should be carried out considering internal and external interrelated factors that assumed to influence one's creativity. Further, problem-solving often has a creative aspect, but creativity is not always mean problem-solving. Problem-solving and creativity are closely related believing that manifestation of new and novel outcomes happens in response to a problem. Since, restricting the concept of creativity within the disciplinary boundary hinders the expansion, clarity, and functionality of the phenomenon as a whole. Creativity needs more exploration and multi-dimensional explanation.

Исторический аспект изучения феномена информации в психологии

The paper deals with the psychological aspect of the phenomenon of information considering the fruitful scientific research of Russian psychologists. The study discusses the relevance of coordination between modern and previous scientific ideas in this regard. In particular, there is a need to find prototypes to create adapted models focused on the generation of psychological knowledge when reviewing the phenomenon of information as a polyfundamental concept of modern science. The paper substantiates the thesis that the concept of information should be revised in psychology as a science a priori studying living systems. While choosing a conceptual approach to the concept of information, the specific nature of the psychological aspect is demonstrated in the multidimensional explanation of research results in relation to different levels and metrics of research targets.

Expressing an evaluative stance in English and Malay research article conclusions: International publications versus local publications

This paper constitutes a multidimensional explanation of an integration of genre-based knowledge and evaluative stance in the context of academic arguments employed in the conclusion sections of English and Malay research articles. For this purpose, it draws on an analysis of the features in Appraisal theory (Martin & Rose, 2003) integrated with an analysis of communicative purposes within a genre analysis framework (Swales, 1990, 2004). Among others, the findings include the observation that evaluative and dialogic stances jointly produce rhetorical effects in both English and Malay conclusions. English conclusions contain a subtle balance of assertion and mitigation while Malay conclusions tend to contract dialogic space and thus could be interpreted as less reader-friendly. This suggests that evaluation and the meaning potential of the genre are experienced and valued differently by scholars publishing in these two different scientific communities (international and local). This variation seems to be due to linguistic, contextual, and potential social cultural influences within the two academic discourse communities. The present study has pedagogical implications in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom.

The impacts of IT capability on internet-enabled supply and demand process integration, and firm performance in manufacturing and services

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to derive a model to examine how Information Technology (IT) capability affects internet-enabled supply and demand process integration, which will eventually improve firm performance. In addition, the moderating effects of industry type in the research framework are explored.Design/methodology/approach– Data were obtained from a survey administered to 261 firms in the manufacturing and services industry in China. The structural equation modeling approach is used to test the hypotheses. The study further applied thet-test to compare the path coefficiencies between manufacturing and service.Findings– Results from the survey indicate that internet-enabled supply and demand process integration is affected by IT capability, and can directly impact firm performance. The results further indicate that manufacturing and services firms may benefit from IT capability in different ways.Originality/value– The current paper contributes knowledge on the value-realizing mechanism of internet-enabled supply chain integration (SCI) from a resource-based view. It presents a multidimensional explanation of the relationships among IT capability, internet-enabled SCI, and firm performance.

Influence of power and trust on the intention to adopt electronic supply chain management in China

Electronic supply chain management (eSCM) has become a popular Web-based seamless supply chain process. Given that Chinese firms are important parts of global supply chains, it is imperative to investigate factors that would affect eSCM adoption in China. In this study, we examine the impact of three power sources – non-mediated, coercive-mediated and reward-mediated power – on the three dimensions of trust – competence, goodwill and contractual – and their influence in turn on a firm’s eSCM adoption intention in China. We collected data through a survey of 131 manufacturing and service firms in China. Our results show that non-mediated power is positively associated with competence and goodwill trust but negatively related to contractual trust. Coercive-mediated power only negatively affects competence and goodwill trust. Reward-mediated power does not affect any type of trust significantly. The results also provide empirical support for the positive effects of competence and contractual trust on the intention to adopt eSCM. This paper contributes knowledge about the power–trust relationship in China from a supply chain perspective and presents a multi-dimensional explanation of the relationships between power, trust and intention to adopt eSCM.

Influence of Power and Trust on the Intention to Adopt Electronic Supply Chain Management in China

Electronic supply chain management (eSCM) has become a popular Web-based seamless supply chain process. Given that Chinese firms are important parts of global supply chains, it is imperative to investigate factors that would affect eSCM adoption in China. In this study, we examine the impact of three power sources – non-mediated, coercive-mediated, and reward-mediated power – on the three dimensions of trust – competence, goodwill, and contractual – and their influence in turn on a firm’s eSCM adoption intention in China. We collected data through a survey of 131 manufacturing and service firms in China. Our results show that non-mediated power is positively associated with competence and goodwill trust but negatively related to contractual trust. Coercive-mediated power only negatively affects competence and goodwill trust. Reward-mediated power does not affect any type of trust significantly. The results also provide empirical support for the positive effects of competence and contractual trust on the intention to adopt eSCM. This paper contributes knowledge about the power-trust relationship in China from a supply chain perspective and presents a multidimensional explanation of the relationships between power, trust, and intention to adopt eSCM.

Person-Centered Spiritual Maturation

Person-centered spiritual maturation has conceptual and historical roots in my work with Carl Rogers, as a staff member of the Person-Centered Approach Project. It is a person-specific process of psychospiritual development that can be mentored in communities where belief systems and cultural identities are diverse. It enables individuals to deepen engagement with contemplative practices from spiritual traditions that hold personal salience, while building inclusive, respectful communities. This multidimensional model emerges from three decades mentoring person-centered spiritual maturation with university students in the service of their growth as professionals and socially responsible citizens. Growth includes (a) behavioral self-regulation through mindfulness; (b) cognitive understanding of humanity’s chain of pain that supports social justice; (c) social–emotional development that repairs broken attachment templates and promotes compassionate attunement to self and others; (d) contemplative practice that strengthens secure existential attachment and taps the human capacity for unconditional altruistic love; and (e) formation of a resilient worldview, confidence in life and self, that helps people confront life’s existential, interpersonal, and intergroup tensions with sufficient internal composure to derive maturational growth. This model provides a cohesive multidimensional explanation of person-centered spiritual maturation that highlights its prosocial value, integrates relevant neuroscience, and offers researchers a conceptual framework for future investigations.

An Analysis of Cultural Vulnerability and Opportunity Exploitation in Marcellus Shale Drilling

How does culture affect opportunity exploitation? Although scholars agree that opportunity exploitation is fundamental to our understanding of entrepreneurship, markets and institutions, little extant research has explored the extent to which opportunities are culturally embedded. To begin filling this gap, we investigate how cultural differences across geographies affect opportunity exploitation. Building on prior literature regarding social, environmental and geographic vulnerabilities, we propose the concept of cultural vulnerability as a multidimensional explanation for opportunity exploitation. We investigate our hypothesis in a large-scale, longitudinal study of unconventional shale drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, one of the largest shale gas reservoirs in the world.

Effects of Supply Chain Integration and Market Orientation on Firm Performance: Evidence from China

Purpose: The present paper aims to investigate the impact of two different dimensions of supply chain integration on two aspects of firm performance in the emerging economy of China. In addition, the moderating effects of market orientation on the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance are explored.Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from a survey administered to 246 firms in the manufacturing and services industry in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.Findings: Operational coordination is positively associated with operational performance and business performance. Information sharing affects only operational performance; it has no impact on business performance. Furthermore, the results provide empirical support for the moderating effects of market orientation on the association of supply chain integration and firm performance.Research limitations/implications: The present study uses the focal firm as the unit of analysis. Future studies should examine the research issue at the level of the supply chain. Second, the generalizability of the current findings may be limited because this present study was conducted only in China. Future studies should collect data from firms in different political and cultural environments. Third, the current research used a cross-sectional research design. Future research should consider applying multiple sources of data and conducting a longitudinal study. Finally, the present study measured firm performance using the subjective perceptions of the key respondents. Future research should include objective measures of firm performance.Practical implications: Managers are provided with an in-depth understanding of how the different dimensions of supply chain integration affect the different aspects of firm performance and how the types of market orientation in emerging economies, in general, and in China, in particular, moderate these effects.Originality/value: The current paper contributes knowledge on the value-realizing mechanism of supply chain integration from a resource-based view. It presents a multidimensional explanation of the relationship among supply chain integration, market orientation, and firm performance in the context of China.

Attitudinal Ambivalence towards Turkey's EU Membership

AbstractThis article takes a comparative political behaviour approach to examine the multifaceted nature of Turkey's European Union (EU) membership bid from the perspective of the EU citizens. We propose a multidimensional explanation for EU citizens' attitude towards Turkey's membership by referring to the political psychology literature on attitudinal ambivalence. We examine whether EU citizens simultaneously hold multiple and conflicting considerations on Turkey's EU accession bid, and whether this ambivalence has attitudinal consequences. To that end, we use the Eurobarometer 66.1 data set to analyze the EU public attitudes on various aspects of possible Turkish EU membership. The findings show that the EU citizens maintain ambivalent views about Turkish membership across three domain pairs: economy–security, immigration–security and population–culture. The significant impact of these ambivalence domains on increasing support for Turkey's membership to the EU is further discussed in the article.

“Our” Criminals—Israeli Press Coverage of Domestic Political Criminals

The study examined media coverage of Israeli citizens convicted of committing political crimes against the state in order to determine how the media portrays such perpetrators, ultimately to discern what these framing choices suggest about citizens involved in political crimes. In contrast to external acts of political crime for which the explanation provided by the media is clear, mainly that the perpetrator, “the other,” is evil and acting against “us,” this study found that when the perpetrator is “one of us” there is a profound need in the media to find a multidimensional explanation for the act. This study found that the Israeli media applies a personalized news frame to portray each of “our” criminals differently and explain their motivations to the public.

Functional declines as predictors of risky street-crossing decisions in older pedestrians

The experiment investigated the extent to which risky street-crossing decisions by older pedestrians can be explained by declines in functional abilities. Sixteen young (age 20–35), 17 younger-old (age 60–67), and 18 older-old (age 70–84) participants carried out a street-crossing task in a simulated two-way road environment and took a battery of tests assessing perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities. Older-old pedestrians were more likely than young and younger-old participants to make decisions that would have led to collisions with approaching cars, especially when traffic coming from two directions was approaching at a high speed. Regression analyses identified several functional performance measures as predictors of these dangerous choices. Walking speed, which determined the time needed to cross, was shown to play the most important role. Time-to-arrival estimate, which informed the pedestrians about the time available for crossing, was found to be the second most predictive factor. Visual processing speed and visual attention abilities assessed via the UFOV® Test also came into play, allowing participants to focus their attention on the relevant available information and to make timely, correct decisions. Attention shifting was the fourth significant predictor, allowing pedestrians to adapt their crossing strategy to the oncoming road-traffic information. The results suggest that the greater risk of being involved in a collision as age increases calls for a multi-dimensional explanation combining age-related physical, perceptual, and cognitive performance declines. These findings have implications for improving older pedestrians’ safety in terms of speed limits, road design, and training.

Effects of supply chain integration and market orientation on firm performance

PurposeThe present paper aims to investigate the impact of two different dimensions of supply chain integration on two aspects of firm performance in the emerging economy of China. In addition, the moderating effects of market orientation on the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance are explored.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from a survey administered to 246 firms in the manufacturing and services industry in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsOperational coordination is positively associated with operational performance and business performance. Information sharing affects only operational performance; it has no impact on business performance. Furthermore, the results provide empirical support for the moderating effects of market orientation on the association of supply chain integration and firm performance.Originality/valueThe current paper contributes knowledge on the value‐realizing mechanism of supply chain integration from a resource‐based view. It presents a multidimensional explanation of the relationship among supply chain integration, market orientation, and firm performance in the context of China.

The role of perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities in street‐crossing decisions of young and older pedestrians

The present experiment investigated the role of perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities in street-crossing behaviour with ageing. Previous research has shown that older pedestrians make many unsafe crossing decisions when cars are approaching at high speeds, and miss many crossing opportunities when car speeds are low. The older subjects seem to ignore information about the speed of the approaching cars and to preferentially use simplifying heuristics based on vehicle distance. The objective of the present study was to better understand the underlying age-related changes that lead to these behaviours, with a specific focus on perceptual factors. Twenty young (age 20-30), 21 younger-old (age 61-71), and 19 older-old (age 72-83) participants took part in the experiment. All participants individually carried out a simulated street-crossing task and took a battery of functional tests assessing perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities. In line with earlier findings, the seniors made a greater number of incorrect crossing decisions, with many risky decisions when the vehicle was approaching at a high speed and many missed opportunities at a low speed. Correlation and regression analyses pointed out several functional performance measures as predictors of the way the pedestrians took or did not take information about vehicle speed into account in their decisions. Processing speed and visual attention abilities were shown to play the most important role in explaining the variance in incorrect decisions: these abilities allowed participants to focus their attention on the relevant speed information and to make timely, correct decisions. Time-to-arrival estimates, which informed the pedestrians about the time available for crossing, were found to be the second most predictive factor. Walking speed, by way of which the pedestrians adapted their crossing pace to the perceived available time, also came into play. Inhibition abilities ended up as the last functional predictor; they allowed the pedestrians to ignore irrelevant information and inhibit automatic but unsuitable responses. The present study provided a multidimensional explanation of increased gap-selection difficulties with ageing, including a combination of perceptual, cognitive, as well as physical performance declines with increasing age. The findings have implications for improving older pedestrians' safety in terms of speed limits, road design, and training.

Trouble in Paradise: Exploring Patterns of Research and Policy Response to Men's Violence in Denmark and Sweden

This article compares the situation in Denmark and Sweden regarding research and policy-making around the issue of men's violence to women and children. Although the emerging picture is complex, the overall conclusion is that in Sweden in recent years one finds many more examples of a critical, power-oriented approach than is the case in Denmark. A potential multidimensional explanation for this divergence is suggested, with an emphasis placed on institutional factors—in particular the possible impact of contrasting dominant discourses of collectivism and individualism on welfare and other social institutions in the two countries.