How reliable are unsupervised author disambiguation algorithms in the assessment of research organization performance?

The paper examines extent of bias in the performance rankings of research organisations when the assessments are based on unsupervised author-name disambiguation algorithms. It compares the outcomes of a research performance evaluation exercise of Italian universities using the unsupervised approach by Caron and van Eck (2014) for derivation of the universities' research staff, with those of a benchmark using the supervised algorithm of D'Angelo, Giuffrida, and Abramo (2011), which avails of input data. The methodology developed could be replicated for comparative analyses in other frameworks of national or international interest, meaning that practitioners would have a precise measure of the extent of distortions inherent in any evaluation exercises using unsupervised algorithms. This could in turn be useful in informing policy-makers' decisions on whether to invest in building national research staff databases, instead of settling for the unsupervised approaches with their measurement biases

Does your surname affect the citability of your publications?

Prior investigations have offered contrasting results on a troubling question: whether the alphabetical ordering of bylines confers citation advantages on those authors whose surnames put them first in the list. The previous studies analyzed the surname effect at publication level, i.e. whether papers with the first author early in the alphabet trigger more citations than papers with a first author late in the alphabet. We adopt instead a different approach, by analyzing the surname effect on citability at the individual level, i.e. whether authors with alphabetically earlier surnames result as being more cited. Examining the question at both the overall and discipline levels, the analysis finds no evidence whatsoever that alphabetically earlier surnames gain advantage. The same lack of evidence occurs for the subpopulation of scientists with very high publication rates, where alphabetical advantage might gain more ground. The field of observation consists of 14,467 scientists in the sciences

Corporate financial reporting reform in economics in transition : the extent of compliance with international financial reporting standards disclosure requirements in annual reports

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Impact of Cultural Variables on the Performance of U.S. Overseas Managers and on Performance Measurement Criteria: an Exploratory Study

The study is related to the perceived impact of selected cultural variables on the performance of U.S. executives working overseas. Consideration given to these variables for the measurement of performance at the corporate headquarters was also researched in the course of the study. For the purpose of this study, twelve foreign cultural variables were chosen. The general perception of these variables and their perceived impact on the eight specific aspects of performance among the U.S. overseas managers was examined. An attempt has also been to made to ascertain the general perception of these cultural variables among evaluators and the consideration they assign to their perceived effect on the specific aspects of managerial performance in their evaluation of overseas managers. Five regions were chosen for the study on the basis of their being representative of distinct cultural clusters: Far East (more populous than some of the other regions with strong family ties and leanings toward collectivism) , Middle East (religion oriented), Africa (tribal), Europe (industrially advanced) and South America (developing countries). Data were obtained from all the five regions. In all 127 responses were received from the U.S. overseas managers. A total of eighteen responses were received from the evaluators for these five regions. Statistical tests were undertaken to explore the similarities and differences in perception of the twelve selected foreign cultural factors, their perceived effect on the eight specific aspects of managerial performance within and between the five selected regions, and between U.S. overseas managers and their evaluators. Statistically significant differences were identified in the mean responses from U.S. overseas managers regarding their general perception of the cultural factors and their perceived effect on specific aspects of performance within and between regions. However, the differences in the effects of a cultural factor on the selected eight aspects of managerial performance were not statistically significant at a global level although among regions these differences were statistically significant. From a global (aggregate) perspective, the tests failed to identify any statistically significant difference between evaluators' and managers' general perceptions of cultural factors and their perceived effects on the selected aspects of managerial performance. Within African, European and Latin American regions there are some statistically significant differences between managers and evaluators pertaining to a few of the cultural factors. The study has attempted to identify those cultural variables which have differential perceived and considered impact on various aspects of performance. The differential impact of these variables on performance measurement on a regional basis was also studied. Step wise discriminant analysis was employed to identify those cultural variables whose general perception and the perceived effect on the specific aspects of managerial performance would distinctly identify the region. This study by exploring the differences in perceptions of the twelve selected cultural factors and their perceived and considered effect on the specific aspects of managerial performance among managers and evaluators, it is submitted, has helped create a new perspective on measurement, analysis and evaluation of managerial performance on a more comprehensive basis. After measuring the compatibility of managers' perceptions for cultural elements and the consideration accorded to these in the evaluation process at corporate headquarters, and concluding that no statistically significant differences exist at a global (aggregate) level suggestions for future can be made. It is submitted that any differences, if remaining, between managers' and evaluators' perception of performance, can only be due to other factors which merit further investigation in future research endeavours. Multivariate discriminant analysis was employed to identify whether their exists statistically significant differences across various regions. The computed Wilks' lambda and the associated F value rejected the null hypotheses of no differences amongst regions. The stepwise discriminant procedure was used to isolate a subset of twelve variables from the ninety six variables submitted for the test. The selected twelve variables produce a robust discriminant model with a hit ratio of 99% for classification. The study successfully confirmed the existence of significant differences in the perceptions of U.S. overseas managers about the foreign cultural factors and their effects on the specific aspects of their performance. Also, the regions can be effectively differentiated (discriminated} on the basis of U.S. overseas managers' perceptions of cultural factors and their effects on their performance extant there

SUSTAINABLE ISLAMIC MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN INDONESIA: AN EXPLORATION OF DEMAND & SUPPLY FACTORS AND THE ROLE OF WAQF

Whereas Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, the growth of Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs) has being sluggish and far behind their conventional MFIs. Islamic MFIs are struggling to survive amid the fierce competition in the provision of microfinance services, from both the conventional and Islamic institutions. Meanwhile the high unemployment rate in Indonesia calls for searching for ways in which financing can be provided to the jobless and poor. One way to resolve this is to provide MFIs with low cost funds that can be used to finance viable micro-businesses. The aim of this thesis is to examine the demand and supply side factors related to operations and growth of Islamic MFIs. It also investigates the scope of integrating microfinance and waqf to enhance the social mission of providing access financial services and opportunities to the needy and the poor. A survey was conducted to explore the perceptions, understanding and preferences of 581 MFI’s borrowers from four MFIs—two Islamic (BMT and BPRS) and two conventional (BRI and BPR) in Indonesia. A total of 18 MFIs’ managers and two waqf managers/nazirs were interviewed. Secondary data, case-study and a focus group discussion (FGD) were also conducted in order to understand the problems. The results show that while the majority of MFI’s clients indicate preference for Islamic MFIs, in reality their choices of MFI are based on economic/finance (low interest rates and size of loan) and non-economic/non-finance factors (quality of services variables easiness, promptness, nearness, method and loan officers’ profile). While the MFIs clients prefer Islamic MFI compared to conventional, in the end, the practical and economic reasons became dominant factors in their choice of MFI. Therefore, the demand for Islamic microfinance can be enhanced if the level of their economic and non-economic factors can be brought to the levels of conventional MFIs. The research reveals that there is still a gap between needs and knowledge of Sharia’h financial products and services. When the practice of murabahah product is considered, there appears to be no difference in substance between conventional and Islamic MFIs. In order to understand the operational structure of each type of MFI, their performance was assessed by using the balanced scorecard (BSC) with four perspectives. A balanced non-financial and financial performance is extremely important to create sustainability for microfinance institutions. The relationships between the different components of BSC indicate strong significant correlations between the internal process and customer’s perspectives. There are also significant correlation between customer’s perspectives and learning-and-growth and slightly significant correlation between learning-and-growth and financial performance. Overall scores of the Balanced Scorecard from the four perspectives for MFIs cemented BRI as the best performer, BPRS in the second place, followed by BPR and BMT in the third and fourth place respectively. The advantage of BRI is partly due to robust government support which makes it difficult for other smaller MFIs to compete. In contrast, BMT showed a weak institutional structure in terms of internal processes, learning-and-growth and customer satisfaction. It seems that BMT is not managed well according to BSC’s key performance indicators. This thesis also proposes to add one more perspective i.e, Social Perspective, for ‘The BSC based Islamic MFIs’ Model’ to help waqf institutions to appraise and choose a MFI in a more balanced and comprehensive way. Social perspective comprises the social mission of Islamic MFIs which can be reflected in providing qard hassan and giving more opportunities to the needy, jobless and the poor to start their own micro business. Indicators of the social perspectives can be the amount of funds contributed for qard hassan, how many needy clients are being served, and how many months a MFI permits clients to use the qard hassan loan. Islamic MFIs such as BPRS and BMT are expected by Muslims to perform more social functions than others. Therefore, one way to implement the social mission is to incorporate qard hassan in BPRS and BMT’s operations to help the poor and jobless with the low cost loans to start their viable micro-businesses