Mission statements of universities worldwide: text mining and visualization

Purpose: To conduct a transnational study of universities’ mission statements (MS) through content analysis to identify characteristics related to language (e.g. number of words, the most and least frequently used words) and if those characteristics are related to universities’ location, size, focus, research output, age band and status (i.e. private or public). Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis by using Voyant Tools. Findings: The main results showed: (1) a necessity for self-awareness; (2) an overall emphasis on society and students, as stakeholders; (3) there were no discernible similarities in terms between firms and universities; (4) MS tend to be longer in universities from Asia and shorter from Europe; (5) the absence of quantitative elements; (6) small universities prioritized knowledge over research; (7) the youngest universities tend to use more of the least frequently used terms; (8) public universities emphasized students and private universities emphasized education; and (9) the private sector has a noticeable interest in the society and the public sector on community. Research limitations/implications: Sub-samples of certain regions should more inclusive in further studies. Considering that the mean sample of MS studies was 89.6, this study used a sample more than two times larger. Although, the African (4) and Latin-American (5) samples were not significant compared with European (94) or North American (79) subsamples. Thus, further studies should consider a more-inclusive ranking in research databases than the QS world university ranking. Practical implications: University planning offices can use these results and the digital database to construct a global outlook on MS trends or uncommonly used terms to define the purpose of their university and future course of action, embrace an overall isomorphism, or seek a distinctive strategy to differentiate their institution from others. In addition, this research can be used by strategic planning scholars to conduct regionally or nationally focused studies. Social Implications: Universities’ MS serve as public pronouncements of their purpose, ambition, and values. In this study, we presented and analyzed the contents of those purposes, in which mission-oriented universities, some of them as global influencers, seek to perform in multiple levels of importance for every country (i.e. education, research, and services with both private and public sectors and the community). Originality/value: Most of the previous studies are restricted to national contexts and based on reduced samples with no open access digital data. In this study we considered a wide sample of universities from Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and Africa; and delivered a digital open access database of MS from those universitiesPeer Reviewe

A Dream Come True? Analyzing the Geography of Opportunities for Public Housing Residents in Santiago de Chile

Latin American Studie

Multi-stakeholder involvement and urban green space performance

This study aimed to identify the main factors influencing urban green space performance. Therefore, a conceptual framework on the relations of multi-stakeholder involvement (MSI) and the performance was conducted by a mixed-method approach. The study covered all urban green space projects (UGSPs) published in international journals as its population which were obtained from three main databases: ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Picarta. Using a few combinations of keywords, 29 relevant journals were identified, which included 42 UGSPs as the main units of analysis in this study. A content analysis was used to determine the contribution of MSI to the performance of urban green space. The main internal (state, private, society, planning/design, implementation, maintenance, input for management, and financial support) and external (regulation, good leadership and financial support) MSI indicators were further identified. The findings showed that the main indicators that significantly influence urban green space performance are 'state, society, implementation and regulation'. The study concluded that the state plays a critical role in the UGSPs' performance although it is not the only actor. The influential role of the state and society should also be considered since most of green space projects are non-profit oriented. 'Society' involvement also contributes to the performance and 'regulation' is also needed as a legal basis for green space development and management. To validate the conceptual framework and mixed-method approach developed here, it is recommended that more studies should be conducted to compare the relationship of the MSI and the UGSPs' performance in different categories

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Private Sector Participation in the Provision of Quality Drinking Water in Ghana's Urban Areas: Are People Willing to Pay?

Access to clean drinking water is not only a fundamental human right, but also claims a big stake in economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. With an increase in population, rapid urbanization and increasing income levels, the demand for water outstrips public water supply in developing countries. As a result, private water production has been promoted in developing countries to achieve greater efficiency and expansion in order to supplement public water supply. This study used the contingent valuation method to survey households in three cities in Ghana to estimate their willingness to pay in a bid to evaluate a policy of better water supply for urban areas in Ghana. It was found that more than 80% of the respondents favour some form of private sector engagement in water quality improvement. Also, the mean willingness to pay for water quality improvement is about GH¢13.42 (US$12) per month. Given the mean household monthly water bill of GH¢10.82, these results indicate that there is demand for water quality improvement and the general view is that private sector engagement is likely to provide these services. However, the same policy measure will marginalize the poor in terms of access to water. Therefore, private sector participation in water delivery, with a corresponding complementary government programme to promote access to water among low income households, would deliver the double dividends of water quality and universal access, which characterize the debate on private sector engagement in water provision in Ghana