The appraisal of Facebook online community: An exposition of mobile commerce in social media reviews

Peer reviewe

Information Management in Supply Chain Partnering: Improving Maintenance Processes in Dutch Housing Associations

From the article: "Abstract Maintenance processes of Dutch housing associations are often still organized in a traditional manner. Contracts are based on lowest price instead of ‘best quality for lowest price’ considering users’ demands. Dutch housing associations acknowledge the need to improve their maintenance processes in order to lower maintenance cost, but are not sure how. In this research, this problem is addressed by investigating different supply chain partnering principles and the role of information management. The main question is “How can the organisation of maintenance processes of Dutch housing associations, in different supply chain partnering principles and the related information management, be improved?” The answer is sought through case study research.

Understanding community entrepreneurship in Nigeria (towards a new entrepreneurship development model)

This is an investigation into the influences of the triadic factors of culture, Institutional rules and entrepreneurship development policy instruments on entrepreneurship development at the community level within Nigeria. The research objective is to utilise a better theoretical understanding of how these factors impact on entrepreneurial behaviour at the community level, to then proffer a diagnostic model that better calibrates the environmental munificence of target communities. In order to achieve this, the study seeks answers to four research questions that focus on the nature, relevance, impact and inter-relatedness of each of the triadic factors on the entrepreneurial behaviour of community-­‐based entrepreneurs in such a complex and emerging country as Nigeria. It is expected that such a model will enable the design and implementation of community entrepreneurship development policy and programmes that are better suited to the environmental context of targeted communities. Design/Methodology/Approach: A multiple case-study approach is taken to compare three community ventures within Nigeria. The use of a multi-method approach made it possible to collect multiple data on different levels by combining data collection methods, such as observations, interviews, questionnaires and the content analysis of official government documents. In this regard the study benefits from both narrative and quantitative analysis. Findings: Heritage and culture had a strong bearing on how the community ventures came about, and were ultimately managed. The community­‐based entrepreneurs see the ventures, along with the skills and knowledge required to produce the crafts, as cultural artefacts in their own right, which are passed down through generations utilising various techniques of cultural reproduction chief amongst which is an apprenticeship system. While the entrepreneurial ventures are lacking in formal structures and processes, there is a strong social energy and network that binds the operators of the ventures together and offers them what they themselves recognize as their competitive advantage. The institutional and policy environment within which these community entrepreneurs play is perceived as being exceedingly harsh and in some instances debilitating, creating occasional tensions in the way the community entrepreneurs interpret the formal institutional rules within which they must do business. There is a conceptual disconnect between the rhetoric offered by the guiding policy document studied and the organising framework that guided this research, which presupposes an inherent weakness within the document. The study finds that cultural and institutional factors and their influences on community-­based entrepreneurs are interpreted in different ways, creating different environmental contexts within the communities studied. Practical Implications/Contribution: The research contributes to the theoretical area of community entrepreneurship. It offers a new way of understanding community entrepreneurship, as well as an empirical basis for crafting the entrepreneurship policy agenda. It argues for monolithic national enterprise development policy agendas to be discontinued in favour of a more bespoke arrangement that tailors such policies and programme regimes to the specific needs of the community in line with the assessment of the entrepreneurial environment of the community. It makes a contribution to practice by offering a diagnostic model that helps calibrate and categorise the environmental munificence (defined here as the quality of the overall context of the triadic environmental factors) of target communities

Development Of The Internet Of Things (IoT)-Based Robot Trainer As A Learning Media In Remote Robotic Practice

Vocational education is higher education that must be in harmony with the world of work. The development of the world of work today is following the demands of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, namely the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, augmented reality, cyber security, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, simulation, system integration, and cloud computing. Prosser's theory says that effective vocational education can only be provided which training tasks are carried out in the same way as tools and machines in the specified workplace, so that learning carried out in vocational education must adapt to the development of industry 4.0. The research aims to establish IoT-based robotics learning media and produce valid, practical, and effective robotics trainer media. The research method used is Research and Development with a 4D development model theory. The model elaborates on defining, designing, developing, and distributing. The definition is based on the learning achievement of practicum material by the competence of robotics practice. The population in this study were students of the Engineering Faculty of Universitas Negeri Makassar. The research samples needed include a one-to-one trial consisting of 3 people, a small group trial of 5 people, and a large group trial of 19 people. The model design uses a nonequivalent quasi-experimental. The research data analysis technique uses descriptive analysis of percentages that describe the development results, validator responses, outcomes of one-to-one trials, small group trials, and large group trials. This study uses two expert validators in electronics, microcontrollers, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The results of the validity data analysis stated that the IoT-based robotics learning media had been declared feasible to be used. The results of the effectiveness of media products based on the pretest and posttest results show that the average value of students before using the media trainer is 43.8, increasing to 87.1 after using the IoT-based robotics trainer media. The research data analysis and discussion conclude that the IoT-based robotics learning media developed are declared valid/feasible, practical, and effective in its use

Leidenschaft als Konstrukt der Motivationspsychologie. Konzeptualisierung, Messung, inter-individuelle Variabilität und langfristige Stabilität

This thesis focuses on the psychological construct of passion for activities, particularly on the conceptualization, measurement, stability and inter-individual variability of passion. A first paper reviews the literature about passion and related constructs and suggests a new definition of passion as an individual’s coinciding desire and commitment towards an activity. The second paper of this thesis suggests a scale for the assessment of desire, commitment, and further more specific components of passion. This paper reports the psychometric properties, reliability and validity of the new scale, and tests central assumptions of the definition proposed in the first paper. The third paper investigated the relation of passion to specific facets of personality, particularly the sensitivity to reward and positive trait affectivity. Finally, the fourth paper investigated the stability of passion among adolescents across a period of two years, and disentangles the extents to which situation-specific and person-specific influences account for the observed variance in passion. The main findings of this thesis are: 1. Most psychological definitions of passion coincide in defining passion as a multifaceted construct that describes an individuals’ coinciding experience of desire and commitment towards an activity, including the feeling of strong approach motivation, high arousal affect, continuous action plans pertaining to the activity, identification with the activity, and long-term goals referring to the activity. 2. Commitment is a central component of passion. The conducted studies support the definition of passion as coincidence of commitment and desire for activities. 3. The newly developed com.pass scale is a valid and reliable measure for the assessment of commitment, desire, and further specific components of passion. 4. Individuals differ in the degree to which they report feeling passionate about a particular activity. In a number of samples, two homogeneous groups of 1) highly passionate individuals and 2) lowly passionate individuals were found. 5. In contrast, the dual model of passion from Vallerand et al. (2003) was not supported in the studies of this thesis. There were strong correlations between the subscales of harmonious and obsessive passion. There were no homogeneous groups of either harmonious or obsessive individuals. Instead, the individuals’ scores for these subscales of the dual model passion scale were either both high or both low. 6. Passion is positively correlated with affect- and reward-related personality traits, particularly with the sensitivity to reward and positive trait affectivity. 7. The likelihood of a person to experience many or few passionate situations (meaning the coincidence of commitment and desire) remains stable across a period of two years during adolescence both in terms of mean-level and rank-order stability. 8. Differences between everyday life activities account for 80% of the variance in momentary passion (meaning the coincidental experience of commitment and desire in a given situation). About 20% of the variance in passion are due to relatively stable inter-individual differences. This thesis contributes to the psychology of motivation an integration of previously separated research lines, definitions and measurements and new insights regarding situational and person-specific determinants for long-term commitment and affect-intense approach motivation towards activities.Diese Dissertation handelt von dem psychologischen Konstrukt Leidenschaft für Aktivitäten, und beschäftigt sich insbesondere mit der Konzeptualisierung, Messung, Stabilität und inter-individuellen Variabilität von Leidenschaft. Die Arbeit wurde als kumulative Dissertation in englischer Sprache verfasst. Das bedeutet, statt einer Monographie handelt es sich bei dieser Arbeit um eine Darlegung vier einzelner Zeitschriftenartikel, die durch eine Allgemeine Einleitung und eine allgemeine Diskussion ergänzt und verbunden werden. Der erste Artikel fasst theoretisch die Literatur zum psychologischen Konstrukt Leidenschaft zusammen und schlägt als Schlussfolgerung aus dieser Literaturschau eine neue Definition von Leidenschaft vor. Darin wird Leidenschaft definiert als das Zusammentreffen von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation („Desire“) hinsichtlich einer Aktivität bzw. Domäne und Bindung an eine Aktivität bzw. Domäne („Commitment“). Der zweite Artikel schlägt eine Skala für die Messung dieser und weiterer spezifischer Leidenschaftskomponenten vor. Dieser Artikel berichtet messtechnische Eigenschaften der Items, sowie Reliabilität und Variabilität der Skala und testet zentrale Annahmen der im ersten Artikel vorgeschlagenen Definition von Leidenschaft. Der dritte Artikel untersucht Zusammenhänge zwischen Leidenschaft und spezifischen Persönlichkeitsfacetten, insbesondere den Merkmalen Belohnungssensitivität und dispositionaler positiver Affektivität. Der vierte Artikel untersucht die Stabilität von Leidenschaft über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren in einer Stichprobe U.S.-amerikanischer Jugendlicher mit Hilfe eines längsschnittlichen Experience Sampling Method Ansatzes. Zudem berichtet dieser Artikel, in welchem Maße das momentane Erleben von Leidenschaft in bestimmten Situationen durch situationsspezifische und personenspezifische Merkmale erklärt wird. Die Hauptbefunde dieser Dissertation lauten: 1. Die meisten psychologischen Definitionen von Leidenschaft stimmen darin überein, dass sie Leidenschaft als facettenreiches Konstrukt definieren, welches das gleichzeitige Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation („Desire“) und Bindung an eine Aktivität („Commitment“) beschreibt und durch die folgenden weiteren Merkmale charakterisiert wird: kontinuierliche Handlungspläne in Bezug auf die Aktivität, Identifizierung mit der Aktivität, und Verfolgung langfristiger Ziele in Bezug auf diese Aktivität. 2. Das Konstrukt Commitment bildet eine zentrale Komponente von Leidenschaft. Die im Rahmen dieser Dissertation durchgeführten Studien stützen die Definition von Leidenschaft als Zusammentreffen von Commitment und affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation. 3. Die neuentwickelte Com.pass-Skala ist ein reliable und valides Instrument zur Messung von Commitment, affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation, und weiterer spezifischer Komponenten von Leidenschaft. 4. Individuen unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich des Ausmaßes, in dem sie berichten, Leidenschaft für bestimmte Aktivitäten zu empfinden. In mehreren Studien dieser Dissertation fanden sich jeweils zwei homogene Gruppen, erstens eine Gruppe hoch leidenschaftlicher Personen, und zweitens eine Gruppe wenig leidenschaftlicher Personen. 5. Dagegen werden zentrale Annahmen des Dualen Leidenschaftsmodells von Vallerand und Kollegen (2003) durch die Ergebnisse der Studien dieser Dissertation in Frage gestellt. So waren die Subskalen der beiden Leidenschaftstypen harmonische und obsessive Leidenschaft stark miteinander korreliert, und es fanden sich keine Gruppen vorwiegend harmonisch leidenschaftlicher bzw. vorwiegend obsessiv leidenschaftlicher Personen. Anders als von Vallerand und Kollegen angenommen weisen die meisten Personen gleichermaßen hohe bzw. niedrige Werte in beiden Leidenschaftstypen auf. 6. Leidenschaft ist positiv korreliert mit affekt- und belohnungsbezogenen Persönlichkeitseigenschaften, vor allem den Merkmalen Belohnungssensitivität und dispositionaler positiver Affektivität. 7. Der Anteil von leidenschaftlich erlebten Situationen (operationalisiert als gleichzeitiges Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation und Commitment in einer Situation) an allen Alltagssituationen bleibt recht stabil über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren, und zwar sowohl hinsichtlich der Rangreihenstabilität als auch hinsichtlich der Stabilität des personenübergreifenden Mittelwerts. 8. Unterschiede zwischen Alltagssituationen erklären 80% der Varianz im Auftreten von „momentanem leidenschaftlichen Erleben“ (operationalisiert als gleichzeitiges Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation und Commitment in einer Situation). Dementsprechend werden etwa 20% der Varianz durch Unterschiede zwischen Personen erklärt. Diese Dissertation bereichert die Leidenschaftsforschung durch um eine neue Definition und Skala sowie neue Einsichten zu personenspezifischen und situationsspezifischen Korrelate langfristigen Commitments und affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation. Darüber hinaus ist es ein wichtiges Anliegen dieser Arbeit, bisher disparate Forschungslinien miteinander zu integrieren, beispielsweise die Gemeinsamkeiten der disparaten aber ähnlichen Forschungsarbeiten zum psychologischen Konstrukt der Leidenschaft zu integrieren, als auch die bisher getrennten Forschungen zu den Konstrukten Leidenschaft und Commitment miteinander zu verbinden, sodass die Einsichten einer Forschungsrichtung für die jeweilig andere nutzbar werden

Concept Mapping Strategy For Academic Writing Tutorial In Open And Distant Learning Higher Institution

Universitas Terbuka (UT) an open and distant higher education institution of Indonesia conducts the in-service teacher education program. In order to complete the program, the students – mostly teachers - have to submit the final academic paper. In fact, most of the UT students have difficulty to write this academic paper. UT offers an academic writing course to solve this writing program. Most of the student view academic writing still as a difficult assignment. Most of the students view academic writing as a difficult assignment to complete. UT has to find an appropriate instructional strategy that can facilitate student to write the academic writing assignment. One of the instructional strategy that can be selected to solve the academic writing problems is concept mapping. The aim of this study is to elaborate the implementation of concept map as an instructional strategy to facilitate the open and distance learning students io complete academic writing assignments. A design based research was applied to measure the effectiveness of using concept mapping strategy in helping students to gain academic writing skills. The steps of research and development model from Borg, Gall and Gall which consist of instructional design and development phases were implemented in this study. The result of this study indicated that students were facilitated and enjoyed the process of academic writing used the concept map strategy

Housing quality and lost (public) space in Croatia

IN ENGLISH: In the post-socialist period and within the current social transition context, urban and rural Croatia has, just like other transition countries, experienced many changes in the social structure and space. One example is the housing quality which is a replica of the situation in the Croatian society and has also undergone some major changes. Socially oriented housing construction co-financed by the state and the cities is in an unfavourable position compared to private housing construction. In the last twenty years the amount of the social housing construction has been only a minor part of the total contruction work in the country. For instance, out of nine newly planned residential housing developments in Zagreb, the capital city, only three have been completed and the work on the rest of them has stopped and is unlikely to continue. Private construction work prevails especially on the edge of the city and is characterised by high density housing. This type of housing construction doesn't benefit the majority of citizens in search of accommodation (price per square meter is too high, low-quality building). There is also a big problem of the community facilities (primary and secondary infrastructure, schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, green areas, sidewalks, public transport etc.). The existing globalisation-transition circumstances of the Croatian society corroborate the fact which experts of various profiles often point out: ignoring the process of (urban) planning will irreparably damage the space. The city transformation shows the absence of comprehensive urban planning which results in an ever increasing number of random buildings which do not fit in the surroundings. This leads up to yet another important issue – the shrinking and, in some cases, disappearance of public space which becomes the “lost space“. In recent years there has been a lot of building in the city core and on the edge which does not quite fit in the existing urban structure, image or the skyline of the city. The current situation in the process of planning can be characterized as a conflict and imbalance between the powerful actors (mostly political and economic) and less powerful actors (mostly professional and civil). The actors who have the political power and influence and the ones who possess the capital are forming an “alliance” between two important layers of the social structure. The lack of civil and professional actors, “lost spatial actors”, and therefore of civic aggregation is also present and that is also the cause of public space “disappearance” and undermined process of public participation. --------------- IN CROATIAN: U postsocijalističkom razdoblju i trenutnom tranzicijskom kontekstu urbana i ruralna Hrvatska su, kao i ostale tranzicijske zemlje, doživjele mnoge promjene u društvenoj strukturi i samom prostoru. Na primjeru kvalitete stanovanja kao replike stanja u hrvatskom društvu mogu se vidjeti značajne promjene. Društveno usmjerena stambena izgradnja sufinancirana od strane države i gradova je stoga rjeđa i u nepovoljnijoj je situaciji prema privatnoj stanogradnji. Zadnjih dvadeset godina udjel socijalne stambene gradnje je zanemariv u ukupnoj izgradnji na razini zemlje. Primjerice, od devet planiranih stambenih naselja izgrađenih po modelu POS-a u Zagrebu samo su tri i završena. Na ostalima je proces gradnje zastao i ne čini se da će se privesti kraju. Privatna je gradnje prisutnija, posebno na rubovima grada, a obilježava je visoka gustoća gradnje. Ovakav tip gradnje ne odgovara većini stanovnika koji su u procesu potražnje stambene nekretnine (visoka cijena kvadratnog metra, a slaba kvaliteta gradnje). Postoji također i problem nedostatne opremljenosti susjedstva (primarna i sekundarna infrastruktura, škole, vrtići, igrališta, zelene površine, pješačke staze, javni transport itd.). Navedene globalizacijsko-tranzicijske okolnosti hrvatskog društva potvrđuju ono što eksperti različitih profila ističu, a to je da će ignoriranje procesa (urbanog) planiranja nepovratno uništiti prostor gradova. Ovakve transformacije pokazuju nedostatak sustavnog urbanog planiranja što rezultira sve većim brojem zgrada koje se ne uklapaju u neposrednu okolinu. To nadalje dovodi do drugog važnog aspekta – smanjivanja i u nekim slučajevima, nestanka javnog prostora koji postaje „izgubljeni prostor“. Posljednjih je godina izgrađen velik broj zgrada, i u središtu i na rubovima grada, koje se ne uklapaju u postojeću urbanu strukturu, izgled ili vizuru grada. Ovakvu situaciju obilježavaju sukob i neravnoteža između moćnijih društvenih aktera (većinom političkih i ekonomskih) i onih manje moćnih (većinom profesionalnih i civilnih). Politički i ekonomski akteri se često povezuju u „savez“ dvaju najjačih u društvenoj strukturi. S druge strane nedostatak utjecaja civilnih i profesionalnih aktera kao „izgubljenih prostornih aktera“ dovodi do „nestanka“ javnih prostora te smanjenja važnosti procesa participacije (sudjelovanja javnosti)

NOTIFICATION !!!

All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition

NOTIFICATION !!!

All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition