Managing a solar sensor array project: Analyzing insolation & motivation

The renewable power industry is rapidly growing today and is in need of much data to augment the advancement of the field. Photovoltaic technology, while making substantial improvement over the last 60 years, still has some significant hurdles to overcome. When shading, dust, or damaged cells reduce the power output of one panel, the traditional series-parallel configurations make it so every panel in series with that lower current panel, will also have its current lowered; this lowers the overall power output of the array significantly. Advancements in configurations and converters could change this phenomenon and dramatically increase a solar array\u27s ability to produce power. The arrangement discussed in this thesis incorporates the author project managing a team of electrical engineers endeavoring to help resolve this dilemma by designing and deploying a sensor array, collecting data, and sharing this data with fellow graduate researchers whose other works explore ways to alleviate these hurtles. This author\u27s work combines this technical interest with an appetite for behavioral research as the project team members are introduced to a Maslovian approach to project management. This approach combines Maslow\u27s needs hierarchy with prosocial behavior theory to encourage team members to motivate themselves and build self-confidence. The experience and conclusions made from this work will hopefully have a positive impact on photovoltaic technologies, project management approaches to team motivation, and the humanistic community as a whole --Abstract, page iv

Three Essays on the Role of IT in Environmental Sustainability: Motivating Individuals to Use Green IT, Enhancing Their User Experience, and Promoting Electricity Conservation

This dissertation focuses on the role of IT in environmental sustainability and electricity conservation through three research essays. The first essay makes a case for behavior research, with the focus on individuals\u27 use of Green IT. Moreover, environmental studies lack a coherent theory that could identify the motivators of Green-IT beliefs. We develop the hedonic motivation theory, which synthesizes theoretical and philosophical thoughts on hedonism with concepts from environmental research. Using this theory, we develop a conceptual model that identifies the motivators of context-specific beliefs, attitudes, and uses of Green IT. We theorize that there are significant generational differences in the process by which hedonic motivators influence Green IT use behaviors. Young adults are more motivated by personal hedonic motivation, and an affective and automatic process, whereas older adults are motivated by a cognitive and attitudinal process. This study was carried out using a structural equation modeling method of analysis based on 702 observations of the survey data. The results support the theorized model, with significant implications. The second essay examines the design taxonomy of electricity consumption feedback applications, which are considered one of the critical technologies in alleviating the increasing trends of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. We relied on an integrative theoretical framework and literature review to propose a comprehensive taxonomy for salient design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. Using a survey method, we collected data from general public to evaluate the preference and relative importance of the design elements. We found that there is a preferred set of design elements for the feedback applications. Our results could serve as a basis to evaluate the design of existing electricity consumption feedback applications, and to help in studying the influence of design elements on beliefs and behaviors related to individuals\u27 electricity conservation. The third essay investigates the role of the salient design elements identified in the second essay, and the processes by which these elements motivate electricity consumers\u27 behaviors towards energy conservation. We developed a conceptual framework by extending the theory of planned behavior to study how salient design elements of feedback applications impact the beliefs and behaviors of individual electricity consumers. To our knowledge, this is the first study aimed at examining the relationship between electricity consumers\u27 beliefs and behaviors and the specific perceived design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. We empirically evaluated the conceptual model by developing a mobile app and a corresponding website and conducting a controlled longitudinal lab experiment. The results indicate strong support for the premises of the model and support the significant role of personalized design elements in use behaviors and electricity conservation. Our findings show the importance of integrating descriptive social norm, personalized goal setting, and personalized privacy preferences design elements in feedback applications. This dissertation makes a number of significant contributions to theory and application. First, it develops a new theory that identifies motivators of Green IT use. It shows that the conceptualized motivators impact use behaviors though multiple paths--the cognitive and emotional automatic paths-- and are moderated by users\u27 age. Second, this work develops a taxonomy of design elements for electricity consumption feedback applications based on an integrative theoretical framework and extensive review of the existing literature. This taxonomy and the relative importance of elements in the taxonomy could serve as the standard for developing and assessing feedback application tools. Third, this work develops a conceptual model that identifies the processes by which design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications help in the conservation of electricity by individuals. Together, the three essays contribute to the sustainability and Green IT literature by uncovering the significant role of individuals in dealing with environmental threats and energy consumption challenges and by conceptualizing the different antecedents and processes that shape the perceptions and behaviors related to Green IT and electricity consumption. Moreover, the three studies extend user-centric design research by integrating insights from multiple disciplines to explain, design, create, and test innovative tools that could have a pivotal role in dealing with global sustainability challenges. This work also provides a standard for the evaluation of such tools from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Finally, the three essays contribute to practice by proposing guidelines to industry designers and policy makers for promoting sustainability and energy conservation through personalized tools and effective campaigns

An Exploration of the Pay Levels Needed to Attract Students With Mathematics, Science and Technology Skills to a Career in K-12 Teaching

In an exploratory study (Note 1) of the role of salary level and other factors in motivating undergraduate math, science, and technology majors to consider a career as a K-12 teacher, the salary level students said would motivate them to consider a career in teaching was related to the salary expected in their chosen non-teaching occupation, but not to three of the Big 5 personality dimensions of extroversion, agreeableness, and openness, nor concern for others or career risk aversion. An annual starting salary 45% above the local average would attract 48% of the sophomore students and 37% of the juniors. Focus group results suggested that low pay was an important reason for not considering K-12 teaching, but that perceived job demands and abilities and interests were also important reasons for not being attracted to a teaching career

Dual governance of chinese family businesses: case study of Bin Valley group

JEL: M10; D21This thesis first reviews relevant theories on governance of family businesses and investigates the development of Chinese family businesses on the whole. It adopts the research method of single-case study and Bin Valley Group, a family business, is the case of this thesis. It systematically analyzes the conflicts between family system and corporate system, relational governance, contractual governance, dual governance model of Bin Valley Group during different phases. After all these analyses, it proposes that contractual governance and relational governance should be integrated differently during different phases and further concludes that pan-familism is the best for dual governance model. Also, it puts forward the corresponding research limitaions and prospects.Esta tese investiga as teorias principais sobre governança de empresas familiares e aplica essas teorias ao desenvolvimento das empresas familiares na China. Nesta tese adotamos o método de estudo de caso único. O Grupo Bin Valley, o objeto de estudo desta tese, é analisado sobre o prisma das teorias da governança contratual e da governança relacional ao longo das fases da sua vida. Ao longo do desenvolvimento do Grupo Bin Valley assistimos a um conflito entre o sistema familiar e o sistema empresarial, assim como ao conflito entre a governança contratual e a governança relacional. Esta tese propõe que a governança contratual e a governança relacional devem ser adotadas de acordo com a etapa de desenvolvimento das empresas familiares e que a governança dualista exige o pan-familismo

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

Institutional and Individual Influences on Scientists\u27 Data Sharing Behaviors

In modern research activities, scientific data sharing is essential, especially in terms of data-intensive science and scholarly communication. Scientific communities are making ongoing endeavors to promote scientific data sharing. Currently, however, data sharing is not always well-deployed throughout diverse science and engineering disciplines. Disciplinary traditions, organizational barriers, lack of technological infrastructure, and individual perceptions often contribute to limit scientists from sharing their data. Since scientists\u27 data sharing practices are embedded in their respective disciplinary contexts, it is necessary to examine institutional influences as well as individual motivations on scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. The objective of this research is to investigate the institutional and individual factors which influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific communities. Two theoretical perspectives, institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, are employed in developing a conceptual model, which shows the complementary nature of the institutional and individual factors influencing scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. Institutional theory can explain the context in which individual scientists are acting; whereas the theory of planned behavior can explain the underlying motivations behind scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in an institutional context. This research uses a mixed-method approach by combining qualitative and quantitative methods: (1) interviews with the scientists in diverse scientific disciplines to understand the extent to which they share their data with other researchers and explore institutional and individual factors affecting their data sharing behaviors; and (2) survey research to examine to what extent those institutional and individual factors influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific disciplines. The interview study with 25 scientists shows three groups of data sharing factors, including institutional influences (i.e. regulative pressures by funding agencies and journals and normative pressure); individual motivations (i.e. perceived benefit, risk, effort and scholarly altruism); and institutional resources (i.e. metadata and data repositories). The national survey (with 1,317 scientists in 43 disciplines) shows that regulative pressure by journals; normative pressure at a discipline level; and perceived career benefit and scholarly altruism at an individual level have significant positive relationships with data sharing behaviors; and that perceived effort has a significant negative relationship. Regulative pressure by funding agencies and the availability of data repositories at a discipline level and perceived career risk at an individual level were not found to have any significant relationships with data sharing behavior

Essays on ceo compensation: beyond the anglo-saxon public corporation

These four papers address some unsolved issues on CEO compensation: beyond the Anglo-Saxon public corporation, furthering the existing literature to the understudied fields of less developed capital markets, of which Portugal is a typical member; family firms, whose link between generation and agency avoidance is exploited here; the international comparison based on a selected sample of the world´s largest firms and the effect of gender on the remuneration of Portuguese managers and other professionals. The first paper analyses the determinants of compensation for CEO of Portuguese firms, focusing on the preference of variable versus fixed pay. The results confirmed that listed companies, more vulnerable to agency problems, also made a more intensive use of variable pay. Older firms are also more prone to using this type of compensation. Location in Lisbon, the center of economic activity and higher education also increase the propensity to receive a higher share of salary in the form of variable compensation. The second paper, also based on the same data, has the main goal to find whether the use of variable pay within family firms also reflects the intensity of their specific agency problems. The result on the use of variable pay shows that their performance impact tends to be less favorable for foundational, younger firms, where agency problems are still lower, than with family firms that are already on the second or more family generation. The paper three has a broader scope as it covers CEO compensation practices for a large number of countries and industries. The cross-section analysis covers 1002 firms from 21 different countries. Beyond the traditional explanations of CEO compensation, in a broader setting, such as executive age, tenure and gender or firm size the study provides a larger country analysis, while covering variables that are not common in the compensation literature, such as the impact of CEO expatriation.Finally, paper four studies gender income disparity in Portuguese firms. The sample includes 3953 employees for 75 Portuguese firms with one hundred or more employees, classified by gender and function level – top executives, middle-level managers, technicians and staff. The results confirmed that gender pay gap is larger in Portuguese firms, and it increases with employee´s accumulated tenure and decreases with advanced education for women and on labor market entry. Despite the progress in the labor market made by women in recent years, only a small percentage has actually managed to reach top positions, so there can be no doubt that the “glass ceiling” still exists.Os quatro artigos procuram abordar algumas questões sobre a remuneração dos gestores: além das empresas publicas Anglo-Saxónicas, promovendo a literatura existente para os mercados de capitais menos desenvolvidos do qual Portugal é um membro típico; empresas familiares, cuja ligação entre geração e agência; e na ligação entre uma amostra selecionada das maiores empresas do mundo. O primeiro artigo procura saber os determinantes da remuneração dos gestores em empresas Portuguesas, focando na preferência entre remuneração variável vs remuneração fixa. Os resultados mais significativos verificam-se que as empresas de capitais dispersos utilizam mais remuneração variável, consistente com a teoria da agência. As empresas mais velhas também utilizam mais este tipo de remuneração e empresas localizadas em Lisboa que ocupa o centro da atividade económica em Portugal e quanto maior a educação dos gestores, maior a propensão de receber o salário em remuneração variável O segundo artigo também baseado na mesma base de dados tem como objetivo principal descobrir se o uso de remuneração variável nas empresas familiares também reflete a intensidade de seus problemas de agência específica. O resultado no uso da remuneração variável mostra que o impacto na performance tende a ser menos favorável, em empresas mais jovens, onde os problemas de agência são ainda mais baixos do que com empresas familiares que já estão sobre a segunda geração ou mais. O terceiro artigo tem maior abrangência uma vez que tem informação sobre a remuneração dos gestores para um número grande de países e sectores e cobre dados de 1002 empresas com capitalização bolsista superior a mil milhões de euros de 21 países diferentes. Além das explicações tradicionais da remuneração dos gestores em um espaço mais alargado, como a idade do gestor, tempo na empresa e sexo ou tamanho da empresa, o artigo fornece uma análise maior do país, enquanto cobre variáveis que não são comuns na literatura de compensação, como o impacto da expatriação do gestor.Finalmente, o quarto artigo analisa o efeito do género na remuneração dos gestores e outros profissionais portugueses. A amostra inclui 3953 trabalhadores de 75 empresas com cem ou mais empregados, classificados por sexo e o nível da função- executivos de topo, gestores de nível médio, técnicos e empregados. Os resultados confirmaram que a diferença salarial entre homens e mulheres é maior em empresas nacionais e aumenta com o tempo no cargo e diminui com o nível da educação das mulheres e a entrada no mercado de trabalho. Apesar do progresso no mercado de trabalho feito pelas mulheres nos últimos anos, apenas uma pequena percentagem realmente conseguiu chegar a posições de topo, por isso não há dúvidas de que o “glass ceiling” ainda existe

What are the Motives for Owning an Electrical Car for an Individual in Oslo?

This quantitative study took place in Oslo and focused on the motives for owning an electrical car. The main objective of the study was to identify the most important motivations of electrical car owners and explore the relation between the motives and the socio-demographic characteristics. It was of particular interest to explore the role of the environment as a motivator for owning a vehicle which is generally referred to as an environmentally friendly one. The analysis suggested that the electrical car owners were motivated by economy, altruism, self-picture and practicality when opting for the particular choice of vehicle. Economy and the environment were the most important motives of the electrical car owners. The findings showed that several socio-demographic characteristics, like gender, age and income, had an influence on the motivations behind car ownership

Work Organisation and Innovation in Ireland

[Excerpt] Innovations in work organisation have the potential to optimise production processes in companies and improve employees’ overall experience of work. This report explores the links between innovations in work organisation – under the broader label of high performance work practices (HPWPs) – and the potential benefits for both employees and organisations. It draws on empirical evidence from three case studies carried out in the Republic of Ireland, where workplace innovations have resulted in positive outcomes and where social partners played a significant role in their design and development