Latin American perspectives to internationalize undergraduate information technology education

The computing education community expects modern curricular guidelines for information technology (IT) undergraduate degree programs by 2017. The authors of this work focus on eliciting and analyzing Latin American academic and industry perspectives on IT undergraduate education. The objective is to ensure that the IT curricular framework in the IT2017 report articulates the relationship between academic preparation and the work environment of IT graduates in light of current technological and educational trends in Latin America and elsewhere. Activities focus on soliciting and analyzing survey data collected from institutions and consortia in IT education and IT professional and educational societies in Latin America; these activities also include garnering the expertise of the authors. Findings show that IT degree programs are making progress in bridging the academic-industry gap, but more work remains

SCOPES: Sparking curiosity through Open-Source platforms in education and science

Scientific research is to date largely restricted to wealthy laboratories in developed nations due to the necessity of complex and expensive equipment. This inequality limits the capacity of science to be used as a diplomatic channel. Maker movements use open-source technologies including additive manufacturing (3D printing) and laser cutting, together with low-cost computers for developing novel products. This movement is setting the groundwork for a revolution, allowing scientific equipment to be sourced at a fraction of the cost and has the potential to increase the availability of equipment for scientists around the world. Science education is increasingly recognized as another channel for science diplomacy. In this perspective, we introduce the idea that the Maker movement and open-source technologies have the potential to revolutionize science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education worldwide. We present an open-source STEM didactic tool called SCOPES (Sparking Curiosity through Open-source Platforms in Education and Science). SCOPES is self-contained, independent of local resources, and cost-effective. SCOPES can be adapted to communicate complex subjects from genetics to neurobiology, perform real-world biological experiments and explore digitized scientific samples. We envision such platforms will enhance science diplomacy by providing a means for scientists to share their findings with classrooms and for educators to incorporate didactic concepts into STEM lessons. By providing students the opportunity to design, perform, and share scientific experiments, students also experience firsthand the benefits of a multinational scientific community. We provide instructions on how to build and use SCOPES on our webpage: http://scopeseducation.org

Sales Incentives and Sales Performance: The Moderating Effect of Cultural Dimensions

An increasingly globalized world requires businesses to operate across countries and cultures. Managing a business in international markets adds complexity and challenges that can lead to strategic mistakes in dealing with customers, employees and suppliers. Culture impacts many aspects of business. Proper management of culture can lead to competitive advantages. Companies use sales incentives to motivate their sales force and customers in an effort to optimize sales performance. Despite a growing interest in international sales research, few studies address the impact of culture on sales performance. This research will contribute by exploring the moderating effect of culture on sales incentives and sales performance. The dissertation includes a theoretical model based on existing sales literature and Gert Hofstede’s extensive cultural research. Hofstede’s original framework contained four cultural dimensions, which have been extensively researched, though rarely applied to sales performance. Hofstede later added two new dimensions to his original paradigm; this study is the first to test all six dimensions. The dissertation uses sales data from a global company to test the model and attempt to predict the cultural impact on sales incentives and sales performance

Portuguese cultural standards from an Austrian perspective

The goal of this thesis is to identify Portuguese cultural standards from the perspective of Austrian culture. The Cultural Standards Method is based on interviews of members of one culture who have extended working experience in a different culture.This method, based on a qualitative research approach, tries to identify cultural differences at a more subtle level when compared to more traditional methods such as cultural dimensions. The research comprised three main phases: narrativeinterviews with Austrians in the sample group; content analysis of the critical incidents described during the narrative interviews and the identification of cultural standards. The finalcultural standards elected are those which were more often mentioned by the majority of the interviewees and later on confirmed through the feedback received from the intervieweestogether with a third party. The Portuguese cultural standards identified through the interviews with twenty Austrians are: Fluid Time Management, Relaxed Attitude towards Professional Performance, Importance of Social Relations, Bureaucracy and Slow Decision Making Processes, Indirect Communication Style and Flexible Planning and Organisational Skills.O objectivo desta tese é a identificação dos standards culturais portugueses de um ponto de vista da cultura austríaca. O Método dos Standards Culturais baseia-se em entrevistas a membros de uma cultura que apresentem vasta experiência de trabalho numa cultura diferente. Esta metodologia, baseada numa pesquisa com uma abordagem qualitativa, tenta identificar diferenças culturais a um nível mais subtil quando comparada com métodos maistradicionais como por exemplo o das dimensões culturais. A investigação compreendeu três fases principais: entrevistas narrativas com vinte austríacos com experiência de vida e trabalho em Portugal; análise de conteúdo dos incidentes críticos descritos durante as entrevistas narrativas e identificação dos standards culturais. Os standards culturais seleccionados são aqueles que foram referidos com mais frequência pela maioria dos entrevistados e posteriormente confirmados através do feedbackrecebido por parte dos entrevistados juntamente com o de mais duas pessoasnão envolvidas na primeira fase da pesquisa. Os standards culturais portugueses identificados através de entrevistas com austríacos são: Gestão Fluida do Tempo, Atitude Descontraída no quetoca ao Desempenho Profissional, Importância das Relações Sociais, Burocracia e Processos de Decisão Lentos, Estilo de Comunicação Indirecta e por último Flexibilidade dePlaneamento e Capacidade de Organização

Extending The Human Capital Theory Of Career Success: An Empirical Test In The Ecuadorian Context

Human capital theory has traditionally been used as the primary explanation for objective career success. However, inconsistent results of the human capital-performance evaluation-objective career success relationships, as proposed in human capital theory, motivated this dissertation to further develop the theory by including economic, managerial, and institutional facets. These facets include not only an economic rational perspective, but also a managerial component that considers organizational policies and practices, as well as an institutional component that considers how environmental pressures influence objective career success. Also, boundary conditions for the proposed model are hypothesized explaining how the relationships between the constructs differ for managers and non-managers. The hypothesized relationships are tested in a Latin American context using rich proprietary data. The results of the study lend support for the managerial and institutional facets of the theory of human capital of career success. On the other hand, the economic facet was not supported due to the non-significant relationships between the human capital components and performance evaluation scores. Also, support was found for the boundary condition, rank, on performance evaluations. This finding suggests that performance evaluations are a more important consideration for the objective career success of non-managers than for managers in environments with strong socio-cultural and institutional pressures such as those found in Latin America

Summer 2007 Research Symposium Abstract Book

Summer 2007 volume of abstracts for science research projects conducted by Trinity College students

New school ties: Social capital and cultural knowledge creation in multicultural learning environments

siirretty Doriast

The impact of culture on own-label brands performance

The performance of own-label brands varies enormously across countries, with high penetration in Western countries but limited success in Eastern countries. The common explanations for this state are related to market factors such as the development of big retailer chains or the power balance between retailers and manufacturers. However, the role of culture has been overlooked to explain this situation. This study aims to provide insights into the impact of culture on own-label brands performance. This thesis formulates and tests a conceptual framework linking Hofstede s (1980, 2001) five cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance & long-term orientation) to retail market development (size of the retail market) and own-label brands performance, controlling for three socio-economic variables: GDP per capita, Gini index and Government expenditure. Relevant literature is reviewed in order to develop hypotheses. The conceptual model is then tested upon a sample of 65 countries, utilising data collected via secondary sources and the application of structural equation modelling techniques. The results of this study indicate that three out of five Hofstede s cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, have a significant impact on retail market development, which in turn, significantly influences own-label brands performance. Moreover, results show that individualism and long-term orientation have a significant direct impact on own-label brands performance. Past studies on this domain are restricted to one or two cultural dimensions and generally involve a limited number of countries. This research therefore pioneers in investigating the five national cultural dimensions across a high number of nations. The findings are important for retailers and may help them to adapt their own-label strategy according to the culture of the nation they are operating in