Enacting “accountability in collaborative governance”: lessons in emergency management and earthquake recovery from the 2010–2011 Canterbury Earthquakes

Purpose: The paper illustrates how accountability of collaborative governance was constituted in the context of disaster managerial work carried out by the Government, local authorities, and Māori community organisations, after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand. Methodology: A case study detailing the communitarian approach to disaster recovery management by a nationalised Māori earthquake response network is contrasted with the formal emergency management infrastructure’s response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Findings: Critical analysis of the effectiveness and failures of these approaches highlights the institutional and cultural political issues that hinder the institutionalization of collaborative and accountable governance in the fields of disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Implications: The paper contributes to the accountability research and practice in general and disaster accountability in particular by addressing a more multifaceted model of “accountability combined with collaborative governance” as a way to build on and critique some of the seemingly more narrow views of accountability. Originality: The study presents rare insights on the interactions between formal and community level accountability and collaborative governance in the context of New Public Governance (NPG)

Specification of investment functions in Sub-Saharan Africa

It is a well-known fact that one of the most important determinants of growth is private investment. But in the developing country context of widespread poverty, the effects of initial conditions on the process of capital accumulation have seldom been investigated. This paper highlights heterogeneity in the process of capital accumulation across different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and derives a formal specification of investment functions in the primary, industry, and service sectors in the region using a variation of the combined Tobin's Q Theory and the neoclassical models of investment. The results highlight a more rapid accumulation of capital in the relatively high income subpanel and a widening public-private capital accumulation gap. A functional specification points to the significance of aggregate profitability shocks, the financing cost of investment, and public capital stock in estimating the growth rate of private capital accumulation. These results are supported empirically, as highlighted by the relatively small absolute deviation between actual and predicted value distributions.Investment and Investment Climate,Economic Theory&Research,Trade and Regional Integration,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Economic Growth

Timed Automata Models for Principled Composition of Middleware

Middleware for Distributed Real-time and Embedded (DRE) systems has grown more and more complex in recent years due to the varying functional and temporal requirements of complex real-time applications. To enable DRE middleware to be configured and customized to meet the demands of different applications, a body of ongoing research has focused on applying model-driven development techniques to developing QoS-enabled middleware. While current approaches for modeling middleware focus on easing the task of as-assembling, deploying and configuring middleware and middleware-based applications, a more formal basis for correct middleware composition and configuration in the context of individual applications is needed. While the modeling community has used application-level formal models that are more abstract to uncover certain flaws in system design, a more fundamental and lower-level set of models is needed to be able to uncover more subtle safety and timing errors introduced by interference between application computations, particularly in the face of alternative concurrency strategies in the middleware layer. In this research, we have examined how detailed formal models of lower-level middle-ware building blocks provide an appropriate level of abstraction both for modeling and synthesis of a variety of kinds of middleware from these building blocks. When combined with model checking techniques, these formal models can help developers in composing correct combinations of middleware mechanisms, and configuring those mechanisms for each particular application

Towards structured sharing of raw and derived neuroimaging data across existing resources

Data sharing efforts increasingly contribute to the acceleration of scientific discovery. Neuroimaging data is accumulating in distributed domain-specific databases and there is currently no integrated access mechanism nor an accepted format for the critically important meta-data that is necessary for making use of the combined, available neuroimaging data. In this manuscript, we present work from the Derived Data Working Group, an open-access group sponsored by the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) and the International Neuroimaging Coordinating Facility (INCF) focused on practical tools for distributed access to neuroimaging data. The working group develops models and tools facilitating the structured interchange of neuroimaging meta-data and is making progress towards a unified set of tools for such data and meta-data exchange. We report on the key components required for integrated access to raw and derived neuroimaging data as well as associated meta-data and provenance across neuroimaging resources. The components include (1) a structured terminology that provides semantic context to data, (2) a formal data model for neuroimaging with robust tracking of data provenance, (3) a web service-based application programming interface (API) that provides a consistent mechanism to access and query the data model, and (4) a provenance library that can be used for the extraction of provenance data by image analysts and imaging software developers. We believe that the framework and set of tools outlined in this manuscript have great potential for solving many of the issues the neuroimaging community faces when sharing raw and derived neuroimaging data across the various existing database systems for the purpose of accelerating scientific discovery

Exploring the development of learner autonomy from a postmodern and social constructivist perspective: prioritising voices

Learner autonomy defined as the learners' ability to take charge or control of their own learning (Holec, 1981; Benson, 2011), is considered as a key to effective lifelong learning (Dam, 2011). However, the multidimensional nature of the concept combined with the need to access both individual and social constructions, from a social constructivist perspective, presents significant ontological and epistemological challenges. Although learner autonomy and its development have been explored using a range of paradigms and theoretical frameworks, none of the studies appear to have examined its development, within a formal educational context, from a postmodernist perspective. This article aims to discuss the benefits and practical implications of using a postmodernist approach to exploring the development of learner autonomy, in undergraduate specialist and non-specialist learners, studying advanced level French in an institution-wide language programme in combination with international Business or other subject areas, within a large UK higher education institution, based on its application within my own PhD study. After considering the background and examining in some detail the learner autonomy construct, the paper will discuss the rationale for the choice of methodology and its benefits in relation to the challenges presented by prioritising voices, within a multifaceted and multi-dimensional theoretical framework. It will show how it was applied in practice, using a few illustrative extracts from the PhD study's data analysis. The article will conclude with some recommendations and considerations of the limitations of such an approach, together with some reflection on the process and outcome of the PhD case study research, including some implications for practice in a formal educational context. Key words: learner autonomy, postmodernist research, Higher Educatio

Trust in exporting relationships: the case of SMEs in Ghana

In this era of globalisation, firms and their managers are increasingly interested in building relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to successfully grow and compete. Trust has been found to be a defining factor in building up networks and relationships which firms use in economic exchanges both at national and international levels. However, the role of trust in the context of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalisation is a recent phenomenon of academic inquiry that has not been widely studied particularly in the context of developing countries. Hence, this study aims to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the processes of development, use, violation and repair of trust in exporting SME relationships in a less developed African country, Ghana. At the theoretical level the study draws mostly on three perspectives: embeddedness, entrepreneurship and psychic distance. At the empirical level, this research uses a case study of 24 exporting SMEs in Ghana to study this subject in detail. The findings show that entrepreneurs had built and used personalised relationships while avoiding formal contracts and the courts in their internationalisation activities. They had mostly relied on institutional forms operating in parallel to formal state-based and legal systems. These are shown to be hybrid forms drawing on traditional cultural institutions such as chieftaincy and religion, combined with forms of corporations and cooperatives. The findings further reveal how organisations violate and repair trust when crossing cultural boundaries, looking at the particular issues that face smaller businesses. Particularly, it shows that culture is an important factor in trust based relations and therefore the concept of trust violation is socially constructed. While some aspects of networks and trust literature are confirmed, other aspects are refuted showing that context impacts on the processes of relationships and trust building, violation and repair. This study therefore contributes to the ongoing development of a theoretical understanding on networking, relationship building and trust in international entrepreneurship. Particularly it emphasises the importance of understanding cultural contexts in entrepreneurship research

Managerial Control Effects on Information Security Policy Compliance Intentions: Considerations of Formal and Informal Modes of Control

With the continued advancement in computer and digital technologies, companies, institutions, and organizations worldwide have leveraged new information technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness for all aspects of their business functions. Oftentimes, the information processed and stored on information systems poses an information security risk to the organization, employees, and clients alike. Therefore, a comprehensive and effective information security management program is essential to protecting data from accidental or intentional exposure to actors who wish to gain access to data to make a profit by selling the information to the highest bidder, utilize the stolen data for their own internal research and development, or use the data to damage a targeted institution for nefarious motives. Employees’ compliance with corporate information security policies is a necessary component to the success of the corporate information security management program. In this study, I adopted the control theory and developed a research model to explain how formal and informal organizational controls affect employees’ intentions to comply with information security policies. To test the model, I collected data from 303 respondents about their perceptions of their organizations’ formal and informal control modes along with their respective intentions to comply with information security policies. SEM-PLS analysis provided results that were only partially in consonance with previous studies and showed some additive effects when control modes were combined into a single model. I found clan control (informal) to have a significant and positive effect. I also found that adding the informal control modes into the model resulted in a different effect by rendering input control (formal) and self-control (informal) insignificant and changing the direction of the relationship of outcome control (formal) and behavior control (formal). In turn, these findings can help organizations set up proper controls to protect themselves from cyber threats and establish the most effective methods of control based on organizational context and control theory to ensure employees’ compliance with the established information security policies of their organizations

Strategic spatial planning in a devolving governance context: A study of Sheffield City Region

The UK government’s decision to formally abolish Regional Assemblies and Regional Spatial Strategies in 2011 produced a strategic planning ‘gap’ in the English planning system. The government concurrently embarked on a ‘devolution’ agenda that led to the formation of Local Enterprise Partnerships and Combined Authorities in city regions across England. These legislative and governance changes created a complex, evolving network of new governance spaces through which a plurality of voluntary strategic planning practices emerged, underpinned by a weakly-defined and under-resourced ‘Duty to Cooperate’. This research contributes enhanced understanding of how strategic spatial planning is approached in this devolving governance context, including the barriers to it, by presenting a detailed ethnographic study of Sheffield City Region; an area that currently lacks a strong, sub-regional planning narrative. Using qualitative research methods and a conceptual framework derived from historical and constructivist institutionalism, the research investigates how practices of strategic planning are shaped within this changing legislative, governance and territorial context. In Sheffield City Region, institutionalised structures created an environment that promoted informal cross-boundary collaborative practices, whilst resisting a formalised approach to strategic spatial plan-making. Although lacking the power and resources to implement it, planning officers promoted an ‘idealised’ version of strategic plan-making, derived from their historically embedded strategic spatial planning experiences. Elected members’ resistance of this approach was reinforced by ‘post-political’ forms of governance that developed within the Combined Authority, and increased austerity that promoted competition between local authorities. A combination of informal, formal and ‘in between’ governance spaces (and the interface between them) played an important role in enabling and constraining practices of strategic spatial planning and decision-making. The research highlights how Sheffield City Region’s multiple, overlapping spatial geographies, when ‘hardened’ as political territories, acquired a structuring power that further constrained strategic spatial planning at the city region scale

Interactive and multimedia contents associated with a system for computer-aided assessment

This paper presents a research study addressing the development, implementation, evaluation and use of Interactive Modules for Online Training (MITO) of mathematics in higher education. This work was carried out in the context of the MITO project, which combined several features of the learning and management system Moodle, the computer-aided assessment for mathematics STACK, the mathematical software GeoGebra, several packages from the type-setting program LaTeX, and tutorial videos. A total of 1962 students participated in this study. Two groups of students taking a Calculus course were selected for a deeper analysis. In regard to usability and functionality, the results indicate that MITO scored well in almost all aspects, which is fundamental for their introduction into formal university courses. The analysis of the data reveals that the use of MITO educational contents by students mainly occurs about one week and a half prior the evaluations. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between the results of online assessments on MITO in a continuous assessment model and the final grade on the course