Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2015 Florence

Information Technologies of interest for Culture Heritage are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, data protection, access to digital content, Virtual Galleries. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts), regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace – Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The International Conference includes the following Sessions: Strategic Issues; New Technologies & Applications; New 2D-3D Technical Developments & Applications; Virtual Galleries – Museums and Related Initiatives; Access to the Culture Information. Two Workshops regard: International Cooperation; Innovation and Enterprise

An analysis of physical distribution service quality in the online retail market

Abstract unavailable please refer to PD

Organizational ambidexterity as a strategic decision: its relationship with strategic decision speed and the moderating role of CEO cognition and environmental dynamism under the global pandemic

The current study examines organizational ambidexterity as a strategic decision under the COVID-19 pandemic, incorporating ambidexterity in the process of decision making. Based on a survey on 144 organizational decision makers (CEOs) in Greece during the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis, the study examines how organizational ambidexterity is affected by fast decision making and the contingencies that affect this relationship, as well as whether being ambidextrous is beneficial for organizations under a global pandemic. The effects of CEOs’ cognitive characteristics and of environmental dynamism are examined as moderating factors in the newly established relationship between strategic decision speed and organizational ambidexterity. This research connects the literatures on strategic decision speed and organizational ambidexterity, by bridging micro and macro perspectives of strategic management. Findings suggest that reaching strategic decisions quickly is associated with achieving organizational ambidexterity, which in turn is associated with superior performance. Further, decision makers’ cognition and environmental dynamism moderate the relationship between strategic decision speed and achieving ambidexterity. Overall, this study sheds light on strategic management in dynamic environments, focusing on the decision-making process concerning organizational ambidexterity

Values that you hold: encountering change in an adult community education program in Victoria

This thesis research reports on the Adult Community Education (ACE) sector in the Australian State of Victoria. Although it concentrates on Moreland Adult Education Assoc. (MAE) as a case study, it places MAE in the wider context of ACE in the local area of the Northern Metropolitan region of Melbourne. Although periodically referred to as the 'fourth educational sector' and funded by the same government departments as mainstream post-secondary sectors, ACE has always had a low profile and quasi-educational status due to the extreme variety of its venues, courses and locations, making it difficult to define and market as an entity. This study uses a range of qualitative methodologies suited to historical, educational research to provide a framework based around the initial guiding questions: 'Is ACE becoming TAFE?' and 'Who uses ACE and Why?' MAE was used as a case study because it was created by its local community in 1982 after which it expanded and developed from one-to-one pairs of volunteer tutors and literacy students to being a nationally Registered Training Organisation delivering accredited courses up to Diploma level. This expansion placed great strain on the infrastructure and personnel of the organisation, particularly during the main period of this research (1994 to 2004). Beginning with a review of the ACE sector, the thesis then describes the northern region of the Melbourne suburbs by using the data gained from a survey questionnaire. Further narrowing the research focus, the thesis analyses the development of the organisation over the ten year study period. The second half of the thesis emphasises the people of MAE through 18 interviews by analysing their opinions, life-experiences and perceptions of change to create a sense of their connectedness to the local community and MAE. The primary aims of this thesis are to document an example of the development of an ACE centre and how it managed change during a ten year period. It records a sense of how and why people engaged in the sector and some of their lived-experiences and their responses to changes. Data analysis results in three sets of findings and propositions in the categories of sectoral, organisational and personal. These key findings involve a range of externally applied pressures being brought to bear on both ACE and MAE. This is counteracted by individual resistance to change, creating a tension which threatens MAE's long-term sustainability