Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

Market Networks and the Value in Knowledge Exchanges: Evidence from Biotechnology Strategic Alliances

Researchers have argued that market networks are an integral part of the firm's value output, but the extent to which the structural characteristics of firms and their partners in market networks mediate the link between network embeddedness and value generation remains a largely unexplored area of research. This paper argues that diffusion mechanisms within market networks enable them to selectively impute and know the value of inter-organisational knowledge exchanges. The purpose of this paper is to empirically determine the extent of this phenomenon in the context of the strategic alliance market network in the biotechnology industry. I find evidence that the position of firms' partners in the network of strategic alliances is a significant predictor of wealth gains from the announcement of knowledge exchange deals. Also, for explicit knowledge exchanges, the market reacts more to announcements by firms that are in the periphery of the strategic alliance network.alliances, networks, value, centrality

The influencing role of social capital in the formation of entrepreneurial intention

This paper investigated the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial intention using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The study was carried out by means of a cross-sectional survey and included 329 final-year commerce students at a rural university in the Limpopo province. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results show that social capital is significantly related to entrepreneurial intention, the attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur and perceived behavioural control. The findings indicate that the TPB is a valuable model for understanding the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial intention. The results indicate that individuals are more likely to form intentions to start a business when they think that their decision to do so would be approved of by those close to them, when entrepreneurial activity is positively valued in the society, when they know other people who are entrepreneurs and successful entrepreneurs, and believe that they would be supported by those close to them when starting a business. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by shedding light on the role of social capital in the formation of entrepreneurial intention in a South African context.Keywords: social valuation of entrepreneurship, social support, entrepreneurial role models, rural entrepreneurship development, Limpopo, South Afric

The Digital Architectures of Social Media: Comparing Political Campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. Election

The present study argues that political communication on social media is mediated by a platform's digital architecture, defined as the technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space. A framework for understanding digital architectures is introduced, and four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) are compared along the typology. Using the 2016 US election as a case, interviews with three Republican digital strategists are combined with social media data to qualify the studyies theoretical claim that a platform's network structure, functionality, algorithmic filtering, and datafication model affect political campaign strategy on social media

Pro-smoking information scanning using social media and increased smoking among young adults

textThe amount of pro-smoking information appearing on social media has increased sharply in the past few years (Freeman & Chapman, 2007, 2010). This proliferation has expanded the potential for widespread exposure to information about smoking. Such potential highlights the need to understand how individuals acquire and use this information to make decisions about smoking initiation and cessation behaviors. Being in a critical age group (aged 18-25) for lifelong smoking behavior (Gilpin, White, & Pierce, 2005), young adults use social media ubiquitously. This study introduces information scanning (Niederdeppe, Hornik, Kelly, Frosch, Romantan, Stevens, Barg, Weiner, & Schwartz, 2007; Hornik & Niederdeppe, 2008) and the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (Fishbein and Cappella, 2006; Fishbein, Hennessy, Yzer and Douglas, 2003; Fishbein and Yzer, 2003; Yzer, 2012) as useful constructs for understanding young adult smoking in the context of social media. Information scanning, understood in this research as routine patterns of exposure to mediated and interpersonal sources, has been found to be useful in predicting cancer-related behaviors (e.g., Kelly, Hornik, & Niederdeppe, 2009; Shim, Kelly, & Hornik, 2006) but has never used to understand smoking behavior. This study builds on research that has found that only a small number of variables need to be considered to predict, change, or strengthen a particular behavior in certain population (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, 2010). To understand the extent to which a young adult’s pro-smoking information scanning using social media affects the likelihood of being susceptible to smoking, being an experimental smoker, and being an established smoker. Specifically, this thesis hypothesizes (1) that pro-smoking information scanning using social media will influence smoking behavior, (2) that pro-smoking information scanning will interact with attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy, interpersonal information scanning, and participation level on social media to impact smoking behavior, and (3) information scanning will contribute to the predictive validity of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction to predict intentions to smoke. To test these hypotheses, a cross-sectional survey of 247 young adults (aged 18-25) was conducted. Results of this survey indicated that pro-smoking information scanning through social media significantly impacted attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy. Pro-smoking information scanning using social media is independently related to smoking behavior after controlling for factors such as gender, ethnicity, academic achievement, interpersonal information scanning, attitudes toward smoking, social norms regarding smoking, and smoking self-efficacy. Only attitudes toward smoking and interpersonal information scanning mediate the relationship between pro-smoking information scanning through social media and experimental and established smoking. Additionally, inclusion of information scanning variables increased the predictive ability of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction. This study should be a wakeup call for more comprehensive and concerted efforts on the interaction between tobacco control and social media use. It concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, especially the theory-based antismoking interventions using social media.Radio-Television-Fil

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Regions Matter How Regional Characteristics Affect External Knowledge Acquisition and Innovation

To introduce new products and processes, firms often acquire knowledge from other organizations. Drawing on social capital and transaction cost theory, we argue that not only is the impact of such acquisitions on the successful development of product and product innovations dependent on strategic and economic variables, it may also be contingent on the “knowledge characteristics” of the geographical area in which the firm is located. Combining data on social capital at the level of 21 regions with a large scale data set on innovative activities by a representative sample of 2464 Italian manufacturing firms, we find — after controlling for a large set of firm and regional characteristics — that being located in regions characterized by high levels of social interaction leads to a higher propensity to innovate. In addition, being located in an area characterized by a high degree of social interaction positively moderates the effectiveness of externally acquired R&D on innovation inclination.Social capital; external acquisition; process innovation; product innovation