85,512 research outputs found
Foreign Direct Investments in Business Services: Transforming the VisegrĂĄd Four Region into a Knowledge-based Economy?
Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrad Four (V4). This regionâcomprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakiaârelied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of âbusiness servicesâ by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour
Towards a Unified Knowledge-Based Approach to Modality Choice
This paper advances a unified knowledge-based approach to the process of choosing the most appropriate modality or combination of modalities in multimodal output generation. We propose a Modality Ontology (MO) that models the knowledge needed to support the two most fundamental processes determining modality choice â modality allocation (choosing the modality or set of modalities that can best support a particular type of information) and modality combination (selecting an optimal final combination of modalities). In the proposed ontology we model the main levels which collectively determine the characteristics of each modality and the specific relationships between different modalities that are important for multi-modal meaning making. This ontology aims to support the automatic selection of modalities and combinations of modalities that are suitable to convey the meaning of the intended message
Knowledge and Its Dynamics in the Process of Educational Action Research
Action research is defined as âa democratic and participative orientation to knowledge creation. It is a space for âworking with and towards knowledge in actionâ, what means operationalization of knowledge as a dynamic phenomenon, mediated by widely contextual environment. The article presents a fragment of the research based on studentsâ reflective self-investigation processthat took place both during the implementation of the project and (mostly) after its completion. The aim was to identify how students perceived an intensive engagement in pedagogical and research activity in the process of a constitution their professional knowledge(s)â and competences. Special attention was paid on the processes of knowledge generation, the ways of knowing and the processes characterizing the dynamics of knowledge constituted through activity. In a conclusion it is stated that action research is an epistemic process which offers the students the experiences of extended epistemology, epistemic diversity and pluriversality and the interrelated processes of dynamics of knowledge. Such complexity of practices and processes creates knowledge which is emergent in constan flow, alternation and pulsation and unpredictable in itsmosaic structure.Action research jest demokratycznym i partycypacyjnym procesem tworzenia wiedzy. Jest przestrzeniÄ
dziaĆaĆ dotyczÄ
cych kreowania wiedzy w dziaĆaniu, co oznacza operacjonalizacjÄ wiedzy jako dynamicznego fenomenu,zapoĆredniczonego przez bogaty kontekst Ćrodowiskowy. ArtykuĆ prezentuje fragment badaĆ w dziaĆaniu dotyczÄ
cych procesu autorefleksji studentĂłw, czĆonkĂłw koĆa naukowego, uczestniczÄ
cych w projekcie action research, zrealizowanym na rzecz dzieci i Ćrodowiska lokalnego z trzech podolsztyĆskich wsi, w latach 2015â2018. Celem badaĆ byĆa identyfikacja sposobu, w jaki studenci postrzegajÄ
swoje intensywne zaangaĆŒowanie w pedagogicznÄ
i badawczÄ
dziaĆalnoĆÄ, w procesie konstytuowania ich profesjonalnej wiedzy i kompetencji. Badania dotyczÄ
przede wszystkim procesu generowania wiedzy, praktyk epistemicznych i procesĂłw charakteryzujÄ
cych dynamikÄ wiedzy konstytuowanej poprzez dziaĆanie. Wnioski zawierajÄ
stwierdzenia, ĆŒe action research oferuje studentom moĆŒliwoĆÄ uczestnictwa w dziaĆaniach dotyczÄ
cych ârozszerzonejâ epistemologii, rĂłĆŒnorodnoĆci epistemicznych praktyk i wspĂłĆistniejÄ
cych ze sobÄ
procesĂłw dynamiki wiedzy. Z tak kompleksowego uczestnictwa w epistemicznych praktykach i procesach wyĆania siÄ wiedza, ktĂłra jest zmienna, âprzepĆywajÄ
caâ, pulsujÄ
ca, a takĆŒe nieprzewidywalna w swej mozaikowej strukturze
The Inhuman Overhang: On Differential Heterogenesis and Multi-Scalar Modeling
As a philosophical paradigm, differential heterogenesis offers us a novel descriptive vantage with which to inscribe Deleuzeâs virtuality within the terrain of âdifferential becoming,â conjugating âpure saliencesâ so as to parse economies, microhistories, insurgencies, and epistemological evolutionary processes that can be conceived of independently from their representational form. Unlike Gestalt theoryâs oppositional constructions, the advantage of this aperture is that it posits a dynamic context to both media and its analysis, rendering them functionally tractable and set in relation to other objects, rather than as sedentary identities. Surveying the genealogy of differential heterogenesis with particular interest in the legacy of Lautmanâs dialectic, I make the case for a reading of the Deleuzean virtual that departs from an event-oriented approach, galvanizing Sarti and Cittiâs dynamic a priori vis-Ă -vis Deleuzeâs philosophy of difference. Specifically, I posit differential heterogenesis as frame with which to examine our contemporaneous epistemic shift as it relates to multi-scalar computational modeling while paying particular attention to neuro-inferential modes of inductive learning and homologous cognitive architecture. Carving a bricolage between Mark Wilsonâs work on the âgreediness of scalesâ and Deleuzeâs âscales of realityâ, this project threads between static ecologies and active externalism vis-Ă -vis endocentric frames of reference and syntactical scaffolding
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Coordinative Entities: Forms of Organizing in Data Intensive Science
Scientific collaboration is a long-standing subject of CSCW scholarship that typically focuses on the development and use of computing systems to facilitate research. The research presented in this article investigates the sociality of science by identifying and describing particular, common forms of organizing that researchers in four different scientific realms employ to conduct work in both local contexts and as part of distributed, global projects. This paper introduces five prototypical forms of organizing we categorize as coordinative entities: the Principal Group, Intermittent Exchange, Sustained Aggregation, Federation, and Facility Organization. Coordinative entities as a categorization help specify, articulate, compare, and trace overlapping and evolving arrangements scientists use to facilitate data intensive research. We use this typology to unpack complexities of data intensive scientific collaboration in four cases, showing how scientists invoke different coordinative entities across three types of research activities: data collection, processing, and analysis. Our contribution scrutinizes the sociality of scientific work to illustrate how these actors engage in relational work within and among diverse, dispersed forms of organizing across project, funding, and disciplinary boundaries
Towards Cross-Border Innovation Spaces: A theoretical analysis and empirical comparison of the Ăresund region and the Centrope area
Due to strong regionalization tendencies in many parts of the world, the political collapse in Central and Eastern Europe and the continuing enlargement of the European Union crossborder regions have grown considerably in number and importance in the last years. There is a widespread agreement in the academic literature that in the emerging globalized knowledge economy the competitive strength of these areas increasingly rests on their capacity to create an integrated innovation space. The focus of this paper is on a theoretical analysis of different stages in the development of cross-border regional innovation systems and on a comparative analysis of the innovation capabilities of two cross-border areas in Europe, the Ăresund region, composed of Southern Sweden and Eastern Denmark, and the Centrope area, which is located at the intersection of Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. Departing from the regional innovation system approach, in a first step we will identify conceptually crucial preconditions and key determinants for the rise of transfrontier innovation systems. From an evolutionary perspective cross-border regional innovation systems could be seen as the last and most advanced form of cross-border integration building on the success of previous incremental but less advanced modes of integration. We will discuss a conceptual framework describing the different stages of such a process and we will examine how the prospects for a successful development vary between different geographical settings. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the innovation capacity of the Ăresund region and the Centrope area. A special emphasis will be given on comparing the interplay of critical economic, socioinstitutional and political factors, and the main barriers for establishing a cross-border regional innovation system. Our results suggest that the Ăresund region and the Centrope area differ enormously regarding their capacity to develop an integrated innovation space.
The interactions between national systems and sectoral patterns of innovation: a cross-country analysis of Pavittâs taxonomy
Do national and sectoral innovation systems interact with each other? The paper explores this unexplored question by carrying out a cross-sector cross-country analysis of European systems of innovation in the 1990s. The empirical study takes Pavittâs (1984) taxonomy as a starting point, and it investigates the cross-country variability of Pavittâs sectoral patterns of innovation. The analysis leads to three main results. First, the various technological trajectories show large differences across countries, due to the influence of national innovation systems. Second, there is evidence that the interaction between national systems and sectoral patterns of innovation constitutes an independent source of variability in the sample. Third, the analysis leads to the identification of eight sector- and country-specific technological trajectories in European manufacturing industries, and, based on that, proposes a refinement of Pavittâs taxonomy. The refined taxonomy, in a nutshell, suggests that sectoral systems must be supported by and interact with their respective national systems in order to become industrial leaders.National systems; sectoral systems; Pavittâs taxonomy; vertical linkages
Data in Business Process Models. A Preliminary Empirical Study
Traditional activity-centric process modeling languages treat data as simple black boxes acting as input or output for activities. Many alternate and emerging process modeling paradigms, such as case handling and artifact-centric process modeling, give data a more central role. This is achieved by introducing lifecycles and states for data objects, which is beneficial when modeling data-or knowledge-intensive processes. We assume that traditional activity-centric process modeling languages lack the capabilities to adequately capture the complexity of such processes. To verify this assumption we conducted an online interview among BPM experts. The results not only allow us to identify various profiles of persons modeling business processes, but also the problems that exist in contemporary modeling languages w.r.t. The modeling of business data. Overall, this preliminary empirical study confirms the necessity of data-awareness in process modeling notations in general
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