Moving Beyond Mimicry: Developing Hybrid Spaces in Indian Business Schools

This article analyses the identity work of Indian management educators and scholars as they seek to establish, maintain and revise a sense of self in the context of business school globalization. We show how globalization, combined with the historical legacy of colonialism, renders Indian scholars precarious in their interactions with Western business schools. Based on a qualitative interview study, we explore how Indian business school scholars perform their identities in the context of neo-colonial relations, which are characterised by the dominance of English language and a pressure to conform to research norms set by globally-ranked journals. Drawing on postcolonial theory, our argument focuses on mimicry as a distinctive form of identity work that involves maintaining difference between Western and non-Western identities by 'Othering' Indian scholars, while simultaneously seeking to transform them. We draw attention to ambivalence within participants' accounts, which we suggest arises because the authority of Western scholarship relies on maintaining non-Western scholars in a position of alterity or 'not quite-ness'. We suggest that hybridity offers an opportunity to disrupt and question current practices of business school globalization and facilitate scholarly engagement that reflects more diverse philosophical positions and worldviews

Everything under control? Comparing Knepp Estate rewilding project with ‘traditional’ nature conservation

‘Rewilding’ is an increasingly prominent concept in conservation, but one that has attracted controversy. Debate frequently focuses on human ‘control’ over nature. ‘Traditional’ conservation has been presented as involving ‘high control,’ and rewilding as ‘low control.’ Opposition to rewilding often stems from a perceived lack of control and associated perception of increased risk and uncertainty. This paper explores the concept of control in conservation. I identify multiple dimensions of control (‘stabilisation’, ‘location’, ‘prediction’ and ‘outputs’), illustrating that control is not a simple, linear concept. I compare two ethnographic case studies: the Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Old Lodge nature reserve; and Knepp Estate, one of the most influential rewilding projects in the UK. I use them to test assertions made about control in ‘traditional’ conservation and ‘rewilding’. I outline how Old Lodge does not exert precise control in all respects, but involves elements of uncertainty and negotiation. I describe how Knepp’s model of rewilding reduces control in some dimensions but potentially increases it in others. I conclude that, while Knepp’s rewilding does represent a significant conceptual departure from ‘traditional’ conservation, it should not be characterised as an approach that reduces control in a simplistic way. Based on this analysis, I argue that reduction of control does not necessarily underpin the concept of rewilding. Rather, there is interplay between different control dimensions that combine to form multiple ‘configurations of control.’ Using a framework of ‘configurations of control’, debate about the place of rewilding in conservation can become less polarised, and instead involve an active discussion of what configuration of control is desired. This analysis has the potential to increase understanding of rewilding projects as part of plural conservation strategies, in the UK and globally

The Integration of Environmental and Human Sustainability. The Babylandia case study

This paper presents a design research called Babylandia aimed at applying human and environmental sustainability principles to support co-design processes and appraise how different scientific data can efficiently be communicated for design purposes. To this aim, we have developed our own set of tools and experimented them in 4 workshops. Babylandia is a public cofounded project for the promotion of excellence in industrial districts of Lombardy region. The goal of the project is to prototype and evaluate children\u2019s products for home and collective spaces with the involvement of both university and local companie

Highly Active Families of Catalysts for the Ring-Opening Polymerization of Lactide: Metal Templated Organic Hydrogen Bond Donors Derived from 2‑Guanidinobenzimidazole

Cobalt and ruthenium chelate complexes of 2-guanidinobenzimidazole (GBI), <i>mer</i>-[Co­(GBI)₃]­(BAr_f)₃·14H₂O (<b>1</b>³⁺ 3BAr_f^–; BAr_f = B­(3,5-C₆H₃(CF₃)₂)₄), and [(η⁵-C₅H₅)­Ru­(CO)­(GBI)]­(BAr_f) can serve as hydrogen bond donor catalysts and, together with equimolar quantities of 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidene (PMP; hydrogen bond acceptor) and 4-phenylbenzyl alcohol initiator (InOH), effect controlled ring-opening polymerizations of dl-lactide at low loadings (1–3 mol %). These inexpensive systems afford polylactide with narrow dispersities (<1.18) and <i>M</i>_n values of 4000–11 000 g/mol. MALDI-ToF mass spectra show a series of peaks separated by <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> values of 144 and an absence of transesterification side reactions between polymer chains. Runs with multiple charges of monomer establish the living nature of the polymerization, and ¹H NMR or UV–visible experiments provide evidence for key hydrogen bonding interactions (InOH/PMP; <b>1</b>³⁺ 3BAr_f^–/dl-lactide)

Sustainable Children’s Product Experience. University collaboration with Italian industry in Lombardy Region

This paper presents a design research called Babylandia aimed at applying human and environmental sustainability principles to support co-design processes and appraise how different scientific data can efficiently be communicated for design purposes. To this aim, we have developed our own set of tools and experimented them in 4 work- shops. Babylandia is a public cofounded project for the promotion of excellence in in- dustrial districts of Lombardy region. The goal of the project is to prototype and evalu- ate children’s products for home and collective spaces with the involvement of both university and local companies

Mathematical Modelling of Tsunami Propagation

The generation of tsunamis with the help of a simple dislocation model of an earthquake and their propagation in the basin are discussed. In this study, we examined the formation of a tsunami wave from an initial sea surface displacement similar to those obtained from earthquakes that have generated tsunami waves and its propagation through the sea to the shore. Linear shallow water wave equations were employed to explain the propagation of the waves in the open sea while nonlinear wave equations were introduced to explain the behaviour of the wave near the shore. The influence of the Coriolis force on the propagation of tsunami was shown to become very important when the tsunami travel distance is significant in relations to the earth’s complete rotation time. The group velocity of tsunami waves which is the velocity of wave energy propagation and its independence on the wave number was demonstrated. @ JASE

Mathematical Modelling of Tsunami Propagation

The generation of tsunamis with the help of a simple dislocation model of an earthquake and their propagation in the basin are discussed. In this study, we examined the formation of a tsunami wave from an initial sea surface displacement similar to those obtained from earthquakes that have generated tsunami waves and its propagation through the sea to the shore. Linear shallow water wave equations were employed to explain the propagation of the waves in the open sea while nonlinear wave equations were introduced to explain the behaviour of the wave near the shore. The influence of the Coriolis force on the propagation of tsunami was shown to become very important when the tsunami travel distance is significant in relations to the earth’s complete rotation time. The group velocity of tsunami waves which is the velocity of wave energy propagation and its independence on the wave number was demonstrated. @ JASE

An action research on open knowledge and technology transfer

R&D has always been considered a strategic asset of companies. Traditionally, companies that have their own R&D function are better prepared to compete in the globalized economy because they are able to produce the knowledge and technology required to advance products and services. SMEs also need to become highly innovative and competitive in order to be successful. Nevertheless, their ability to have an internal R&D function that effectively meets their innovation needs is usually very weak. Open innovation provides access to a vast amount of new ideas and technologies at lower costs than closed innovation. This paper presents an action research study being carried out at University of Minho to develop a business model and technology platform for an innovation brokering service connecting ideas and technologies being developed at Universities with the specific innovation needs of SMEs. The expected contributions of the study include the empirical investigation of the effectiveness and risks of crowdsourcing innovation when applied in the socioeconomic context of a European developing country where SMEs represent 99,6% of the businesses.- (undefined