Rethinking virtuality in a digital media age

Scholars have studied virtuality in teams and organizations for over two decades. The term “virtual” is often used loosely and imprecisely, and theoretical debates have flourished over what differentiates virtual from non-virtual teams. In these debates, scholarship has not explicitly considered the significant ways in which the technological landscape has changed over this time. While the virtual is often treated as a separate space from “real”, physical or face-to-face interaction, the increasing technological saturation of our lives has resulted in a blurring of online and offline worlds such that these distinctions may no longer hold up. I will explore whether the term “virtuality” still has currency and the ways in which we must rethink our underlying assumptions about virtuality in a digital media age

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEGITIMACY, TERRORIST ATTACKS AND POLICE

Scholars often suggest that terrorism - "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation" (LaFree & Dugan, 2007, 184) - is a battle of legitimacy. As the most ubiquitous representatives of the government's coercive force, the police should be most susceptible to terrorism stemming from perceptions of illegitimacy. Police are attractive symbolic and strategic targets, and they were victimized in over 12% of terrorist attacks worldwide since 1970. However, empirical research assessing the influence of legitimacy on terrorist attacks, generally, and scholarly attention to terrorist attacks on police are scant. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the influence of state and police legitimacy and alternative explanations on the proportion of all and only fatal terrorist attacks on police in 82 countries between 1999 and 2008. Data were drawn from several sources, including the Global Terrorism Database and the World Values Survey. Surprisingly, results of Tobit analyses indicate that police legitimacy, measured by the percentage of the population who have at least some confidence in police, is not significantly related to the proportion of all terrorist attacks on police or the proportion of fatal terrorist attacks on police. State legitimacy was measured by four indicators; only the percentage of the population who would never protest reached significance, lending limited support for this hypothesis. Greater societal schism, the presence of a foreign military and greater economic inequality were consistently significant predictors of higher proportions of terrorist attacks on police. Some measures of violence within a country also were influential, but they were not consistent across models or with expectations. The results of the Tobit analyses were confirmed with Negative Binomial Regression Models using the number of all and only fatal terrorist attacks targeting police as the outcome. While these results suggest alternative explanations for terrorist attacks targeting police, discounting legitimacy as an explanation for such attacks or terrorism, generally, is premature. Policy implications and avenues for future research are discussed

The Exploitation of Women In Mexico\u27s Maquiladoras

Maquiladora factories, created in 1965 as part of Mexico\u27s Border Industrialization Program, have become the backbone of economic progress along the United StateslMexico boundary. These factories, largely owned by foreign investors, have drawn thousands ofwomen from Mexico\u27s interiors to work in the area. As a result, globalization and increased foreign investment have created cultural, environmental, and occupational hardships and hazards for female Mexican laborers despite the monetary gains that have resulted from Mexican and United States government programs

Banner News

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/banner_news/1430/thumbnail.jp

Environment and Policy Factors Shaping E-Commerce Diffusion: A Cross-Country Comparison

The growing use of the Internet and e-commerce for conducting business is being driven by global and national forces. Many firms are being driven toward greater adoption of e-commerce by global competitive pressures, which some suggest will lead to a global networked economy. On the other hand, firms are also being driven by national environmental and policy factors, which are both drivers and inhibitors of e-commerce diffusion. A key question is whether the continuing diffusion of e-commerce will lead to a single homogeneous global market or whether national market niches create special business opportunities and barriers that affect innovation outcomes. This paper identifies and discusses major environmental and policy related factors that influence e-commerce diffusion across and within countries. It is based upon case studies in 10 countries representing both developed and developing countries in each of three major world regions. Although e-commerce is still in its infancy, this preliminary analysis indicates that diffusion is an uneven process across countries and industries. Certain countries and industries are driving the process while others lag behind. Digital divides are evident both between and within developed and developing countries. Moreover, local differences in e-commerce are evident between countries, suggesting that the diffusion process is strongly shaped by national environments and policy rather than following a universal trajectory

Introduction to the Special Volume on Globalization and E-Commerce

The ten papers in this special volume of CAIS focus on environmental and policy influences on the diffusion of e-commerce in selected countries in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. They are part of a multi-year, multi-country study entitled, Impacts of Electronic Commerce in the Global Networked Economy: A Multi-Country Stud

Resolving the true band gap of ZrNiSn half-Heusler thermoelectric materials

N-type XNiSn (X = Ti, Zr, Hf) half-Heusler (HH) compounds possess excellent thermoelectric properties, which are believed to be attributed to their relatively high mobility. However, p-type XNiSn HH compounds have poor figures of merit, zT, compared to XCoSb compounds. This can be traced to the suppression of the magnitude of the thermopower at high temperatures. E_g = 2eS_(max)T_(max) relates the band gap to the thermopower peak. However, from this formula, one would conclude that the band gap of p-type XNiSn solid solutions is only one-third that of n-type XNiSn, which effectively prevents p-type XNiSn HHs from being useful thermoelectric materials. The study of p-type HH Zr_(1−x)Sc_xNiSn solid solutions show that the large mobility difference between electrons and holes in XNiSn results in a significant correction to the Goldsmid–Sharp formula. This finding explains the difference in the thermopower band gap between n-type and p-type HH. The high electron-to-hole weighted mobility ratio leads to an effective suppression of the bipolar effect in the thermoelectric transport properties which is essential for high zT values in n-type XNiSn (X = Ti, Zr, Hf) HH compounds

The Role Of Character In The Hiring Process: A Pilot Study Survey Of College Seniors Potential Employers

We surveyed 31 prospective employers (65% response rate) regarding their views on character as part of the employment selection process. The results showed character qualities superordinate, relative to skills that prospective employees bring to potential jobs. We discuss survey results in light of business educators responsibility for helping students to internalize ethical decision-making. Although the results show employers making few company changes due to the medias attention on corporate scandals, respondents express that the pool of applicants with strong character is shrinking. They expect that character training will occur prior to employment in a variety of milieuincluding higher education

The Role Of Character In The Hiring Process: A Pilot Study Survey Of College Seniors’ Potential Employers

We surveyed 31 prospective employers (65% response rate) regarding their views on character as part of the employment selection process. The results showed character qualities superordinate, relative to skills that prospective employees bring to potential jobs. We discuss survey results in light of business educators’ responsibility for helping students to internalize ethical decision-making. Although the results show employers making few company changes due to the media’s attention on corporate scandals, respondents express that the pool of applicants with strong character is shrinking. They expect that character training will occur prior to employment in a variety of milieu—including higher education

Negotiating Agency and Control: Theorizing Human-Machine Communication from a Structurational Perspective

Intelligent technologies have the potential to transform organizations and organizing processes. In particular, they are unique from prior organizational technologies in that they reposition technology as agent rather than a tool or object of use. Scholars studying human-machine communication (HMC) have begun to theorize the dual role played by human and machine agency, but they have focused primarily on the individual level. Drawing on Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), we propose a theoretical framework to explain agency in HMC as a process involving the negotiation of control between human and machine agents. This article contributes to HMC scholarship by offering a framework and research agenda to guide future theory-building and research on the use of intelligent technologies in organizational contexts