The Academy is like a Body Builder – Why don’t we have new theories?

The Academy is like a Body Builder, valuing prowess at all costs. Throughout this paper, the author uses the metaphorical representation of the embodied Academy and practices used to build prowess. Prowess is measured in various ways, one of which is developing its own theories rather than borrowing from others. Archetypical Body Builders and their representative types of prowess defamiliarize the familiar in order to enable the Academy to envision the process of theorizing to theory development and its role in that process in new ways. This new contextualization and illumination, in turn, contributes to a better understanding of the process of theorizing which the author hopes will increase theorizing and new theory development. Additionally, this paper contributes to methodology by exemplifying the use of analogy, abductive reasoning, narrative style theorizing, a different writing style and traditional paper structure indicative of performance based research and shows how theorizing is done

Remembering Lessons Learned: knowledge management techniques for building generational memory

A presentation made at the CAUT Librarians Conference in Ottawa, Ontario in October 2005

Bridging the business data divide: insights into primary and secondary data use by business researchers

Academic librarians and data specialists use a variety of approaches to gain insight into how researcher data needs and practices vary by discipline, including surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Some published studies included small numbers of business school faculty and graduate students in their samples, but provided little, if any, insight into variations within the business discipline. Business researchers employ a variety of research designs and data collection methods and engage in quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide deeper insight into primary and secondary data use by business graduate students at one Canadian university based on a content analysis of a corpus of 32 Master of Science in Management theses. This paper explores variations in research designs and data collection methods between and within business subfields (e.g., accounting, finance, operations and information systems, marketing, or organization studies) in order to better understand the extent to which these researchers collect and analyze primary data or secondary data sources, including commercial or open data sources. The results of this analysis will inform the work of data specialists and liaison librarians who provide research data management services for business school researchers

Niche Markets for Natural Fibers: Strategies for Connecting Farmers Who Raise Fiber Animals with Textile Artists—A New England Perspective

Farmers annually harvest natural fibers from alpacas, goats, llamas, rabbits, and sheep. However, they have seen a decline in consumer demand due to the increased production of synthetics. Despite global trends of decline, New England farms involved in fiber production have increased. This article identifies niche markets for these natural fibers and provides farmers with marketing/sales strategies to successfully target these markets. Data from 2007 and 2013 suggest that the niche market of textile artists can help farmers increase their profits through direct marketing strategies. Extension professionals can use these strategies to develop educational materials and workshops

A non-credit information skills workshop series for undergraduates

A poster presented at the 2005 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA on April 7, 2005. (peer-reviewed).Discover the advantages of collaborating with other campus partners to develop, promote, and deliver a unique non-credit interactive information skills workshop series. Learn the importance of flexibility interactivity and modularity to the success of a non-credit information skills program. Learn how to incorporate the knowledge management practices of Learning Before, Learning During, and Learning After into team project activities

Accounting students and information competence: evidence from course syllabi and professional accounting association competency maps.

A poster presented at the 2009 SLA Annual Conference, Business & Finance Division Poster session, Poster Presentation, June 15, 2009, Washington, DC.(peer-reviewed)As Brock University’s business liaison librarian, I have had some success integrating information literacy in the business administration curriculum. However, there have been very few requests for instruction in undergraduate accounting courses. Therefore, in the spirit of evidence-based librarianship, I conducted a syllabus study in order to gain insight into the library use and research expectations of accounting faculty for their undergraduate accounting students. Syllabi from 65 sections of 23 accounting courses were examined from the 2008/09 academic year. Each course section was assigned a level of library use based on a scale of 0 (no research required) to 4 (significant research required). Over 58% of all course sections required no research or library use and only 13% of course sections, mostly at the 400 level, actually required some amount of library use or research. These findings were compared to the expected professional competencies and proficiency levels as articulated by professional accounting association competency maps and an expectations gap was identified. As Brock University Library’s goal is to integrate information literacy into the curriculum, this evidence-based study will serve to open a dialogue with accounting faculty regarding information competence so that a course-integrated information literacy program may be planned and delivered in alignment with curricular and professional expectations

Control and Power in Tourism: A Conceptual View of Service Encounter Discourse

Research has shown that there is an overarching need for the understanding of the interaction that occurs in the service encounter in a tourism setting. In order to develop the knowledge of one aspect of this encounter, bringing together literature from sociology and hospitality and tourism management, this study will conceptually strengthen the view of the service encounter as a discourse formation through which the social reality that is developed is constructed to reveal a power struggle between the actors involved. Utilizing a subjective critical framework, this conceptual study will support the use of discursive formation in the service encounter to expose the power struggle that develops within the interaction

CittaSlow, Slow Cities, Slow Food: Searching for a Model for the Development of Slow Tourism

Slow Tourism, a new trend that originated in Italy, is now traversing the globe. This study traces its evolution, synthesizes existing definitions, and develops a conceptual model for the stages of Slow Tourism development. It uses a qualitative, exploratory framework situated in the paradigms of constructivism and critical theory and a critical, interpretative form of inquiry and analysis. Data sources included various types of secondary data as well as primary data collected during personal interviews conducted in November of 2010 with key leaders in the first two CittaSlow designated cities in the U.S. Findings suggest that Slow Tourism, which can occur in both rural and urban settings, is an outgrowth of the Slow Food Movement and is tied to CittaSlow through the explicit guarantee of unique slowness offered by these officially designated cities. The presence of Slow Food Convivia, a critical mass of CittaSlow designated cities, and practices of socio-political consumption emerged as important stages in its development

Qualitative Research Methods for Critical Inquiry: An Emergent Method of Analysis from the Social Sciences

Elizabeth A. Cartier is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the Isenberg School at UMass-Amherst. Her research interests include: host and tourist behavior, tourism culture, and the critical aspects of power and control. Human resources, leadership and tourism are the focus of her teaching