Willingness to Comply with Corporate Law: An Interdisciplinary Teaching Method in Higher Education

Using an innovation training project, an interdisciplinary cross-sectional teaching strategy was developed to enhance students’ willingness to comply with the law. Thirty-five business, finance and accounting teachers examined the effects of ethical education on 484 university students’ willingness to comply with corporate law. Ethical education was based on building students’ ethical decisions on three court judgments in the new Spanish Corporate Governance Code. The ethical training was carried out by developing and applying social justice counter arguments. This perspective allowed students to imagine what decisions other person could have taken if they had managed the company ethically. The results suggest that ethics education in higher education can improve the willingness to comply the law. This methodology can be applied to interdisciplinary departments teaching ethics in business, finance and accounting

MIMOPack: A High Performance Computing Library for MIMO Communication Systems

[EN] Nowadays, several communication standards are emerging and evolving, searching higher transmission rates, reliability and coverage. This expansion is primarily driven by the continued increase in consumption of mobile multimedia services due to the emergence of new handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets. One of the most significant techniques employed to meet these demands is the use of multiple transmit and receive antennas, known as MIMO systems. The use of this technology allows to increase the transmission rate and the quality of the transmission through the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver sides. MIMO technologies have become an essential key in several wireless standards such as WLAN, WiMAX and LTE. These technologies will be incorporated also in future standards, therefore is expected in the coming years a great deal of research in this field. Clearly, the study of MIMO systems is critical in the current investigation, however the problems that arise from this technology are very complex. High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, and specifically, modern hardware architectures as multi-core and many-cores (e.g Graphics Processing Units (GPU)) are playing a key role in the development of efficient and low-complexity algorithms for MIMO transmissions. Proof of this is that the number of scientific contributions and research projects related to its use has increased in the last years. Also, some high performance libraries have been implemented as tools for researchers involved in the development of future communication standards. Two of the most popular libraries are: IT++ that is a library based on the use of some optimized libraries for multi-core processors and the Communications System Toolbox designed for use with MATLAB, which uses GPU computing. However, there is not a library able to run on a heterogeneous platform using all the available resources. In view of the high computational requirements in MIMO application research and the shortage of tools able to satisfy them, we have made a special effort to develop a library to ease the development of adaptable parallel applications in accordance with the different architectures of the executing platform. The library, called MIMOPack, aims to implement efficiently using parallel computing, a set of functions to perform some of the critical stages of MIMO communication systems simulation. The main contribution of the thesis is the implementation of efficient Hard and Soft output detectors, since the detection stage is considered the most complex part of the communication process. These detectors are highly configurable and many of them include preprocessing techniques that reduce the computational cost and increase the performance. The proposed library shows three important features: portability, efficiency and easy of use. Current realease allows GPUs and multi-core computation, or even simultaneously, since it is designed to use on heterogeneous machines. The interface of the functions are common to all environments in order to simplify the use of the library. Moreover, some of the functions are callable from MATLAB increasing the portability of developed codes between different computing environments. According to the library design and the performance assessment, we consider that MIMOPack may facilitate industrial and academic researchers the implementation of scientific codes without having to know different programming languages and machine architectures. This will allow to include more complex algorithms in their simulations and obtain their results faster. This is particularly important in the industry, since the manufacturers work to analyze and to propose their own technologies with the aim that it will be approved as a standard. Thus allowing to enforce their intellectual property rights over their competitors, who should obtain the corresponding licenses to include these technologies into their products.[ES] En la actualidad varios estándares de comunicación están surgiendo buscando velocidades de transmisión más altas y mayor fiabilidad. Esta expansión está impulsada por el aumento en el consumo de servicios multimedia debido a la aparición de nuevos dispositivos como los smartphones y las tabletas. Una de las técnicas empleadas más importantes es el uso de múltiples antenas de transmisión y recepción, conocida como sistemas MIMO, que permite aumentar la velocidad y la calidad de la transmisión. Las tecnologías MIMO se han convertido en una parte esencial en diferentes estándares tales como WLAN, WiMAX y LTE. Estas tecnologías se incorporarán también en futuros estándares, por lo tanto, se espera en los próximos años una gran cantidad de investigación en este campo. Está claro que el estudio de los sistemas MIMO es crítico en la investigación actual, sin embargo los problemas que surgen de esta tecnología son muy complejos. La sistemas de computación de alto rendimiento, y en concreto, las arquitecturas hardware actuales como multi-core y many-core (p. ej. GPUs) están jugando un papel clave en el desarrollo de algoritmos eficientes y de baja complejidad en las transmisiones MIMO. Prueba de ello es que el número de contribuciones científicas y proyectos de investigación relacionados con su uso se han incrementado en el últimos años. Algunas librerías de alto rendimiento se están utilizando como herramientas por investigadores en el desarrollo de futuros estándares. Dos de las librerías más destacadas son: IT++ que se basa en el uso de distintas librerías optimizadas para procesadores multi-core y el paquete Communications System Toolbox diseñada para su uso con MATLAB, que utiliza computación con GPU. Sin embargo, no hay una biblioteca capaz de ejecutarse en una plataforma heterogénea. En vista de los altos requisitos computacionales en la investigación MIMO y la escasez de herramientas capaces de satisfacerlos, hemos implementado una librería que facilita el desarrollo de aplicaciones paralelas adaptables de acuerdo con las diferentes arquitecturas de la plataforma de ejecución. La librería, llamada MIMOPack, implementa de manera eficiente un conjunto de funciones para llevar a cabo algunas de las etapas críticas en la simulación de un sistema de comunicación MIMO. La principal aportación de la tesis es la implementación de detectores eficientes de salida Hard y Soft, ya que la etapa de detección es considerada la parte más compleja en el proceso de comunicación. Estos detectores son altamente configurables y muchos de ellos incluyen técnicas de preprocesamiento que reducen el coste computacional y aumentan el rendimiento. La librería propuesta tiene tres características importantes: la portabilidad, la eficiencia y facilidad de uso. La versión actual permite computación en GPU y multi-core, incluso simultáneamente, ya que está diseñada para ser utilizada sobre plataformas heterogéneas que explotan toda la capacidad computacional. Para facilitar el uso de la biblioteca, las interfaces de las funciones son comunes para todas las arquitecturas. Algunas de las funciones se pueden llamar desde MATLAB aumentando la portabilidad de códigos desarrollados entre los diferentes entornos. De acuerdo con el diseño de la biblioteca y la evaluación del rendimiento, consideramos que MIMOPack puede facilitar la implementación de códigos sin tener que saber programar con diferentes lenguajes y arquitecturas. MIMOPack permitirá incluir algoritmos más complejos en las simulaciones y obtener los resultados más rápidamente. Esto es particularmente importante en la industria, ya que los fabricantes trabajan para proponer sus propias tecnologías lo antes posible con el objetivo de que sean aprobadas como un estándar. De este modo, los fabricantes pueden hacer valer sus derechos de propiedad intelectual frente a sus competidores, quienes luego deben obtener las correspon[CA] En l'actualitat diversos estàndards de comunicació estan sorgint i evolucionant cercant velocitats de transmissió més altes i major fiabilitat. Aquesta expansió, està impulsada pel continu augment en el consum de serveis multimèdia a causa de l'aparició de nous dispositius portàtils com els smartphones i les tablets. Una de les tècniques més importants és l'ús de múltiples antenes de transmissió i recepció (MIMO) que permet augmentar la velocitat de transmissió i la qualitat de transmissió. Les tecnologies MIMO s'han convertit en una part essencial en diferents estàndards inalàmbrics, tals com WLAN, WiMAX i LTE. Aquestes tecnologies s'incorporaran també en futurs estàndards, per tant, s'espera en els pròxims anys una gran quantitat d'investigació en aquest camp. L'estudi dels sistemes MIMO és crític en la recerca actual, no obstant açó, els problemes que sorgeixen d'aquesta tecnologia són molt complexos. Els sistemes de computació d'alt rendiment com els multi-core i many-core (p. ej. GPUs)), estan jugant un paper clau en el desenvolupament d'algoritmes eficients i de baixa complexitat en les transmissions MIMO. Prova d'açò és que el nombre de contribucions científiques i projectes d'investigació relacionats amb el seu ús s'han incrementat en els últims anys. Algunes llibreries d'alt rendiment estan utilitzant-se com a eines per investigadors involucrats en el desenvolupament de futurs estàndards. Dos de les llibreries més destacades són: IT++ que és una llibreria basada en lús de diferents llibreries optimitzades per a processadors multi-core i el paquet Communications System Toolbox dissenyat per al seu ús amb MATLAB, que utilitza computació amb GPU. No obstant açò, no hi ha una biblioteca capaç d'executar-se en una plataforma heterogènia. Degut als alts requisits computacionals en la investigació MIMO i l'escacès d'eines capaces de satisfer-los, hem implementat una llibreria que facilita el desenvolupament d'aplicacions paral·leles adaptables d'acord amb les diferentes arquitectures de la plataforma d'ejecució. La llibreria, anomenada MIMOPack, implementa de manera eficient, un conjunt de funcions per dur a terme algunes de les etapes crítiques en la simulació d'un sistema de comunicació MIMO. La principal aportació de la tesi és la implementació de detectors eficients d'exida Hard i Soft, ja que l'etapa de detecció és considerada la part més complexa en el procés de comunicació. Estos detectors són altament configurables i molts d'ells inclouen tècniques de preprocessament que redueixen el cost computacional i augmenten el rendiment. La llibreria proposta té tres característiques importants: la portabilitat, l'eficiència i la facilitat d'ús. La versió actual permet computació en GPU i multi-core, fins i tot simultàniament, ja que està dissenyada per a ser utilitzada sobre plataformes heterogènies que exploten tota la capacitat computacional. Amb el fi de simplificar l'ús de la biblioteca, les interfaces de les funcions són comunes per a totes les arquitectures. Algunes de les funcions poden ser utilitzades des de MATLAB augmentant la portabilitat de còdics desenvolupats entre els diferentes entorns. D'acord amb el disseny de la biblioteca i l'evaluació del rendiment, considerem que MIMOPack pot facilitar la implementació de còdics a investigadors sense haver de saber programar amb diferents llenguatges i arquitectures. MIMOPack permetrà incloure algoritmes més complexos en les seues simulacions i obtindre els seus resultats més ràpid. Açò és particularment important en la industria, ja que els fabricants treballen per a proposar les seues pròpies tecnologies el més prompte possible amb l'objectiu que siguen aprovades com un estàndard. D'aquesta menera, els fabricants podran fer valdre els seus drets de propietat intel·lectual enfront dels seus competidors, els qui després han d'obtenir les corresponents llicències si voleRamiro Sánchez, C. (2015). MIMOPack: A High Performance Computing Library for MIMO Communication Systems [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/53930TESISPremios Extraordinarios de tesis doctorale

Planning clil units in primary education from a cognitive perspective

The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach has experienced a considerable growth and it is being progressively integrated into curricula all across Europe. It is a dual educational approach in which content and language must be combined. This approach introduces a new cognitive dimension which is missing in other language learning approaches by the addition of a new competence: using the language to learn. This study intends to analyze a lesson planning process of a CLIL Primary School Science lesson at a Spanish state school focusing on the cognitive dimension of the learning process of both Science content and foreign language skills. Keywords: CLIL, cognition, lesson planning, Science, Primary Education

JEFFFREY SACHS versus SALA i MARTÍN : revisión crítica a las propuestas de acción económica para la erradicación de la pobreza

El objetivo del presente trabajo es el de realizar una revisión crítica de dos planteamientos distintos para conseguir erradicar de la pobreza. Los dos planteamientos están desarrollados por dos economistas: Jeffrey Sachs y Sala i Martín. El primero escribe un libro titulado “El fin de la pobreza”, en el cual el capítulo 13 explica “qué inversiones hay que realizar para acabar con la pobreza”. Los planteamientos de Sala i Martín los recoge Guy Sorman en su libro “La economía no miente”, en el cual, hay un capítulo titulado “El fin de la pobreza masiva” con citas constantes a Sala i Martín y en el que Sorman se posiciona claramente a favor de los argumentos de éste. Los dos planteamientos son expuestos durante la clase por el alumno y se espera conocer la opinión que tengan los compañeros/as del curso y el profesor sobre los textos. Sería incluso deseable poder llegar durante la clase a una conclusión de consenso para tratar de dlucidar qué vía es la más apropiada para el objetivo último de erradicación de la pobreza

Digital Marketing for Sustainable Growth: Business Models and Online Campaigns Using Sustainable Strategies

t: In recent years, digital marketing has transformed the way in which companies communicate with their customers around the world. The increase in the use of social networks and how users communicate with companies on the Internet has given rise to new business models based on the bidirectionality of communication between companies and Internet users. Digital marketing, new business models, online advertising campaigns, and other digital strategies have gathered user opinions and comments through this new online channel. In this way, companies have started to see the digital ecosystem as not only their present, but also as their future. From this long-term perspective, companies are concerned about sustainability and the growth of their business models. There are new business models on the Internet that support social causes, new platforms aimed at supporting social and sustainable projects, and digital advertising campaigns promoting sustainability. The overarching aim of this Special Issue was to analyze the development of these new strategies as well as their influence on the sustainability of digital marketing strategies. Therefore, we aimed to analyze how companies adopt these new technologies in a digital environment that is increasingly concerned with the sustainability of business models and actions on the Internet

Are black friday deals worth it? Mining twitter users' sentiment and behavior response

The Black Friday event has become a global opportunity for marketing and companies’ strategies aimed at increasing sales. The present study aims to understand consumer behavior through the analysis of user-generated content (UGC) on social media with respect to the Black Friday 2018 offers published by the 23 largest technology companies in Spain. To this end, we analyzed Twitter-based UGC about companies’ offers using a three-step data text mining process. First, a Latent Dirichlet Allocation Model (LDA) was used to divide the sample into topics related to Black Friday. In the next step, sentiment analysis (SA) using Python was carried out to determine the feelings towards the identified topics and offers published by the companies on Twitter. Thirdly and finally, a data-text mining process called textual analysis (TA) was performed to identify insights that could help companies to improve their promotion and marketing strategies as well as to better understand the customer behavior on social media. The results show that consumers had positive perceptions of such topics as exclusive promotions (EP) and smartphones (SM); by contrast, topics such as fraud (FA), insults and noise (IN), and customer support (CS) were negatively perceived by customers. Based on these results, we offer guidelines to practitioners to improve their social media communication. Our results also have theoretical implications that can promote further research in this area

What role does corporate governance play in the intention to use cloud computing technology?

This paper aims to investigate the factors which promote the adoption of cloud-based technology. It strives for a better understanding of the impact of corporate governance on the adoption of this technology. This study concentrated on executives in companies where the use of cloud computing may give a competitive advantage. The main contribution of this work is to propose a model for the influence of corporate governance and other factors that determine the adoption of this technology. A questionnaire was prepared after taking into consideration the reviewed literature. The sample consisted of 164 technology companies from Southern Spain that already use the new economic models for digital solutions. The methodology used to analyze the structural model was the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results of the survey showed the influence of Corporate Governance and the procedures and practices of the organization on the adoption of cloud computing and the associated business model. This study aims to point out the importance of corporate support and Knowledge Management for the correct and successful adoption of this technology and to show the effects on the new business model of billing for the use of available resources. View Full-Tex

Attitudes expressed in online comments about environmental factors in the tourism sector: an exploratory study

The object of this exploratory study is to identify the positive, neutral and negative environment factors that affect users who visit Spanish hotels in order to help the hotel managers decide how to improve the quality of the services provided. To carry out the research a Sentiment Analysis was initially performed, grouping the sample of tweets (n = 14459) according to the feelings shown and then a textual analysis was used to identify the key environment factors in these feelings using the qualitative analysis software Nvivo (QSR International, Melbourne, Australia). The results of the exploratory study present the key environment factors that affect the users experience when visiting hotels in Spain, such as actions that support local traditions and products, the maintenance of rural areas respecting the local environment and nature, or respecting air quality in the areas where hotels have facilities and offer services. The conclusions of the research can help hotels improve their services and the impact on the environment, as well as improving the visitors experience based on the positive, neutral and negative environment factors which the visitors themselves identified

What Drives Volunteers to Accept a Digital Platform That Supports NGO Projects?

Technology has become the driving force for both economic and social change. However, the recruitment of volunteers into the projects of non-profit-making organizations (NGO) does not usually make much use of information and communication technology (ICT). Organizations in this sector should incorporate and use digital platforms in order to attract the most well-prepared and motivated young volunteers. The main aim of this paper is to use an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to analyze the acceptance of a technological platform that provides a point of contact for non-profit-making organizations and potential volunteers. The TAM is used to find the impact that this new recruitment tool for volunteers can have on an ever-evolving industry. The TAM has been extended with the image and reputation and visual identity variables in order to measure the influence of these non-profit-making organizations on the establishment and implementation of a social network recruitment platform. The data analyzed are from a sample of potential volunteers from non-profit-making organizations in Spain. A structural equation approach using partial least squares was used to evaluate the acceptance model. The results provide an important contribution to the literature about communication in digital environments by non-profit-making organizations as well as strategies to improve their digital reputation

Docencia virtual en asignaturas gráficas: balance de la utilización de la plataforma WebCT (US.ES)

La comunicación aborda el desarrollo de competencias transversales a partir del uso de las TIC¿s. Se parte además de la base de que dichas competencias garantizan la formación integral de futuros profesionales (`Saber', `Saber hacer', `Saber estar', `Saber ser'). El objetivo prioritario de la comunicación es, por tanto, el análisis y verificación de la consecución de competencias transversales, en asignaturas gráficas de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Sevilla, haciendo uso de la plataforma de docencia virtual WebCT. Por otro lado, las metodologías utilizadas en esta experiencia de innovación docente son el PBL (Aprendizaje Basado en Problemas) y el Aprendizaje Colaborativo, por considerarlas ambas estrategias que conectan la formación universitaria con el futuro profesional. Como resultados contrastables de la utilización de las TIC¿s en relación con las competencias transversales, cabe citar, no sólo el notorio aumento de la motivación del alumnado, sino sobre todo y muy especialmente la importancia concedida al proceso en relación con la mejora de la calidad de los productos de aprendizaje. Esto es así, al poner en relación los conocimientos a adquirir con las herramientas para su consecución (competencias instrumentales), pero también con las capacidades de relación social (competencias interpersonales), además de con la gestión del proceso en su conjunto (competencias sistémicas). En definitiva, se trata de cuestiones todas ellas que garantizan, sin lugar a dudas, una docencia de calidad.The communication addresses the development of transversal skills through the use of ICT. It is also part of the basis that these competencies guarantee the integral formation of future professionals (Knowledge, Know-how, best manners, how to be). The primary objective of the communication is therefore the analysis and verification of the achievement of transversal skills in graphic subjects of the School of Architecture of the University of Seville, using virtual platform WebCT teaching. On the other hand, the methodologies used in this experience of teaching innovation are the PBL (Problem Based Learning) and collaborative learning, considering them both strategies connecting university education with professional future. As testable results of the use of ICT in relation to the transversal competences, include not only the marked increase in student motivation, but especially and particularly the importance given to the process in relation to improving product quality learning. This is, by the combination of knowledge to acquire the tools to achieve them (instrumental skills), but also with the capabilities of social relationship (interpersonal skills), in addition to managing the process as a whole (systemic skills) . Ultimately, this is all issues that guarantee, no doubt, quality teaching