Research rigor and the gap between academic journals and business practitioners

• Purpose: This paper examines the engagement of business practitioners with academic business research. The main purpose is to assess whether there is a gap between academic research and business people, and, if so, how to bridge this gap. • Design/methodology/approach: Over 150 senior business practitioners were surveyed, in order to capture their views on the usefulness of academic research to them in their roles as practicing managers. Survey questions covered both their current access and reading of business related publications and what the ideal academic business journal should be, in terms of access and contents. • Findings: Academic journals are not very well known among business professionals. If these professionals could choose, they would like academic journals to be written by experienced business people, to contain business cases and to be accessible on line. Existing academic business journal ‘repositories’, such as Google Scholar, are not mentioned in the survey results. • Practical implications: The findings indicate that potential solutions to bridge the gap between academic journals and business practitioners should not be overly complicated to implement, and would greatly help bring these two communities closer, with mutually enriching results. • Originality/value: This article takes a very pragmatic view of the gap between academic journals and business practitioners, and seeks to assess this gap in terms of how it can be bridged on an everyday basis, rather than take a theoretical approach. It begs for the definition of actionable next steps

Multiple roles of student and instructor in university teaching and learning processes

This paper examines six key university teaching and learning processes using Checkland’s CATWOE mnemonic and the SIPOC model from lean operations theory. The analysis shows that students play a number of different roles in these processes: as customer, actor, supplier, raw material and end product. The analysis also shows that instructors play a number of different roles in these self-same processes: as supplier, actor and customer. The paper concludes that viewing students as customers is overly simplistic. The paper suggests that students, instructors and support staff must accept that students play a multiplicity of roles, sometimes simultaneously, in university teaching and learning processes. The paper suggests that awareness among instructors of the different processes taking place and of the roles that students and instructors themselves play in those processes will improve the ability of universities to carry out their teaching and learning mission

An evolutionary algorithmic approach to determine the Nash equilibrium in a duopoly with nonlinearities and constraints

This paper presents an algorithmic approach to obtain the Nash Equilibrium in a duopoly. Analytical solutions to duopolistic competition draw on principles of game theory and require simplifying assumptions such as symmetrical payoff functions, linear demand and linear cost. Such assumptions can reduce the practical use of duopolistic models. In contrast, we use an evolutionary algorithmic approach (EAA) to determine the Nash equilibrium values. This approach has the advantage that it can deal with and find optimum values for duopolistic competition modelled using non-linear functions. In the paper we gradually build up the competitive situation by considering non-linear demand functions, non-linear cost functions, production and environmental constraints, and production in discrete bands. We employ particle swarm optimization with composite particles (PSOCP), a variant of particle swarm optimization, as the evolutionary algorithm. Through the paper we explicitly demonstrate how EAA can solve games with constrained payoff functions that cannot be dealt with by traditional analytical methods. We solve several benchmark problems from the literature and compare the results obtained from EAA with those obtained analytically, demonstrating the resilience and rigor of our EAA solution approach

Implications of game theory for theoretical underpinning of cooperative relations in workplace partnership

This paper clarifies the ongoing debate over the key factors underpinning cooperative relations between management and trade unions by drawing on the once-off and repeated prisoner’s dilemma models. It argues that the lower the risk to achieve a ‘win-win’ outcome and the longer the time horizon for workplace partnership the more likely is for the two parties to cooperate

Learning management systems and their impact on academic work

Enterprise-wide, repository-based, ubiquitously available, socially-oriented technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and virtual learning environments (VLE) are altering the nature of institutional teaching and learning processes. These technology induced changes are likely in turn to have an impact on the work experience of academics. This paper qualitatively examines the impact of LMS on several important academic relationships: with students, with colleagues, with the institution itself and with home. The research found that academics mainly used LMS as repositories of materials with some additional use for managing assessment; however, they make little use of communication, administration or monitoring features. Academics use LMS in ways and for purposes that suit themselves: use of LMS has not changed teaching habits or approaches. Academics were not concerned about impact of the technology on home-life or work-life balance. Academics reported little concern about intellectual property but nevertheless took measures to protect teaching materials

Ex-post service contract performance management

This paper highlights how contract incompleteness can threaten the performance of public procurement facilities management contracts during their implementation stages, based on a multiple case study comprising five public procurement services contracts. The paper takes a principle-agent view and with the unit of analysis being the contract itself. The paper shows that contract contingencies are almost inevitable and may stem from the written contract or from the participating organisations. Written and unwritten contract management mechanisms were used in practice to deal with contingencies as they arose in the services case studies examined. The paper found that written contracts do not always provide satisfactory remedies for unexpected contingencies. Ex post mechanisms were used to manage the contract including incentives, information systems and signals. Time, resource or position signals were used in all five cases and provided an effective mechanism to manage unexpected contingencies in written contracts that proved to be incomplete

Shielding, hospital admission and mortality among 1216 people with total laryngectomy in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey from the first national lockdown

BackgroundPeople with a total laryngectomy (PTL) rely on a permanent opening in their neck (stoma) to breathe. This altered anatomy may increase susceptibility to contracting and transmitting SARS-CoV-2.AimsTo report on (1) the frequency and characteristics of PTL who tested positive for COVID-19, (2) the receipt of advice regarding shielding and patient self-reports of shielding, (3) hospital admissions and length of stay, and (4) mortality rates in this group during the first UK national lockdown.Methods & proceduresThis is a cross-sectional survey and case note review. National Health Service (NHS) centres providing care to PTL were invited to participate via the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists' (RCSLT) Head & Neck Clinical Excellence Networks and through social media. PTL were reviewed by their speech and language therapist either in person or via telehealth between 30 March and 30 September 2020. Data were collected within the time frame covered by the Control of Patient Information (COPI) notice issued for COVID-19 and included information on COVID-19 testing, shielding, hospital admissions, length of stay and deaths. Information was submitted to the lead NHS site using a custom designed data-capture worksheet. Analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, including proportions and frequency counts. Pearson's Chi squared tests were used to compare categorical data using a 5% significance level.Outcomes & resultsData were obtained from 1216 PTL from 26 centres across the UK. A total of 81% were male; mean age was 70 years (28-97 years). Of the total group, 12% received a COVID-19 test. A total of 24 (2% of total sample) tested positive for COVID-19. Almost one-third of PTL (32%) received a government letter or were advised to shield by a healthcare professional. During the data collection time frame, 12% had a hospital admission (n = 151) with a median length of stay of 1 day (1-133 days), interquartile range (IQR) = 17 days. A total of 20 of these admissions (13%) had tested positive for COVID-19 with a median length of stay of 26 days, IQR = 49 days. The overall mortality was 4% (41 patients), with eight deaths occurring within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19.Conclusions & implicationsThis study highlighted the lack of routine national data for neck-breathers with which to compare the current findings. Greater testing in the community is necessary to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 in PTL and if this group is indeed more susceptible. The potential for nasopharyngeal and tracheal aspirates to show differing results when testing for COVID-19 in neck-breathers requires further investigation.What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subject? People with total laryngectomy (PTL) have an altered anatomy for breathing and speaking. The presence of a neck stoma poses an additional virus entry point aside from the nose, mouth and conjunctiva. This could increase the susceptibility to COVID-19 for PTL. What this paper adds? This is the first national audit to provide data on shielding, hospital admissions and mortality for patients with total laryngectomy in the UK over the pandemic. The overall mortality in PTL over the first lockdown did not appear to be higher than the "best case" estimates from previous years. However, one in three PTL who acquired COVID-19 and were admitted to hospital, died within 28 days of testing positive. These findings are relevant to the current care and management of PTL over the pandemic but also highlights important knowledge gaps. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This study highlights gaps in the collection of baseline information on hospital admissions, length of stay and mortality for people with laryngectomy in the UK, restricting comparisons between the current data and historical data. The need for further research on whether neck-breathers should be tested via both nasopharyngeal and tracheal aspirates is important not just currently, but also in case of any future respiratory epidemics

Efficacy of Ketamine in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review

Background: Despite advances in behavioral and pharmacotherapy interventions, substance use disorders (SUDs) are frequently refractory to treatment. Glutamatergic dysregulation has received increasing attention as one common neuropathology across multiple substances of abuse. Ketamine is a potent N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamatergic receptor antagonist which has been found to be effective in the treatment of severe depression. Here we review the literature on the efficacy of ketamine in the treatment of SUDs.Methods: A systematic review of the PubMed, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases was undertaken to identify completed and ongoing human studies of the effectiveness of ketamine in the treatment of SUDs between January 1997 and January 2018.Results and conclusion: Seven completed studies were identified. Two studies focused on alcohol use disorder, two focused on cocaine use disorder, and three focused on opioid use disorder. Both cocaine studies found improvements in craving, motivation, and decreased cocaine use rates, although studies were limited by small sample sizes, a homogeneous population and short follow-up. Studies of alcohol and opioid use disorders found improvement in abstinence rates in the ketamine group, with significant between-group effects noted for up to two years following a single infusion, although these were not placebo-controlled trials. These results suggest that ketamine may facilitate abstinence across multiple substances of abuse and warrants broader investigation in addiction treatment. We conclude with an overview of the six ongoing studies of ketamine in the treatment of alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, and opioid use disorders and discuss future directions in this emerging area of research