Responsible practices in the wild: an actor-network perspective on mobile apps in learning as translation(s)

Competence to enact responsible practices, such as recycling waste or boycotting irresponsible companies, is core to learning for responsibility. We explore the role of apps in learning such responsible practices ‘in the wild,’ outside formal educational environments over a 3-week period. Learners maintained a daily diary in which they reflected on their learning of responsible practices with apps. Through a thematic analysis of 557 app mentions in the diaries, we identified five types of app-agency: cognitive, action, interpersonal, personal development, and material. Findings were interpreted from an actor-network perspective using the lens of ‘translation.’ To understand how apps enabled the learning of responsible practices, we analyzed app agency throughout four moments of translation: problematization, interessement, enrolment, and mobilization. Based on our analysis of how students’ app mentions changed over time, we further theorize learning as a sequence of subtranslations that form the larger translation process: learning as translation(s). Each subtranslation cycle is centered on enrolling a different set of human and nonhuman actors, with their competence, into the network. We contribute to the learning for responsibility field by showcasing how app-enabled learning may create real-life actor networks enacting responsibility, and by priming an actor-network pedagogy for ‘learning in the wild.’ We also contribute to the actor-network learning discussion by conceptualizing heterogeneous human–nonhuman competence and the first processual model of learning as translation(s)

Charles Brasch, a visual poet : A study of natural imagery in Charles Brasch's poetry

In the field of post-war New Zealand literature, Charles Brasch is a prominent figure. Surprisingly little has been written on a man who edited the first successful literary periodical in this country, who was a generous patron and supporter of the arts, and who was a prolific writer in both prose and poetry. He is best known for his twenty-year-long editorship of Landfall; as a poet he has received less recognition than perhaps he deserves. In researching this study, I have discovered that the general impression of his poetry is of a verse which is rather narrow in scope; for it is the work of his first two volumes which has received most critical attention, and on the whole this is descriptive 'landscape poetry' which deals, superficially at least, with nationalist concerns. I feel, too, that in recent decades there has been a tendency to view the Landfall generation, European and male-dominated as it was, in a rather negative light - an inevitable reaction, perhaps, to the widely promoted reputation in the forties, fifties and early sixties, of these writers as the initiators of an established New Zealand culture. This, too, is a possible reason why Charles Brasch, even more European-orientated than most of his contemporaries, has been somewhat neglected in the literature of the 1970s and 1980s. It is the aim of this study to place Brasch's writing back in a realistic perspective, regardless of literary vogue, and to present it neither as solely 'landscape' nor solely 'indigenous' poetry but rather as work of a universal and timeless relevance. It is largely due to Brasch's constant reference to the unchanging absolutes of nature that his poetry transcends any categorical boundaries of nationality or era; and it is the different ways in which this natural imagery is used throughout the course of Brasch's writing that are the main focus of this work. There is a marked development in the way landscape is included throughout Brasch's six volumes, which constitute the main corpus of his poetical work: the specific concrete locations of the first three volumes give way to the symbolic imagery of the fourth and fifth, while in the sixth there is a partial return to the real. These shifts mirror the changes in the poet's preoccupations over several decades of writing, and, if only for this reason, I feel it is vital to view Brasch's work as a unified whole rather than to take a piecemeal approach. In order to outline this broad development, the divisions in this study are made according to volumes, in chronological order. A focus on landscape is, for Brasch, not often an end in itself, but instead provides him with the means of objectively expressing his own intensely private world, thereby commenting on the central facts of all human experience. This study presents my opinion that such a use of landscape imagery not only results in work of a strikingly visual impact, but also creates poetry of a timeless depth and quality, making it as enduring as the natural world around which it is centred

Strategic and operational remanufacturing mental models: a study on Chinese automotive consumers buying choice

Purpose Remanufacturing is the only end-of-life (EOL) treatment process that results in as-new functional and aesthetic quality and warranty. However, applying mental model theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that the conception of remanufacturing as an EOL process activates an operational mental model (OMM) that connects to resource reuse, environmental concern and cost savings and is thus opposed to a strategic mental model (SMM) that associates remanufacturing with quality improvements and potential price increases. Design/methodology/approach The authors support the argument by empirically assessing consumers’ multi-attribute decision process for cars with remanufactured or new engines among 202 car buyers in China. The authors conduct a conjoint analysis and use the results as input to simulate market shares for various markets on which these cars compete. Findings The results suggest that consumers on average attribute reduced utility to remanufactured engines, thus in line with the OMM. However, the authors identify a segment accounting for about 30 per cent of the market with preference for remanufactured engines. The fact that this segment has reduced environmental concern supports the SMM idea that remanufactured products can be bought for their quality. Research limitations/implications A single-country (China) single-brand (Volkswagen) study is used to support the conceptualised mental models. While this strengthens the internal validity of the results, future research could improve the external validity by using more representative sampling in a wider array of empirical contexts. Moreover, future work could test the theory more explicitly. Practical implications By selling cars with remanufactured engines to customers with a SMM that values the at least equal performance of remanufactured products, firms can enhance their profit from remanufactured products. In addition, promoting SMM enables sustainable business models for the sharing economy. Originality/value As a community, the authors need to more effectively reflect on shaping mental models that disconnect remanufacturing from analogies that convey inferior quality and performance associations. Firms can overcome reduced utility perceptions not only by providing discounts, i.e. sharing the economic benefits of remanufacturing, but even more by increasing the warranty, thus sharing remanufacturing’s performance benefit and reducing consumers’ risk, a mechanism widely acknowledged in product diffusion but neglected in remanufacturing so far

A neural network approach to predicting price negotiation outcomes in business-to-business contexts

Price premiums are a key profit driver for long-term business relationships. For sellers in business-to-business (B2B) relationships, it is important to have appropriate strategies to negotiate price increases without trading off the relationships with their buyers. This paper aims to understand the annual price negotiation processes of companies by predicting whether a seller’s reservation price, target price, and initial offer positively affect the price negotiation outcome between the sellers and buyers. Data from 284 B2B relationships of a chemicals supplier based in Germany was used to examine our research model. In order to capture the non-linear decisions that are involved in price negotiations and to address collinearity among negotiations’ determinants, neural network analysis was used to predict the factors that influence price negotiation outcome. The neural network model was then compared with the results from regression analysis. Compared to regression analysis, the neural network has a lower standard error, and it showed that target price played a more important role in B2B price negotiations. The neural network was also able measure non-linear, non-compensatory decisions that are involved in price negotiations. The results imply that neural networks should be more widely used by researchers to address the threats that multi-collinearity poses. For companies, the results imply that price targets should be actively managed, e.g. through clear financial aims or through seminars aiming to help sales personnel to establish more challenging negotiation aims

Greening the field? How NGOs are shaping corporate social responsibility in China

"China's state-led model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) does not seem to present a promising environment for the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Nevertheless, we observe recent examples of NGO involvement in CSR initiatives. Chinese NGOs are using the CSR platform to challenge the environmental practices of firms operating in China. We take a field-theoretical approach that focuses on the agency of actors. We show how an international NGO proposes a new standard and how Chinese NGOs use local environmental information disclosure laws to engage with firms in the textile supply chain. We find that NGOs leverage the power of brands to influence the practices of Chinese suppliers. However, we find differences in the framing and tactics employed by international NGOs versus their Chinese counterparts. Field analysis helps better understand the actors in the field of CSR, along with their motivations and their resources, and it offers a useful perspective on civil society development in China." (author's abstract