Philosophy Theory Into Entrepreneurial Education Practice: A Holistic Model

In the entrepreneurial education field, the “perfect” program of teaching entrepreneurship has been largely debated. In this paper, provocatively, we used only different philosophical thoughts in order to reconstruct a holistic pedagogical model suitable for entrepreneurial education. The model is based on two famous philosophical dichotomies, respectively the Kantian opposition of freedom versus determinism and the Aristotelian division into praxis and poiesis. These elements, specifically adapted to an entrepreneurial context, may lead educators and curricula developers in the “tangle forest” of contents and skills that should be transferred to students. In particular the model offers an easy tool that clearly defines areas of intervention to teach entrepreneurship. The final scope is to offer simultaneously appealing to students concerning entrepreneurial activities, as desirability, and tools for such activities as feasibility, articulated in two degrees of outcomes: one internal, as conduct and experience, and one pragmatic, as technical skills

unconscious priming by illusory figures the role of the salient region

In this study we provide evidence that unconscious priming can be obtained as a result of the processing of the salient region (SR) of illusory figures and without that of illusory contours (ICs). We used a metacontrast masking paradigm where illusory figures were masked by real figures. In Experiment 1 we found a clear priming effect when participants were asked to discriminate between square and diamond masks preceded by congruent or incongruent illusory square or diamond primes. It is likely that metacontrast impairs the processing of ICs but not of the SR; therefore the above result strongly suggests that the priming effect was specifically related to the processing of the SR. In Experiment 2 participants were tested in the same task as in Experiment 1 with additional primes in which the inducers were presented in the same locations but their shapes were changed so as to modify the global configuration. We termed these primes High, Low, and No Salient Region (HSR, LSR, and NSR, respectively). The HSR condition replicated Experiment 1, whereas in the LSR and NSR conditions the priming effect got progressively smaller. The results of Experiment 1 were replicated with the priming effect significantly larger in the HSR than in all other conditions. It was also larger in the HSR than in LSR condition and smallest but still present in the NSR condition. Taken together, these results indicate that the unconscious processing of only the SR yields a priming effect and that a reduction of the saliency of the SR leads to a reduction of the priming effect, while its elimination does not abolish it

The role of geographical distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and knowledge transfer

Purpose: This paper's purpose is to investigate the ways in which the geographical distance between headquarters and subsidiaries moderates the relationship between cultural intelligence and the knowledge transfer process. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia from several European and non-European countries was used to test the hypotheses. Data were collected using questionnaires, while the methodology employed to test the relationship between the variables was Partial least square. Furthermore, interaction-moderation effect was utilised to test the impact of geographical distance and, for testing control variables, Partial least square multigroup analysis was used. Findings: Cultural Intelligence plays a significant role in the knowledge transfer process performance. However, geographical distance has the power to moderate this relationship based on the direction of knowledge transfer. In conventional knowledge transfer, geographical distance has no significant impact. On the contrary, data have shown that, in reverse knowledge transfer, geographical distance has a moderately relevant effect. We supposed that these findings could be connected to the specific location of the knowledge produced by subsidiaries. Practical implications: Multinational companies should take into consideration that the further away a subsidiary is from the headquarters, and the varying difference between cultures, cannot be completely mitigated by the ability of the manager to deal with cultural differences, namely cultural intelligence. Thus, multinational companies need to allocate resources to facilitate the knowledge transfer between subsidiaries. Originality/value: The present study stresses the importance of cultural intelligence in the knowledge transfer process, opening up a new stream of research inside these two areas of research

A three decade mixed-method bibliometric investigation of the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (IEEE TEM) from 1985 to 2017. This paper employs a mixed-method examination based on an in-depth interview with the new editor-in-chief regarding the challenges for the future of IEEE TEM, along with a bibliometric analysis of the journal. By using Web of Science Core Collection data, the analysis maps the knowledge produced and disseminated by IEEE TEM, revealing the most cited papers, the most frequently occurring keywords and the interconnection between them, the most prolific authors and their coauthorship network, and the most prolific countries for published articles. This paper also shows the main avenues of research covered by IEEE TEM and their evolution through the analysis of the correlation of keywords. This paper offers an example application of a mixed-method bibliometric analysis, seeking to extend the quantitative findings by including other sources of data

Expatriates managers' cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies

This study analyzes the role of the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) of expatriate managers in the processes of Conventional (CKT) and Reverse Knowledge Transfer (RKT) in Multinational Companies (MNCs). The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to analyze the data from a survey of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia. The study reveals how CQ, in all of its four dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, behavioral, and motivational), acts as a knowledge de-codification and codification filter, assisting managers in the Knowledge Transfer process. The study also reveals how previous international experience does not moderate the positive effect of CQ on both CKT and RKT, offering important theoretical and practical insights to support MNCs in the KT process

Magnetic resonance tumor regression grade (MR-TRG) to assess pathological complete response following neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a magnetic resonance (MR) automatic method for quantitative assessment of the percentage of fibrosis developed within locally advanced rectal cancers (LARC) after neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy (RCT). A total of 65 patients were enrolled in the study and MR studies were performed on 3.0 Tesla scanner; patients were followed-up for 30 months. The percentage of fibrosis was quantified on T2-weighted images, using automatic K-Means clustering algorithm. According to the percentage of fibrosis, an optimal cut-off point for separating patients into favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups was identified by ROC analysis and tumor regression grade (MR-TRG) classes were determined and compared to histopathologic TRG. An optimal cut-off point of 81% of fibrosis was identified to differentiate between favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups resulting in a sensitivity of 78.26% and a specificity of 97.62% for the identification of complete responders (CRs). Interobserver agreement was good (0.85). The agreement between P-TRG and MR-TRG was excellent (0.923). Significant differences in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) were found between favorable and unfavorable pathologic response groups. The automatic quantification of fibrosis determined by MR is feasible and reproducible

Fractal Analysis of MRI Data at 7 T: How Much Complex Is the Cerebral Cortex?

The human brain is a highly complex structure, which can be only partially described by conventional metrics derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), such as volume, cortical thickness, and gyrification index. In the last years, the fractal dimension (FD) - a useful quantitative index of fractal geometry - has proven to well express the morphological complexity of the cerebral cortex. However, this complexity is likely higher than that we can observe using MRI scanners with 1.5 T or 3 T field strength. Ultrahigh-field MRI (UHF-MRI) improves imaging of smaller anatomical brain structures by exploring down to a submillimetric spatial resolution with higher signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios. Accordingly, we hypothesized that UHF-MRI might reveal a higher level of the structural complexity of the cerebral cortex. In this study, using an improved box-counting algorithm, we estimated the FD of the cerebral cortex in six public or private T1-weighted MRI datasets of young healthy subjects (for a total of 87 subjects), acquired at different field strengths (1.5 T, 3 T, and 7 T). Our results showed, for the first time, that MRI-derived FD values of the cerebral cortex imaged at 7 T were significantly higher than those observed at lower field strengths. UHF-MRI provides an anatomical definition not achievable at lower field strengths and can improve unveiling the real structural complexity of the human brain

A philosophical approach to entrepreneurial education: a model based on Kantian and Aristotelian thought

In the field of entrepreneurship education, how to develop an effective program to teach entrepreneurship has been widely debated. However, an inductive approach based on analysis of educational program experiences and outcomes has led to mixed conclusions about the appropriate scope and structure of entrepreneurship education. In contrast, we take a deductive approach to develop a comprehensive entrepreneurship education model based on concepts from two schools of philosophical thought: the Kantian debate about freedom versus determinism, and the Aristotelian concepts of praxis and poïesis. These philosophical concepts are related to scope and structure dimensions that delineate the soft (art) and hard (science) of entrepreneurship education, their components and interrelationships. Pedagogies associated with each component as well as integrative pedagogies are identified to guide the development of entrepreneurship education programs and teaching. Theoretical propositions are presented for future research