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A strategic typology for UK small and medium sized enterprises. An investigation of influential factors and the development of a predictive typologyKendrick, Sean January 2012 (has links)
The success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is critical to Europe’s
economic health, however, our understanding of SME strategic behaviour is
predominantly based on large enterprise theory. This study uses the Miles and
Snow (1978) typology to examine the strategic behaviour of 150 UK SMEs. It
also investigates whether strategy type, environment adaptation and
organisational performance can be predicted by several contingency factors:
organisation size, age, industry type, and management style.
The findings confirm that the typology is not well suited for categorising SMEs;
organisations that rarely develop through all three domains of the adaptive cycle
to be sufficiently eligible for categorisation by one of the four pure archetypes.
However, similar patterns of strategic behaviour were observed for certain
dimensions, largely independent of the industry type or size of the SME,
suggesting that an optimal configuration of mixed strategies may exist.
Furthermore, Reactors, or those with mixed strategies, were found to perform
similarly as Analysers and better than Defenders.
The study also found that by fitting nominal logistic regression models to
organisation age and size data, it was possible to predict strategic behaviour
and environment adaptation, and to a lesser degree, financial performance.
Surprisingly, the industry type and management style data were observed to
exert minimal influence on the outcome variables.
Finally, this research provides important insight relating to the validity concerns
of the Miles and Snow typology and categorisation method employed, and
demonstrates how these can be avoided.
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Student volunteering in Sweden and themotivations driving this phenomenon : A quantitative research on Swedish universities / Student volunteering in Sweden and themotivations driving this phenomenon : A quantitative research on Swedish universitiesFernández Gutiérrez, Pablo, Linette, Quentin, Nomoto, Tsukasa January 2016 (has links)
This bachelor thesis is related to the phenomenon of student volunteering, in Sweden, the field of study and its own context. Our argumentation is based on the concept of “motivation” and focused on the students of universities in Sweden. In order to lead this research, we created a survey and sent it to the 14 Erasmus Student Networks (ESN) of Sweden in order to use their database and spread the survey. We wanted to answer our research question: What are the motivations behind student volunteering in a Swedish context? We obtained 123 answers related to items of interest for our study: the motivations to start volunteering, the abilities students improved, how often student volunteer and why they don’t volunteer, for example. Moreover, we proposed a typology of volunteers depending on their frequency of volunteering. Note that most of the answers came from the city of Växjö, which consist of one of the biggest limitations of the results. We answered 6 hypothesis but only 4 of them found a suitable answer. Our findings are as following: younger surveyees tend to volunteer more frequently than older ones. Regarding their origins (Swedish or international student), it is not confirmed that volunteers want to improve different abilities and have different motives to volunteer. Furthermore, it is confirmed that students volunteer following intrinsic motivations more than extrinsic ones. Finally, we pointed out that Swedish students who are not studying at their home town volunteer for organizations in order to meet new people and to make new friends.
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Changing role of hill farming in ScotlandMorgan-Davies, Claire Raymonde January 2014 (has links)
Hill farming systems in Scotland are the result of long evolution and adaptation to financial, social and political changes. Farming in the hills is a major contributor to rural industry and plays an important role in the economy, environment and social cohesion of these areas. However, it is fragile and has been dependent for many decades on high and continued levels of support payments. Agricultural land managers in these hill areas are also under increasing pressure from the other land use groups whose interests lie outside farming. With recent agricultural reforms, shifts in policy orientations regarding land use and changes in support, the future role of hill farming remains uncertain. This thesis sets out to examine the role of hill farming in this context of change, by investigating how hill farmers respond to changing policy, by understanding what other interested stakeholders expect from the hills, and exploring how hill farmers may have to adapt their farming system in response to these changes and expectations. Using an adaptive conjoint analysis method, stakeholders’ expectations have been assessed. Multivariate analysis and participative research with hill farmers have also been carried out, to typify their management responses to policy changes, using the 2003 CAP reform as an example. Stakeholders’ expectations and farmers’ types were then used in a linear programming optimisation model, to explore how hill farmers can maximise their financial margins under different policy and market change scenarios, and how their motivation is a drive towards adaptation. The results suggest that whilst livestock production is identified by stakeholders as one of the most important features for the hill areas, the continuity of livestock farming in the hills is threatened, as hill farmers are strongly affected by policy and market changes. This research also shows that there is a strong diversity in hill farming systems and in hill farmers’ management styles and motivations. That, perhaps, is one of the most important factors to acknowledge when formulating policies. This research also highlights the vulnerability of hill farming businesses (especially hill cattle production) to market price volatility, policy, subsidies and support changes, making it difficult for any hill farmer to withstand these fluctuations. Although different land uses, such as planting forestry, potentially bring substantial economic benefits, they are dependent upon many other restricting factors, including government grants, and require long-term commitment before benefits are seen. Integration of different land uses and productions could be one economic option for these areas, but a set of measures, perhaps including livestock-linked subsidies that recognise the diversity of hill farmers is needed, as well as options for hill farmers to be able to provide other public goods. Unless there is stability in market prices, a policy drive towards increasing efficiency, adequate subsidies and support and more readily attractive diversification options, including the provision of other ecosystem services linked to these grassland systems, this thesis suggests that there is a danger of hill land abandonment, a further decrease in hill farming activity, leading eventually to a decline in rural areas, not unlike many other marginal hill and mountain areas in the UK and Europe.
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The flow of city life: An analysis of cinematography and urban form in New York and Los AngelesZook, Julie Brand 27 May 2016 (has links)
This dissertation uses quantitative data on city cinematography and the morphological study of filming locations to identify how differences in ways of seeing cities, as shaped by cinematographic choices, are anchored both in differences in what is physically present as well as in differences in frameworks and expectations about what might be interesting or important to see.
Four films are evaluated that are set in Los Angeles and New York, two cities recognized as paradigms in American urbanism: The Naked City (1948), The Long Goodbye (1970), Goodfellas (1990), and Pulp Fiction (1994). In general, the New York movies suggest the embeddedness of the individual in the city and its social life in ways tied closely to urban form, with the visual presentation of the street acting as an index to the position of the individual within the narrative. Los Angeles, by contrast, presents the city as a series of enclaves linked by infrastructure. The street as a sociologically relevant entity hardly exists, with the exception of a handful of chase scenes, as though only crisis can catalyze direct encounters with the streets of Los Angeles.
Within individual movies, the depiction of city form reveals directorial idioms in the presentation of the narrative. The Naked City exploits corner shots to impart greater visual interest to the presentation of activity in the streets. The Long Goodbye shows the degradation of the distinction between public and private space as concurrent with a city form and culture that resists decoding. Goodfellas develops a grammar of views on the street that corresponds to the relationships of individual characters to overlapping social groups over time. Pulp Fiction mainly presents city locations as decontextualized to focus on dialogue and relationships, to sculpt urban form to meet the exigencies of the narrative, and to all the more powerfully introduce surprise.
In the concluding chapter, the qualities of the city as presented in Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction and both of the cities are diagrammed and discussed relative to architectural precedents and ideas that might inform architectural design.
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'n Ondersoek na die persoonlikheidstipes van 'n groep jeugleiersMaré, Carina 12 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In South Africa effective leadership is an important priority in all walks of life. With the
implementation of Curriculum 2005, greater emphasis is placed on the development of
leadership skills to prepare learners for leadership demands in adult life. In order to do this one
must firstly create leadership opportunities. Secondly it is important to convey the knowledge
and skills necessary for the optimum fulfillment of their roles as leaders. Personality types and
preferences as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the leader and other group members can
be utilized to enhance teamwork and improve leadership.
The empirical investigation comprised the determination of the personality types of the
research group as well as leadership positions held by them during their school careers, and the
leadership skills perceived as important by them.
Fifty youth leaders, representative of head boys and head girls in former model C schools, who
attended the conference for youth leaders annually hosted by Die Burger, were used as the
investigation group. For the purpose of this research the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI®), Form G, was used. The MBTI® is based on Carl Jung's theory of personality types.
The most important findings of the study are that trends exist in the personality types that were
reported by the youth leaders. The dominant personality type preference of the youth leaders
was ESTJ. This shows a preference for extroversion (E), sensing (S), thinking (T) and judging
(J). Good interpersonal relationships, listening skills and high moral values were identified as
the most important characteristics for effective leadership.
The implications for leadership development, emanating from the knowledge of the
personality types and preferences of the youth leaders, are discussed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In Suid-Afrika is effektiewe leierskap op alle vlakke van die samelewing 'n belangrike
prioriteit. Ook in die opvoedingsituasie word daar met die implementering van Kurrikulum
2005 groter klem geplaas op die ontwikkeling van leierskapsvaardighede om leerders voor te
berei vir leierskapseise wat in hulle volwasse leeftyd gestel gaan word. Om dit te kan doen
moet daar in die eerste plek geleenthede geskep word waartydens die leerders leierskap kan
beoefen en tweedens is dit belangrik dat kennis en vaardighede wat die leerder kan help om sy
rol as leier so suksesvol moontlik te vervul, aan hom oorgedra word. Kennis oor die leier en
ander groeplede se persoonlikheidstipes en voorkeure asook elkeen se sterkpunte en leemtes
kan suksesvol benut word om groepsamewerking te verbeter en sodoende suksesvolle leierskap
te bevorder.
Die empiriese gedeelte van die ondersoek het die vasstelling van die ondersoekgroep se
persoonlikheidstipes, die leierskapsposisies wat deur hulle beklee is gedurende hulle
skoolloopbaan asook die leierskapseienskappe wat deur die betrokke leerders as belangrik geag
is, behels.
'n Ondersoekgroep van 50 jeugleiers, bestaande uit 'n seleksie van hoofseuns en -meisies in
die vorige Model C skole wat Die Burger se jaarlikse jeugleierskonferensie bygewoon het,
word by hierdie navorsing betrek. Vir die doel van hierdie ondersoek word gebruik gemaak
van die Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), vorm G. Die MBTI® is gebaseer op Carl Jung
se persoonlikheidsteorie.
Die belangrikste bevindinge van die ondersoek is dat daar tendense bestaan in die
persoonlikheidstipes wat meer algemeen by jeugleiers voorkom. Die oorwegende
persoonlikheidstipevoorkeur wat by die jeugleiers voorgekom het, was ESTJ. Dit dui 'n
voorkeur vir ekstroversie(E); sintuiglike waarneming (S); denke (T) en beoordeling (J) aan.
Goeie luistervaardighede en hoë morele waardes is as die belangrikste eienskappe vir
effektiewe leierskap geïdentifiseer.
Die implikasies vir die leierskapsontwikkeling van leerders wat voortspruit uit die kennis van
leiers se persoonlikheidstipe en -voorkeure, word bespreek.
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Third Party Scholarships and the Students Who Receive Them: Increasing Opportunity or Perpetuating Inequality?Salcedo, Rebekah Hoppel January 2012 (has links)
Postsecondary financial aid (including scholarship awards) in the United States are as complicated and diverse in their function as they are in their long-term implications and outcomes. Through an examination of third party scholarships and the students who receive them, this study seeks to understand the dynamic intersection between a student's contextual environment, motivation and agency by analyzing students' interpretations of themselves and their place within the larger financial and scholarship context. The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) of human motivation and Deil-Amen & Tevis' (2010) circumscribed agency framework form the theoretical foundation of this study. The main contributions of this study include a description of how third party scholarships fit into the larger financial aid picture, an index of what eligibility components constitute third party scholarships, the creation of Third Party Scholarship Recipient Typology, and a synthesis of theory that informs future policy and practice.
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Defoe, Dissent, and TypologyMcKendry, ANDREW 02 August 2013 (has links)
This dissertation investigates how Dissenting writers, among them Samuel Annesley and Richard Baxter, influenced the religious thought of Daniel Defoe. Though some critics, most notably G. A. Starr and J. Paul Hunter, have positioned Defoe within a broad "Puritan" tradition, his religious ideas are more properly understood within the specific circumstances of post-Restoration England, as the unique pressures engendered by the Interregnum impelled many Dissenting writers to privilege "Practical Religion" over abstract theology. The aversion to "doubtfull disputations" that Defoe inherits from this discourse informs not only the modes of argument Defoe employs, but also the genres through which he engages with theological questions. Throughout his writing, however, his attachment to Biblical typology, which is informed by his dependence on the Bible as a stable locus of indisputable “plainness,” comes into conflict with his political tenets, as Scripture provides no firm precedent for the mode of contractual kingship introduced by the Glorious Revolution. At first seeking to mute the incongruities between "Hebrew times" and "modern" circumstances, Defoe is eventually impelled to reconceptualise typology, formulating a theory that both acknowledges the authority of the Bible while allowing William, and the mode of contractual kingship he represents, to surpass Scriptural types. This attitude towards typology fundamentally underpins the narrative of Robinson Crusoe (1719), which systematically repudiates Biblical narratives. Rather than adhering to prefigurative Biblical patterns, the novel is built on a series of divergences, first personal and then political, from Scriptural models. Anchored in his specific geographic and economic circumstances, Crusoe’s conversion is markedly distanced from Biblical types, represented as a process unique to his situation, rather than an iteration of an existing pattern. Ultimately, this dissertation contends that Defoe’s religious thought, specifically his commitment to "Practical Religion" and the typological hermeneutic this discourse underpins, is fundamentally informed by his relationship with post-Restoration Dissent. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-01 15:48:01.785
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Typecast Victorians : uses of biblical typology in late nineteenth-century literatureRanum, Benedikte Torkelsdatter January 1996 (has links)
This thesis examines the literary uses of biblical typology in the last three decades of the nineteenth century. It aims to show how late Victorian writers, having opted out of the orthodox Christian beliefs of the age, were still writing from within a cultural discourse shaped by, and based upon, such faith. Covering works as diverse as Sartor Resartus, De Profundis, and The Island of Doctor Moreau, and discussing writers who range from Mary Augusta Ward via Hardy to Strindberg and Dostoevsky, my contention is that these writers not only used the structure, terminology, and imagery of biblical typology to express their religious doubts, but that they 'reclaimed' what was strictly seen as a mode of exegesis and transformed it into a richly suggestive signifying system. Through this reconstructed mode of expression, they could offer to their readers ideas of a new 'religion' or, at least, a possible way out of the despair caused by the ultimate failure of Christian faith. The thesis is presented in three parts, the first of which briefly details the various available definitions of biblical typology itself. Following this, each sub-section of Part One traces a different aspect of late Victorian typology usage. Parts Two and Three deal with what I claim to be the two major strains of the late nineteenth century's secular use of typology - those concerned, respectively, with the 'imitation of' or 'association with' biblical types in their relation to literary characters. The changes made to the traditional biblical typology by late Victorian writers, as examined in this thesis, brought the biblical anti-type closer to the Jungian archetype, just as it brought the Nineteenth Century closer to our twentieth-century view of our religious and textual inheritance.
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Covenant, Typology, and the Story of Joseph: A Literary-Canonical Examination of Genesis 37-50Emadi, Samuel Cyrus 23 December 2016 (has links)
This dissertation defends the notion that Joseph, understood according to a literary-canonical analysis, functions as the resolution to the plot of Genesis and that this story typologically influences how later biblical authors narrate redemptive history culminating in the NT’s portrayal of Jesus as an antitypical Joseph. My research explores two questions: First, what is the literary and biblical-theological significance of the Joseph narrative as the conclusion to Genesis? Second, how do later biblical authors interpret and reuse the Joseph narrative?
Chapter 1 explains the rationale for this project and introduces readers to the supposed “problem” of Joseph’s prominence in Genesis and relative absence in the rest of the canon. In this chapter, I survey the dominant approaches to the Joseph story with regard to his role in Genesis in particular and, more generally, in the canon. Most historical-critical scholars posit that Joseph’s story is largely disconnected from the rest of the Genesis narrative. This chapter also surveys the history of the interpretation of the Joseph narrative. I note that almost all pre-modern interpreters saw Joseph primarily as a typological character—a tradition which continues among many evangelical interpreters of Scripture.
Chapter 2 explains the methodology of this dissertation. In this chapter, I defend my understanding of biblical-theology and my approach to typology as one regulated by the interpretive practices of the New Testament authors. I argue that types are historical, prospective, textual, covenantal, and that they exhibit escalation in moving from type to antitype
Chapter 3 examines the story of Joseph within the context of Genesis. I explore Joseph’s place with the toledot structure of Genesis, his relationship to the Abrahamic covenant, and his role in the storyline of Genesis. By considering Joseph’s relationship to the land, seed, blessing, and kingship promises of the Abrahamic covenant, I conclude that Joseph is an anticipatory fulfilment of the covenant promises. Furthermore, I demonstrate how Joseph reverses fraternal conflict and famine—two major themes in Genesis. In light of these and other evidences, I argue that, even within the context of Genesis itself, Joseph is a typological figure.
Chapter 4 investigates the explicit mentions of Joseph in the OT in order to discern how later biblical authors interpreted the Joseph story. I argue that Psalm 105 interprets Joseph within the framework of the Abrahamic promises. The psalmist sees Joseph as God’s instrument for fulfilling those promises in a provisional, anticipatory way. This chapter also explores allusions to the Joseph narrative in Daniel and considers Joseph’s contribution to the canonical motif of the exalted Jew in a foreign court. I conclude that the OT authors interpreted Joseph’s life as a harbinger of the exodus and as an archetypal figure whose life anticipated later events in Israel’s history.
Finally, chapter 5 investigates two explicit references to Joseph in the NT: Acts 7 and Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11, Joseph is presented as a moral exemplar on account of his faith in God’s promises. My analysis of Acts 7 shows that Stephen interpreted Joseph’s story as a microcosm of Israel’s history. Joseph and Moses exemplify Israel’s rejection of their deliverers, a pattern which culminates in their rejection of Jesus. Jesus makes the same point in the parable of the tenants. Israel’s constant rebellion against God’s messengers typifies their ultimate rejection of the “beloved son”—an event anticipated by the patriarchs’ rejection of Joseph. These passages, then, explicitly confirm what appears suggested throughout the OT—namely, Joseph is a type of the Messiah.
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A Study of Selected Dichotomous Typologies in Modern Social TheoryMiddleton, Russell 08 1900 (has links)
It is the purpose of this thesis to examine systematically the theories of selected sociologists and anthropologists with the end in view of determining whether or not or to what degree the various dichotomies are valid and useful. In addition to specific criticisms of doctrines peculiar to individual theorists, an attempt will be made to answer the following questions: What are the theoretical sources from which the dichotomies of types of social life in modern sociological and anthropological theory are derived? Are the dichotomies based upon legitimate contrasts which can be demonstrated empirically? To what extent do the value orientations of the theorists bias their results? How valuable are the dichotomies as guides to empirical investigation? To what extent do the dichotomous theories contribute to an understanding of the causes and directions of social change?
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