Multiple Case Study

This article focuses on the critical role ICT policy design and implementation can play in developing a knowledge-based economy in distressed US communities. Using a multiple case study research design, the study tests three hypotheses: (1) linkages among government, education and industry are a critical success factor for ICT interventions; (2) due to the long-term nature of ICT, vision and leadership are also critical; and (3) investments in technology infrastructure must be part of a larger local planning process to succeed. These hypotheses are supported, but the strength of the article is in the details about how communities crafted unique responses to critical issues.

Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) in SMEs is greatly different than the traditional marketing in large organizations. The higher education institutions generally instruct traditional marketing through orthodox and conventional teaching pedagogies. In consequence, the literature highlights the graduate entrepreneurs struggling in EM during the start-up phases of their small and medium sized entrepreneurial ventures, which is also causing many of them to fail and unable to contribute to the economy. To address this contemporary problem, the current study has used multiple case studies and triangulated its findings with a focus group discussion. The study has explored the EM challenges during the start-up phase faced by the graduate entrepreneurs who have exposure to both, higher education and practical EM experiences. After the rigorous analysis, four contemporary EM challenges due to the pedagogical gaps in entrepreneurship education are discovered. To overcome these challenges, a practical model of EM pedagogy has been developed that is grounded in, the recent entrepreneurship education literature; and the recommendations from the graduate entrepreneurs as well. The EM pedagogy model is practically implementable at business schools worldwide to produce high quality graduate entrepreneurs in the future, which are well-skilled to overcome EM challenges and survive.

PurposeThis study sets out to focus on the textiles and fashion clothing supply chain with the objective of identifying factors that constrain company activities and inhibit competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology for this research involves multiple case studies involving UK companies. Supply chain management theory and ecological concepts have been used to interpret the data and to identify significant blocks affecting dynamic performance of the participating companies.FindingsThe research has identified seven significant blocks to responsiveness that were apparent in the observed supply chains: timing of fabric trade shows, lack of control of availability of fabric, forecasting, late stage product changes, geographical proximity to market, decision making decoupled from fashion trends, stock‐outs and slow selling products.Practical implicationsThe paper draws conclusions about the strategic directions of fashion supply chains and suggests the need to develop str...

... Grounded in the RBV of the firm and the organizational learning perspective, the following criteria for assessing partners ... perceived to be reliable, particularly during the downturns, which are inevitable in the maritime industry. Reducing risk exposure is, therefore, a key concern ...

constructive developmental theory; subject-object theory; developmental action inquiry; adaptive leadership theory; post-conventional leadership; higher education leadership; Robert Kegan; William Torbert; Ronald Heifetz; multiple-case study; post-positivist methods; ethnographic methods; multi-modal methods; haiku; dialectical thinking; paradoxical thinking; integrative awareness; double-loop learning; individualist action-logic; redefining action-logic; self-transforming leader; generative learning within ambiguity; logics of coherence; identity fractures; part-whole tensions; critical ambiguities; situationally-mediating logic of coherence; educative strategy

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the dimensions of clinical expertise in physical therapy practice across 4 clinical specialty areas: geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics, and pediatrics. Subjects were 12 peer-designated expert physical therapists nominated by the leaders of the American Physical Therapy Association sections for geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics, and pediatrics. Guided by a grounded theory approach, a multiple case study research design was used with each of the 4 investigators studying 3 therapists working in one clinical area. Data were obtained through nonparticipant observation, interviews, review of documents, and analysis of structured tasks. Videotapes made during selected therapist-patient treatment sessions were used as a stimulus for the expert therapist interviews. Data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed through the development of 12 case reports and 4 composite case studies, one for each specialty area. A theoretical model of exper...

The availability of toys and games together with stimulating environment for the children to get themselves involved in play are important in promoting children's development. Good educational toys and games and the proper play environment for the children are expensive and difficult to provide, particularly in poverty and remote rural areas or in city slums. As toys have great potentials to mould the character and temperament of the young children, to stir imagination and to stimulate creativity and to improve the power of observation and concentration investment in the toys libraries was of great value. At present it is estimated there are more than 4,500 toy libraries in 31 countries on all continents. In Malaysia, prior to 2006, toy libraries numbering about 10-15. In 2006, the i-play Community Toy Libraries was conceptualized and set up primarily as an integrated community service centre offering opportunities for families to engage fully with their children in an interactive play environment. Since the establishments of this pilot project questions were raised as to what extent the objectives in setting up these libraries were achieved. Employing Stufflebeam Context, Input, Process, Product evaluative model (2006) this study attempted to assess the intervention process in the forms of the availability of the inputs, the efficiency of the process, and the effectiveness of the products. The findings show that toy libraries are believed to be the centre that can play important roles in strengthening relationship among individual in the community particularly with regards to children's well-being.Children participations in the planned and free activities had very good impacts on their cognitive, physical, and social developments while the involvement of the parents and the community was found to be very encouraging. Recommendations were made to explore and liberalize the definition used for toy libraries and to set up more toy library in marginalized area.

During the last two decades teachers in many countries have found themselves facing new demands and changes. In his “intensification thesis” Apple, MW [(1986). Teachers and Texts. A political economy of class and gender relations in educations. London: Routledge] made a ...

Cet acte expose le potentiel de la recherche qualitative afin d’approfondir la compréhension de la fidélité interexaminateurs d’un outil clinique (Algo). Cet algorithme clinique soutient les intervenants non-ergothérapeutes (INEs) dans l’attribution d’équipements lors des soins d’hygiène des aînés vivant à domicile. Les objectifs de l’étude étaient : 1) estimer la valeur du Kappa et 2) identifier et expliquer les divergences de cotation des INEs ayant mené à des désaccords de recommandation lors de l’utilisation de l’Algo avec un même client. Cette étude de cas multiples a conduit à quatre recommandations : A) Préciser les informations pertinentes à recueillir pour chaque item de l’Algo; B) Objectiver la manière dont les informations pertinentes doivent être recueillies; C) Trianguler les informations prises en considération lors de la complétion de l’Algo et D) Réviser la recommandation d’équipement à la fin de l’Algo. La recherche qualitative contribue à l’exploration de la fidélité interexaminateurs d’un outil clinique.

Active research is being done in how to go from requirements to architecture. However, no studies have been attempted in this area despite a long history of empirical research in soft- ware engineering (SE). Our goal is to establish a framework for the transformation from requirements to architecture on the basis of a series of empirical studies. The first step is to collect evidence about practice in industry before design- ing relevant techniques, methods and tools. As part of this step, we use an interview-based multiple-case study with a carefully designed process of conducting the interviews and of preparing the data collected for analysis while preserv- ing its integrity. In this paper, we describe the design of this multiple-case study, delineate the evidence trail, dis- cuss validity issues, outline the data analysis focus, discuss meta issues on evidence-based SE particularly on combining and using evidence, describe triangulation approaches, and present two methods for accumulating evidence.

all other authors with the same affiliation Abstract This multiple case study of 14 multimodal transport chains provides an insight on how international supply chains of Dangerous Goods (DG) work with an over-view of problems which the actors are faced. The data covers border-crossing transport chains in the Baltic Sea Region, which means that all movements involve a maritime transport leg in one form or another. The main emphasis is on operations rather than costs in finding out how effective, efficient and professional the operations are in the various phases of the operations. The empirical case-data was collected by interviewing managerial level employees from the participating com-panies in late 2006. In the interviews it came up that the general public is interested in transport of DG, because of the risks that they present to the environment and people. However, shippers and transport companies tend to think that giving information to the public might increase people's aw...

Research and theories of leadership development link the capacity for complex thinking to effectiveness at leading adaptive change. However, few empirical studies examine how this link operates in natural work settings, or explore its implications for practicing the kinds of leadership being called for in higher education today. In this study, I address this gap using post-positivist, ethnographic methods to examine how three higher education leaders, who are publicly recognized as effective change agents and demonstrate the capacity for complex thinking via research-validated instruments, use complex thinking to understand and lead adaptive change in natural work settings. Drawing on a conceptual framework that spans multiple theories of leadership and human development, including Torbert’s developmental action inquiry, Kegan’s subject-object theory, and Heifetz’s adaptive leadership theory, I interpret the data in the context of two research questions: (1) How, if at all, do three developmentally mature leaders in higher education use complex thinking to understand their adaptive leadership work?; and (2) How, if at all, do participants' uses of complex thinking shape their decisions and actions on the ground? I find that participating leaders use their ongoing awareness of the constructed nature of reality, combined with high attunement to convergence and divergence of local and broader situational factors, to help their communities identify and address three types of value-reality gaps: part-whole tensions, critical ambiguities, and identity fractures. I provide rich illustrations of how these individuals draw on complex-thinking capacities to pursue six action strategies: (a) dynamically balance autonomy and oversight, (b) create shared frames illuminating larger realities, (c) engage and reorient the community, (d) co-construct and dynamically interpret goals, (e) cultivate strategic relationships grounded in mutual trust, and (f) create conditions that help people weather uncertainties, build new identities, and shape the future. I also discuss five, complex thinking informed action themes that run robustly through these three participants’ leadership practices: (a) cultivate expansive multicentered purposes, (b) illuminate the invisible, (c) redefine and recalibrate, (d) keep things connected, and (e) orchestrate co-construction. I discuss implications for leadership practice and outline opportunities for future research.