Edging out of the nest: emerging adults’ use of smartphones in maintaining and transforming family relationships

Abstract

The transition to adulthood, often accompanied by an emptying of the family nest, has implications for family relationships, identities and consumption practices. Despite this, the voices and experiences of emerging adults are largely missing from literature on family consumption. Emerging adult families typically combine digital natives and digital immigrants, but little is known about how their interactions around digital communications technology relate to emerging adult preoccupations with affiliation and autonomy. This interpretive study explores how emerging adults’ smartphones are bound up with a complex network of family communication and consumption practices, often across household, geographic and generational boundaries. Affiliation and autonomy emerged as intertwined rather than competing dimensions of participants’ smartphone use, contributing to the distribution and development of family as the nest empties.     

Creating value while avoiding its destruction through R&D management and innovation

Value creation and capture remain a key but quite a challenging objective for many organizations. R&D and innovation management have to operate in a context of increasing complexity, particularly enriched by emerging technologies, new opportunities for transformation of business models, and multidimensional changes in market demands. This special section proposes new options to deal with this challenge. One paper contributes to the adoption of open business models by studying their antecedents and casual relationships. The three other papers propose using a different focus on value, avoiding its destruction by adopting different unusual mindsets; i.e. learning through failure, learning by deviating and investigating motivations for not participating in innovation communities.     

Knowledge,beliefs and attitudes of squash venue operators relating to use of protective eyewear

Sports venues are in a position to potentially influence the safety practices of their patrons. This study examined the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of venue operators that could influence the use of protective eyewear by squash players. A 50% random sample of all private and public squash venues affiliated with the Victorian Squash Federation in metropolitan Melbourne was selected. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 squash venue operators during August 2001. Interviews were transcribed and content and thematic analyses were performed. The content of the interviews covered five topics: (1) overall injury risk perception, (2) eye injury occurrence, (3) knowledge, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs associated with protective eyewear, (4) compulsory protective eyewear and (5) availability of protective eyewear at venues. Venue operators were mainly concerned with the severe nature of eye injuries, rather than the relatively low incidence of these injuries. Some venue operators believed that players should wear any eyewear, rather than none at all, and believed that more players should use protective eyewear. Generally, they did not believe that players with higher levels of experience and expertise needed to wear protective eyewear when playing. Only six venues had at least one type of eyewear available for players to hire or borrow or to purchase. Operators expressed a desire to be informed about correct protective eyewear. Appropriate protective eyewear is not readily available at squash venues. Better-informed venue operators may be more likely to provide suitable protective eyewear.     

Community safety promotion at local,regional, and national levels. Summary report from a workshop on local organizing and societal contributions with regard to the development of Safe Communities,held at the Third International Conference on Safe Communities,June 6-8, 1994, Harstad,Norway

Aim The aim of this review was to determine the extent to which the effectiveness of countermeasures for preventing alpine skiing injuries has been evaluated. Methods The methodology involved a critical review based on the available international literature and sports equipment standards, as well as consultation with experts in the field. Where possible, the review focused on controlled trials. Results Key injury countermeasures in skiing identified in this review include physical conditioning programmes, ski-bindings and their timely release, professional adjustment of ski-bindings and the use of mechanical testing devices for this, design of ski pole handles, helmets for children (and adults), ski patrollers, skier education, speed control on the slopes and safe lifting equipment. A tabular categorisation of the types of evidence for the effectiveness of injury countermeasures is presented. This demonstrates that the weight of evidence is generally based on a combination of data-based or biomechanical testing evidence and informed opinion/anecdotal evidence. There is minimal evidence based on controlled trials in the field. The most evaluated countermeasures are ski bindings and ski pole handles. Properly adjusted ski bindings have the potential for a 3.5-fold reduction in lower extremity injuries, particularly knee injuries. Ski pole handle design needs further innovation and attention. An immediate concern is the generally poorer standard of children’s equipment, ski bindings and their adjustment. Conclusion Skiing is a sport that is growing in popularity, but with a need for controlled trials of its injury prevention countermeasures. This review provides a basis for further action in injury prevention research, development and implementation.     

The Effect of ‘State Aid’ on Market Shares: An Empirical Investigation in an EU Member State

This paper empirically investigates the impact of fixed asset subsidies to firms on market shares. By means of a tobit regression on a sample of over 13 000 Belgian firms we find a significant and positive joint influence of all fixed asset subsidies on market shares, acknowledging that this is not the objective of the subsidies. This effect only becomes visible 2 years after the subsidy has been granted. Apparently, even under the current European legislation with regard to State aid, having as one of its aims to prevent distortion of competition, giving subsidies to firms for a variety of reasons still impacts on market shares and hence may not go without consequences for competition.     

The language of social entrepreneurs

This paper questions the application of the entrepreneurship discourse to social entrepreneurship in the UK and looks at how people ‘doing’ social enterprise appropriate or re-write the discourse to articulate their own realities. Drawing on phenomenological enquiry and discourse analysis, the study analyses the micro discourses of social entrepreneurs, as opposed to the meta rhetorics of (social) entrepreneurship. Analysis using both corpus linguistics software and Critical Discourse Analysis showed a preoccupation among interviewees with local issues, collective action, geographical community and local power struggles. Echoes of the enterprise discourse are evident but couched in linguistic devices that suggest a modified social construction of entrepreneurship, in which interviewees draw their legitimacy from a local or social morality. These findings are at odds ideologically with the discursive shifts of UK social enterprise policy over the last decade, in which a managerially defined rhetoric of enterprise is used to promote efficiency, business discipline and financial independence. The paper raises critical awareness of the tension in meanings appropriated to the enterprise discourse by social enterprise policy and practice and illustrates the value of discourse analysis for entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship research.     

DHL Bangladesh: Managing headquarters‐subsidiary relations. Comment on DHL Bangladesh: Managing headquarters‐subsidiary relations

This case revolves around Nurul Rahman, a DHL Bangladesh (DHLB) manager who must recommend which of the two human resource information systems (HRISs) DHLB should adopt to alleviate the escalating workload on its human resources (HR) department. The choice between these systems is difficult: the HRIS favored by regional headquarters is significantly more expensive and likely unsuited to DHLB's unique needs, whereas the HRIS favored by DHLB—although likely effective —seems to be incapable of meeting headquarters' strong preference for streamlining human resource systems across disparate Asian subsidiaries. Rahman must carefully balance conflicting stakeholder interests and do so against the backdrop of a politically powerful headquarters that can “make or break” managerial careers. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Competitive strategy and skills: working out the fit in the fitness industry

It is widely accepted that creating quality products and services requires a well‐trained and skilled workforce. This article seeks to contribute to unpicking the relationship between business strategy and skills in the service sector by presenting research findings from the UK fitness industry. This sector has grown quickly and includes companies that compete on the basis of high‐quality services, alongside those competing largely on cost. If the route to a high‐skills economy is to shift more firms towards the higher‐quality end of the market, we would expect to find employers in these companies making use of a workforce with higher levels of skill. The research from the fitness industry questions this simple relationship, finding that there is no clear link between competitive strategy and skills. As market position is not necessarily the impetus for improving the skills of the workforce, the article then briefly explores what other factors may also be required.