Search results

Since 2009, different challenge-based learning (CBL) activities have been implemented at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), with a shared objective: provide the students a learning experience that covers the acquisition of technical knowledge, soft skills, and other generic competences, while bringing them closer to the current technologies and industry. The shared background of these activities is the participation of Master's students of aerospace engineering in the preliminary design of a space mission. During the 18/19 academic year, the UPM participated in the 2018 ESA Concurrent Engineering Challenge (ESA CEC), where the students complemented their technical knowledge with dedicated training in Concurrent Engineering and learnt how ESA assesses the feasibility of real space missions. This experience further motivated the organization of the UPM CEC, which was first executed in the 19/20 academic year (and is expected to be carried out in future courses). After a decade implementing CBL, different research methodologies and instruments have been used to evaluate its impact on different aspects of the learning process. In this chapter, we describe the main CBL activities performed, focusing on the instruments used to evaluate them. We draw attention to the main advantages and disadvantages of implementing CBL from a learning perspective, as well as the associated impact in the student's motivation and student–teacher relationship. In many cases, different teaching scenarios are assessed, thus making it possible to compare CBL against traditional methods.

This study aims to investigate the relevance of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) to technology standard innovation (TSI) from a temporary-team perspective. The mediating and moderating effect on knowledge integration (KI) and leader–member exchange (LMX) is emphasized.

The conceptual model is built based on an exhaustive literature review and is empirically tested in terms of a sample of 341 Chinese individuals with TSI experience. Quantitative analysis was performed using a questionnaire with the bootstrapping method used to demonstrate the mediating effect of KI.

The empirical results of this study prove that KI mediates the relationship between KOL and TSI. The authors deduce that LMX moderates the positive relation between KOL and KI.

Few studies have investigated the innovation activities of technology standards from a temporary-team perspective. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to look into the underlying mechanism of KOL in TSI. This research deepens the analysis by introducing LMX’s moderating role in the innovation process of technology standards, thereby providing valuable insights for leaders of innovation activities of technology standards and illuminating new aspects of knowledge-intensive temporary-team management.

This paper aims to analyze factors based on organizational knowledge management (KM; transactional memory systems and knowledge-oriented leadership [K-OL]) that help firms to mitigate conflicts based on task management at work, with the aim to improve their innovation capabilities (IC). The knowledge-based view of the firm, conflict management theory and cognitive collective engagement theory have been used to build a model of relationships that connects the development of positive KM contexts and management of dysfunctional conflict with IC improvement.

Data survey collected from inland hotel establishments in Spain is used to test seven hypotheses by means of structural equations modeling, applying the partial least squares technique. Direct, indirect and mediating relationships between variables are examined from the structural path model.

The results confirm that, as expected, IC improve when K-OL and transactive memory systems (TMSs) are properly implemented by hotel establishments, which leads them to reduce negative effects of task management conflict (TMC). Significant direct effects are found between the key variables of the study and also a significant indirect effect between K-OL and IC through TMS reinforcement and the mitigation of TMC.

This paper provides useful ideas for hotel managers about how to improve KM contexts in their establishments while avoiding TMC. Efforts devoted to creating those contexts by hotel establishments are shown to be effective to improve their IC and create competitive advantages.

The analysis of IC improvement by studying TMC mitigation had not been researched to date by the KM literature. The consideration and testing of a model that integrates KM-related tools such as K-OL and TMS to avoid TMC in the hotel industry is the main contribution of this study.

This study aims to minimize the research gap by finding out what are the current state of knowledge management (KM) in the Chinese private science and technology organizations, the essential factors for promoting KM behaviors and the role of knowledge-oriented leadership in determining employees’ KM behaviors. Specifically, this research attempts to create a theoretical framework, which can be used to facilitate KM implementation in general, in the Chinese context in particular.

Semi-structured interviews with executives, senior managers and specialists were used to capture interviewees’ responses to the research question. The responses were analyzed with Nvivo to detect the obstacles of KM behaviors within Chinese private science and technology organizations.

This study highlights that poor KM behaviors are caused by knowledge-oriented leaders’ weak awareness of the KM values, and also these leaders are not equipped with the necessary knowledge-oriented leadership skills. As a result, there is a lack of knowledge sharing and knowledge inheritance. To respond to the identified KM related issues, while maximizing the KM values, some effective countermeasures focusing on the strategic, managerial as well as operational levels are proposed.

There is a need for knowledge-oriented leaders to recognize the growing significance of KM practices, and to increase the level of awareness of KM values. To achieve such ambition, they need to build a corporate knowledge culture, which promotes knowledge development, application, preservation, sharing and inheritance.

This study contributes to deepening the understandings of the linkage between knowledge-oriented leadership and KM behaviors, which is of great significance to promote the soft power of KM on employees’ attitudes and behaviors.

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the relationship between innovation and traditional concepts to explain the phenomenon of traditional food with innovation from a market and consumer behaviour perspective in the Mexican context.

The research is carried out in two phases: (1) analysis of the offer in distribution and (2) consumer research. First, a mixed observation technique in the offer of traditional foods with innovation was carried out. The data were recollected from 24 companies' websites and was complemented with information from main distribution chains of the city of Hermosillo (Mexico). Second, a survey was carried out with 310 Mexican consumers. The data obtained were analysed using bi-variable and multivariable techniques.

The findings from the websites showed that there are 19 traditional products with innovation that are marketed through this medium, while 39 traditional products with innovation are offered in distribution chains. Of all foods, 61% showed innovations in ingredients and materials. Also, the consumer evaluations identified three segments: the consumers orientated towards innovations, convenience and health (42.2%), those orientated towards sensory innovations (39%), and those more inclined towards innovations in marketing and availability (18.7%).

The research considers a partial perspective of the agri-food chain and not an integral vision, it is limited to a specific area and to certain traditional foods.

The symbiosis between innovation and tradition is identified from the perspective of supply and demand. The trend that exists in the market regarding the types of innovations and the gaps that exist regarding environmental elements are recognized.

The data obtained in the research generate information for business decision-making and entrepreneurship; in addition indicates new dietary and consumption patterns. It also provides knowledge about innovation and tradition, and highlights the relevance of traditional food.

This study tries to fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the market and consumer behaviour perspective for traditional food with innovation.

The paper aims to investigate the standpoints and practices of university members from European developing countries regarding the harnessing of the intellectual capital (IC) within online academic social networks.

A questionnaire-based survey with 210 university members was conducted, with the indicators adopting prior measurement scales which were further adapted to a network framework.

The organizational policies and practices relate positively and highly significantly with the valuation of the network-based IC components. Moreover, 63 per cent of the professional and organizational competitiveness of higher education institutions is determined by the exploitation of the IC embedded in online academic networks.

All survey respondents were from the European developing countries, which may limit the general applicability of the findings. Also, the emphasis is laid solely on online academic networks.

This paper brings to the fore both the potential and the state-of-the-art in leveraging the IC of online specialized networks which are indicative of the academic field. When acknowledged as such, the network-based IC is liable to generate substantial competitive advantages at the professional and organizational levels at the same time.

This research adds to the extant literature in two main ways. First, it advances a new construct – network-based IC – in the context of the online academic social networks. Second, it proposes a research model for addressing the network-based IC from a competitive advantage perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of leadership and rewards on the contribution to knowledge sharing in public organizations of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Data were collected from 154 employees from various organizational units of a law enforcement organization in the UAE, and structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Leadership inspiration was found to be positively effective in enhancing the contribution of knowledge sharing in terms of solving problems, increasing opportunity and improving the productivity of the workforce. Furthermore, it was found that the reward system had no impact on the contribution to knowledge sharing.

The method of data collection focused on the employees who were attending a training workshop in the department. This survey raises concerns related to non-response bias and common method bias, which describes the measurement error that is compounded by the sociability of the respondents who wanted to provide positive answers.

This research focuses on the implementation of certain practices related to knowledge sharing in public organizations. The model was constructed to assess the impact of leadership and rewards on the contribution to knowledge sharing through knowledge sharing practices as a mediation. The study is a modest attempt to assist the organizational leaders to embark on the right steps to foster knowledge sharing behavior among employees.

The study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing, particularly on the relationship between leadership inspiration, rewards and contribution to knowledge sharing in the law enforcement organizations in the UAE.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.