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The purpose of our paper is to identify different images of accountants held by different groups of people and to understand how the different images come about. In doing so, we focus on how accountants are perceived by others as well as how they perceive themselves. Through analysis of 1,794 usable questionnaire responses by university students, newly appointed accountants, and practicing accountants, we find an image close to the beancounter stereotype, and that of a modern professional, with the highest score for success but also for honesty. We also uncover a third image including nuances that are neither favorable nor unfavorable (the plain vanilla accountant), which suggests that the extremes found in cultural representations do not always reflect the real world. In addition, we find that the greater the distance from the profession, the less attractive the image of accountants is and that different sources of influence affect perceptions of accountants. In particular, the public perception of an accountant is less favorable when constructed from media sources. Finally, we add to the existing literature by showing that the self-image of accountants may change over time as experienced practitioners, compared to new hires, exhibit a sort of disillusionment about their professionalism.

Purpose There is a long-standing debate on whether the entrepreneurship education program (EEP) of university graduates can promote entrepreneurship intention and behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to use the theory of planned behaviour as a conceptual framework and compare the differences in entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intentions among students who participated in entrepreneurship education with a control group of Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in Pakistan. The study further examines what drives intentions between the two groups. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from 348 entrepreneurship students and 329 MBAs in their final year (both groups did a total of four years’ tertiary study). One-way analysis of variance test and regression analysis were used to examine the differences and the antecedents of entrepreneurship intention between the two groups. Findings MBAs have higher entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) than EEP students and the EIs are statistically significant. Nevertheless, the authors did not find any differences in attitude, perceived control behaviour and subjective norms towards entrepreneurship in both the groups. The entrepreneurship intentions of the MBA students are more influenced by social pressure as opposed to EEP students who are influenced by perceived control behaviours. Research limitations/implications First, although the study introduced a control group, comparisons were based only on EIs and their antecedents in participants’ final year of study. This cross-sectional design provides no information about how much intentions and antecedents changed over time. A longitudinal study would provide information about such changes. Second, the groups in the study were matched in terms of gender, age distribution, family background, years of study and presumed disposition towards running their business. It would be useful if future c

Il successo planetario di Wikipedia porta inevitabilmente a porsi la questione: ma cosa sono i wiki? "Wiki" in lingua hawaiana significa "rapido", ma dal 1995 indica una nuova forma di sapere reso possibile dalla rete. I wiki rappresentano la possibilità di costruire conoscenza attraverso il contributo di ogni persona collegata in rete, senza vincoli o censure preventive. I campi di applicazione sono innumerevoli dalla scienza all'educazione, dalle enciclopedie ai wiki no profit e per il business. Alcune aziende li utilizzano all'interno della propria intranet per generare e condividere la conoscenza in azienda. Un fenomeno destinato ad estendersi in ogni settore per la costruzione e la gestione della conoscenza con costi quasi nulli e in modo semplice. Questo volume unisce tutte le informazioni su questo nuovo mezzo con le spiegazioni necessarie per creare e gestire un wiki. In puro spirito wiki, al libro hanno contribuito docenti universitari ed esperti web. Include un contributo di Angela Beesley, figura leader del mondo wiki e membro del Board of Trustees della Fondazione Wikimedia (ente no profit che gestisce Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikinews e altre iniziative).

Wikis as information sources, as a form of publishing, and as tools for collaboration, are discussed in this book. The applications of wikis in library and information services, education and business are explored, with examples. Provides an overview of wikis, in the context of the increasing use of 'social software' and the trend towards a more interactive World Wide Web. The different kinds of wikis are identified and described. The advantages and problems associated with using wikis in information work and collaboration are discussed. One of the problems is simply that of finding wikis that deal with a particular topic or activity, and this is addressed through a discussion of directories, search engines and other finding tools. Later chapters cover the options for creating wikis and the management of a wiki. The book concludes with lists of resources related to wikis.

This paper focuses on the realization of positive fertility intentions with different time frames. The analyses are based on a unique combination of survey data and information from Norwegian administrative registers on childbearing in the years following the complete selected sample. Guided by the theoretical and empirical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the results suggest that a fertility intention's time frame is relevant for childbearing behaviour, but the patterns are somewhat different for respondents who were childless at the time of the interview compared to those who already had children. Overall, childless were less likely to realize their fertility intentions than parents. Following the TPB, childless may underestimate the difficulty of acting on their intentions and therefore have more difficulty realizing their intentions, versus parents who take into account their ability to manage another child. The results also show that childless with an immediate fertility intention are more likely to succeed than those with a longer-term intention. Likewise, parents with an immediate fertility intention are more likely to realize their intention during the two first years after the interview, but after four years the childbearing rate was higher among those with longer-term fertility intentions.

MOOCs are more than just massive, open, online courses. The notion of the MOOC is coupled with: the strengths and limitations of the information technology platforms that make them possible; the relative merits of the providers of both platforms and courses (edX, Coursera, and others); and the value of the very idea that courses can be offered by the best teachers from the best universities, at no charge, to anyone who wishes to enroll. This chapter peels MOOCs back to their fundamentals, uncovering the anatomy of MOOC courses, platforms, and multiple levels of provider and user in the evolving MOOC market. It presents MOOCs as an educational innovation that combines and extends the capabilities of existing technologies, and draws on a range of approaches to e-learning to offer a new educational product in a new way to new markets.

Oral Presentation

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB ) as a framework this paper investigates the role of uncertainty in fertility intentions in order to improve prediction of fertility outcomes. Using two waves of Italian data from GGS, it shows the existence of a clear relationship between the stability of intention to have a child and realization of intention: uncertainty in a stated intention results in significantly lower realization of that intention. In addition, the results show that beliefs that having a child will improve life satisfaction and partner relationship have a positive effect on the stability of intentions to have a child.

Objective: To discuss issues and concerns in the application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the decision to have a child. Methods: We review the basic structure of the TPB, its principles, and its assumptions as they apply to fertility decisions. Among other issues we consider attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control as antecedents to the decision to have a child; the expectancy-value model for understanding the formation of these antecedents; and the role of background factors, such as institutional policies, societal values, and personal characteristics. We illustrate key elements of the TPB using results from a multinational research project and end by considering a number of open questions for TPB-guided fertility research. Conclusions: We conclude that the TPB can usefully be employed to further our understanding of fertility decisions. By examining behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about having a child we can identify important considerations that influence this decision. The information obtained can also guide adoption of policies or interventions designed to encourage (or discourage) couples to have more children.

Wikis have significant potential to improve knowledge work and information sharing within organisations. But in spite of their usability and simplicity, adoption experience is varied. In this research we conducted an ethnographic study of wiki implementation to understand why some people chose to use the systems and others did not. We focused upon the influence of institutional scripts on information sharing behaviour. We found that certain norms and premises at the industry, organisational and sub-unit level appear to influence decisions to use the wiki. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by demonstrating the role of institutional scripts in decisions to use this software for knowledge sharing. It may also guide practitioners in planning for the introduction of social software and lead to further research into identifying social institutions in specific industry types, which influence users in their adoption decisions.

This paper uses scenario planning to systematically examine the potential impact of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on higher education and international student mobility. Disruptive technology theory and technology life cycle theory were used jointly to identify that MOOCs have the potential to result in disruptive change to the nature and structure of the higher education sector. A set of scenarios and strategies derived from the disruptive innovation analysis serve as examples of how scenario planning can be used to help universities adapt or thrive according to the strategies they choose.

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Achieving the MDG goal of reducing world poverty by 50% by 2015 requires the cooperative effort of many disciplines. To date the discipline of organizational psychology has not played as significant a role as it might in this endeavor. With the recent establishment of the Global Task Force for Humanitarian Work Psychology, this discipline signaled its commitment to the global effort. Organizational psychology offers to bring its expertise to poverty reduction: its ability to assess needs and capacity, develop partnerships with stakeholders, bring about and manage change, and systematically review, evaluate, monitor and revise high level mandates, policy development, program implementation and consultation on personnel issues. Its successes as practitioners-scientists in private enterprise will enhance its credibility for success in the public sphere. The article reviews the research and practice of some of the organizational psychologists presently engaged in poverty reduction and how humanitarian work psychology might enhance the efforts of anti-poverty organizations.

This article focuses on the time frame of intentions to have a child. For both parents and childless people we compare those who want a child now with those who intend to have a child within the next three years. Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and using data from Norway (N = 1307), we investigate the role of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on these two different time frames in fertility intention. The results show that subjective norms have a significant effect on the timing of intentions to have a child for both childless people and parents: the more both groups feel that their intention to have a child is supported by their families and friends, the more likely they are to want a child now compared to within the next three years. It also shows that positive attitudes have a significant effect on intending to have a child now rather than later for parents but not for childless people. Perceived behavioural control is a significant determinant for both groups: people who consider themselves better able to cope with having child are more likely to intend to have a child now rather than within the next three years. But this effect disappears when we control for demographic background variables, suggesting that the effect of perceived control on the timing of having a child varies considerably with personal circumstances.

A simple, first answer to the question posed in this debate is “in some circumstances”. It would clearly be wrong to cast the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a single model for human fertility, which has many facets, not the least of them biological. The question I want to address, then, is not if the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is an appropriate model, but when is it an appropriate model for human fertility? I will begin by concentrating on that question, then address a number of issues about using the TPB in practice that follow both from the when and from the critique raised by Morgan and Bachrach (2011). In particular, I will consider issues that arise in the operationalisation of the model, how time can be incorporated in both static and dynamic models using the TPB, and how the influences of macro-level events and conditions can be modelled as effects on the components of the TPB.

The introduction of learning management systems (LMS) has changed the way in which instructors work. This paper uses Goodhue and Thompson’s (1995) technology-to-performance chain (TPC) to explore the roles of task-technology fit (TTF) and level of LMS use in the performance impacts of LMS for instructors. A mixed method approach was used: an initial quantitative study followed by collection of additional in-depth data using open ended questions. The results showed that TTF directly affects instructors’ perceptions of the impacts of the LMS on their performance, indicating that the better the fit of an LMS to the skills of an instructor and the tasks that the instructor must complete, the more positive its effect on their performance is likely to be. However, level of LMS utilization by instructors is not associated in a simple linear way with TTF or performance impact. Poor fit discourages some instructors from using the LMS; in this case, poor fit is associated with low utilization. On the other hand, poor fit can result in high utilization for those instructors who spend additional working with the system so that they can work around problems resulting from poor fit.

This book goes beyond the methods usually covered in introductory textbooks on quantitative methods in tourism. It considers key issues in data selection, approaches to factor and cluster analysis and regression before covering advanced topics including structural equation modelling, maximum likelihood estimation, simulation and agent-based modelling. The result is a guide to quantitative methods in tourism that de-mystifies both simple and apparently complex techniques and makes them more accessible to tourism researchers.

This chapter examines why technology innovation at the institutional level is insufficient to transform universities and higher education institutions and presents a framework for explaining the key role of teacher preparation in achieving transformation. Starting from the claims of leading scholars that universities will need to embrace computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), the chapter explains the difference between organizational (university) level and individual (teacher) level innovation and shows how they are related to one another. While adoption of Web enhanced learning (WEL) technologies such as learning management systems (LMS) are organizational level innovations, teaching models such as CSCL are adopted by individual teachers. In order to explain why some teachers adopt CSCL as a strategy for teaching within the LMS environment, it is insufficient to focus on use or non-use of the LMS or its features. The focus needs to be on teaching with CSCL as a behavior, i.e., not just the features that a teacher uses but how they use these features to design social learning experiences into their courses. This view of what teachers do with technology innovations adopted by universities is similar to information systems scholars' recent focus on post-adoption behavior and how users choose, adopt and adapt technology in their own ways. Once teaching model adoption is characterized as a behavior, it is possible to explain that behavior using theories drawn from psychology. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used in this chapter to differentiate teachers who adopt CSCL within an LMS environment from teachers who use non-interactive or less interactive teaching models. Teachers who adopt CSCL have more positive attitudes to online social interaction and to the value of online social learning, report fewer overt influences on their adoption of CSCL or of the LMS, and have a stronger sense of their ability to control aspects of online teaching including a

The GGS includes four batteries of questions designed to contribute to studies of how people make four key life course decisions: to leave the family home, to form a union, to have a child (or another child), and to retire. Each battery is guided by Icek Ajzen’s social psychological theory of planned behavior (TPB), and allows study of the extent to which the different decisions (measured as intentions) are influenced by people’s attitudes to their going ahead with the decision or behaviour , their perception s of social pressure on them to go ahead or not (subjective norm), and their perceptions of the ease or difficulty with which they would be able to carry out their intention (perceived behavioural control) . The batteries are designed to permit comparison of the relative effects of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and the beliefs that underlie them, across countries and other potentially heterogeneous groups, as well as across the life course decisions themselves. This paper outlines key theoretical and conceptual issues that underpin valid measurement based on the TPB in the context of life course research; provides an overview of different approaches that might be taken to measuring TPB concepts with GGP data (including comparison of measurement at the level of individual beliefs with measurement at the higher conceptual level using techniques that either agglomerate or preserve information about the underlying individual beliefs) depending on the goals of the researcher; and provides examples of country - level comparisons that use each technique in order to illustrate the strengths and limitations of each approach . The paper concludes with some comments on possible improvements to TPB measurement in future waves of the GGS, focusing on measurement of perceived behavioural control.

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Whilst a large and important part of knowledge in an organisation is tacit, there is growing evidence to suggest that organisations spend most of their time focusing on codifying and managing explicit knowledge and neglecting tacit knowledge. This paper looks at the organisational enabling conditions that enhance tacit knowledge sharing. It argues that whilst organisations cannot force their employees to share their tacit knowledge without the willingness of the individuals to take part, it is possible, to foster the means that encourage the willingness of employees to share their knowledge with others in the workplace. The paper identifies a number of factors that influence the intentions of employees to share their knowledge within an organisation. Factors such as organisational commitment, rewards and incentives, trust and learning orientation are believed to affect the intention of employees to share their knowledge with others in the workplace. These factors are combined with new variables introduced from a social cognitive perspective of intention to engage in knowledge sharing behaviour. This study uses Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to develop and test a research model to assess factors that influence knowledge sharing intentions. Briefly, at the initial level, employees' knowledge sharing behaviour is determined by their intentions. At the next level, the intentions are themselves explained by three conceptually independent antecedents: 1) attitudes towards knowledge sharing, 2) perceived social influence on knowledge sharing, and 3) personal control for knowledge sharing. Understanding factors necessary to enhance knowledge sharing intentions and perhaps knowledge sharing behaviours in the workplace represent significant progress towards leveraging the vast collective knowledge that exists within an organisation. This paper provides evidence of the importance of perceived social influence and personal control and gives reasons why employees may

Wikis support collaborative learning in a classroom environment. Nevertheless, the argument of wikis as an unstructured medium for learning and issues concerning security and privacy matters are overshadowed by the full potential benefit it brings to education fields. Educational wikis are very different from the wiki that we know in the biggest online encyclopedia; wikipedia.org. The implementation of wikis in education relies on its pedagogy approach, hence known as wiki pedagogy. The study conducted in Malaysia schools provides the case study for educational wikis to be deployed in school. The approach taken in the study using design experiments managed to formulate a pedagogy for effective use of wikis in education. Findings of the study may provide a new perspective in understanding the current practice of teaching and learning in school.

While most research on fertility planning is conducted at the individual level, this paper focuses on the couple, the unit into which most children are born in Europe. We focus on the decision to have a second child, the critical decision if fertility rates are to rise to replacement or near-replacement levels, and seek to extend modelling of couples’ fertility intentions by including partners’ social psychological cognitions as well as directly measurable economic and demographic characteristics. The social psychological model used in these studies is the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The countries under study are Bulgaria and Italy.

This research is written within the framework of the European Commission project “Reproductive decision-making in a macro-micro perspective” (REPRO). It describes work completed within REPRO Work Package 3 on micro-level modelling of social psychological influences on reproductive decision making by individuals, specifically, the formation of intention to have a first or second child. The report introduces the macro level context within which the work was conducted and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the social psychological model of human behaviour that guided the work, linking the TPB to other work in demography on psychological influences on the formation of intention to have a child. After identifying parity and age as the contexts across which intention to have a child differ most, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to permit comparisons of both differences in the relevance of individual attitudinal beliefs, normative referents and control factors in eight countries (Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and Romania), and differences in the relative influence of attitudes, perceived norms and perceived behavioural control on the intentions of females aged 25 to 34 year old to have their first or second child in these countries. A comparison of the relative influence of attitudes, norms and perceived control among childless Bulgarian females under 25 and between 25 to 34 years old demonstrates how influences on fertility decision making differ by age. Exploration of the potential of three macro level contexts (wealth, employment stability and family- and child-friendly policy) to explain differences in intention to have a second child showed that policy context provided a more satisfactory explanation overall than national wealth or employment stability, although employment stability provided an explanation of differences in material control and none of these contexts adequately explained the observed patterns of the country