Entrepreneurship research centers around the world: research orientation,knowledge transfer and performance

This work investigates entrepreneurship research centers, and analyzes their research performance. Studies on the determinants of performance of research centers have mainly focused on science and technology, while entrepreneurship has been so far neglected. Through an analysis of 46 centers worldwide, we focus on entrepreneurship research and the role of centers, by discussing how knowledge transfer mechanisms and research orientation affect research performance. Our findings contribute to shed light on the divergence of methodologies and approaches characterizing entrepreneurship research; they also corroborate the view that centers enable a “compound Matthew-effect”, according to which knowledge transfer to external stakeholders, after controlling for research orientation of the center, does foster and enrich research performance.     

Forensic psychiatric units in Italy from the 1960s to the present

This article addresses the long-standing continuities in the history of the Italian forensic psychiatric units and views them as the result of conflicting forces, interests, mentalities and strategies at the cross-road of forensic psychiatry, psychiatry, prison and health services. It focuses on the period from the 1960s to the present and deals with, among other issues, the long-term impact of the anti-asylum movements and the on-going debate on the ‘phasing out’ of the forensic psychiatric units.     

The European Union's approach to online behavioural advertising: Protecting individuals or restricting business?

The European Union (EU) has firmly set its stall out to protect individuals' data and privacy and has demonstrated this through the rejection of the old opt-out regime and the introduction of the new opt-in rules. These require businesses to obtain individual's prior and informed consent before their data are collected, stored and used for the purposes of online behavioural advertising (OBA). Individuals in the EU are afforded protection from the apparent dangers relating to data privacy and misuse that is associated with OBA, which is beyond the expectation of most Internet users. However, there are some criticisms levelled at the law that the EU has produced. Is simply gaining informed consent sufficient for protecting all types of information? Do certain types of information require a higher level of consent than others? Does the law fulfil its aim of protecting data subject's privacy and data? Is the current law restrictive to business? Do individuals know or care that their information is being collected for the purposes of targeted advertising and is there a better way to ensure that they do? Finally, will proposed new law to be found in the EU Data Protection Regulation solve any of these problems? This article will assess whether, as a policy decision, the EU's current approach has been too cautious in its attempts to protect individuals or restrict business.     

Forecasting Errors in the Averseness of Apologizing

Apologizing is often seen as the appropriate response after a transgression for perpetrators. Yet, despite the positive effects that apologies elicit after situations of conflict, they are not always delivered easily. We argue that this is due—at least in part—to perpetrators overestimating the averseness of apologizing, thus committing a forecasting error. Across two laboratory experiments and one autobiographical recall study, we demonstrate that perpetrators overestimate the averseness they will experience when apologizing compared to the averseness they experience when they actually apologize. Moreover, we show that this effect is driven by a misconstrual of the effects of an apology. Perpetrators overestimate the potentially negative effects of apologizing while simultaneously underestimating the potentially positive effects of apologizing. This forecasting error may have a negative effect on the initiation of the reconciliation process, due to perpetrators believing that apologizing is more averse than it actually is.     

Capturing Crime at the Micro-place: A Spatial Approach to Inform Buffer Size

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - The current study develops a methodology to identify spatially relevant buffer sizes for micro-place evaluation research. It applies this methodology in an...     

Interracial marriages in twentieth-century Cape Town: evidence from Anglican marriage records

ABSTRACT

One of the most controversial laws promulgated by the National Party as part of South Africa’s mid-twentieth century apartheid policies was the 1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. This Act stipulated that ‘a marriage between a European and non-European may not be solemnized, and any such marriage solemnized in contravention of the provisions of this section shall be void and of null effect’. We use more than 23,000 newly-transcribed Anglican marriage records of Cape Town for the period 1911 to 1964 to show that the Act had mostly followed, and not led, changing interracial marriage practices. In the years before the Act’s promulgation, interracial marriages were rare and on the decline, despite the fact that apartheid-era policies had not yet been institutionalized. Our results suggests that marriage behaviour in Cape Town, and probably in South Africa more generally, was shaped by racial stratification early in the twentieth century. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, although devastating to those affected, was a correlate to rather than the cause of changing marriage behaviour.     

Moving from nos/otros to nosotros: a transcendent approach to sustainable development

Traditional top-down approaches to community development reinforce nos/otros binaries within provider/recipient relationships; transcendent approaches, on the other hand, create space for nosotros collaborative development. This article describes an instance of the nos/otros binary, in which a foreign volunteer in a rural community in Ecuador assumed the role of practitioner and limited community members’ roles to recipients or beneficiaries of her development projects. Inspired by findings from this experience, the article presents a case study highlighting an alternative, transcendent, nosotros approach in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where community members work together to imagine, implement, and sustain projects.     

Unwanted Online Attentions Among an Italian Students Sample

The use of the Internet and new technologies now seems to permeate the entire society, affecting every aspect of daily life. Although this change is characterized by undeniable positive aspects, it simultaneously bears a number of risks which are higher especially with respect to the growing number of younger users. In fact, young people, as the most involved in cyber space, are an age group most exposed to the dangers of improper and not aware use of electronic tools. The specific aim of this research was to study unwanted online attentions (UOA) among a sample of Italian students (N?=?585, mean age?=?14.5), identifying UOA as all those behaviors carried out through the Internet and technology to annoy, disturb, offend, humiliate, intimidate, threat, harass, harm or attack others. The online questionnaire investigated the online habits of the students, the presence of UOA and the characteristics of victims and perpetrators, the perception and emotional impact of such conducts, and the victims' possible reactions. The findings offer an estimate of the prevalence of these behaviors in the population of this age group in the area considered. More importantly, the results reveal a very high involvement in technology by the students accompanied by a lack of awareness regarding the risks connected to technology use as well as a low perception of UOA. These results give evidence of the needs in terms of prevention and education instruments in order to improve the system of responses to cybervictimization among young people.