Why communities of practice succeed and why they fail

A specific form of intra-organizational networks – a community of practice (COP) – is increasingly regarded as an important structure within organizations. This network structure is well suited for the development and sharing of knowledge and practices across divisions. Our research explores the most salient reasons for the success and failure of such networks. An investigation of 57 COPs from major European and US companies led to the discovery of 10 “commandments” that lead to the successful development and sharing of best practices. It also identified five main reasons for failure.     

Neurocognitive Effects in Welders Exposed to Aluminium: An Application of the NPC Test and NPC Ranking Methods

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of exposure to aluminium on the cognitive sphere in a group of welders. Given the intrinsic complexity of the neurocognitive sphere, three different psychomotor variables were used for its investigation allowing the resulting problem to be naturally modelized into a multivariate framework and solved by a nonparametric combination of permutation tests (NPC test). In order to make the treated and control groups comparable, we also stratified the samples on the basis of a risk index that estimates the combined action of biological age and exposure time. Despite the fact that studies in the literature have reached conflicting results, our study highlights a significant drop in attention and memory performances in individuals exposed to aluminium. Finally, we identify a global criterion that summarises the information on the neurocognitive state by applying the nonparametric combination of dependent rankings method (NPC ranking).     

A Bayesian non-parametric modeling to estimate student response to ICT investment†

This paper estimates the causal impact of investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) on student performances in mathematics as measured in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 for Spain. To do this we apply a new methodology in this context known as Bayesian Additive Regression Trees that has important advantages over more standard parametric specifications. Results indicate that ICT has a moderate positive effect on math scores. In addition, we analyze how this effect interacts with variables related to school features and student socioeconomic status, finding that ICT investment is especially beneficial for students from a low socioeconomic background.     

Intervention Research as Management Research in Practice: Learning from a Case in the Fashion Design Industry

Research in the field of management and organizational sciences has yielded a deeper understanding of many emerging business issues. However, the relevance of the contributions has been increasingly criticized, in both the academic and public spheres. We propose the intervention research approach – originally developed by the research group at Ecole des Mines de Paris – as a design science approach able to address both the relevance gap issue and the growing complexity of management practice. It is argued that increasing our understanding of management requires research that is more insightful, influential and immediately applicable. This in turn requires closer collaboration between management and researchers during the inquiry process, which is not always easy to achieve. An illustrative case study of an intervention research project focusing on creativity, conducted in Italy in collaboration with a fashion company, demonstrates how intervention research can be rigorous and relevant to practitioners, and how it can advance theoretical knowledge in management science.     

The Banking Industry in Egypt

This paper examines the structure and performance of the banking industry in Egypt during the period from 2002 to 2009. The Central Bank of Egypt undertook a major banking reform towards a more liberal system. This included the strengthening of bank supervision and regulation and the bank privatization, where it helped to improve market competitiveness and efficiency. Total registered banks’ deposits grew at a CAGR of 11.43% during 2002–2009, reaching LE 848.7 billion at the end of December 2009, while their total credit facilities increased at a CAGR of 10%, reaching LE 793.8 billion.     

Sociology of a Newcomer: Muslim Migration to Italy - Religious Visibility, Cultural and Political Reactions

The religious presence of Islam in Europe seems to have become an important issue in the public debate. This also relates to the religious visibility of Islam itself. Some considerations will be proposed on this subject. As in other countries of Europe, Islam has also become a significant religious presence in Italy. I will describe the main aspects of this presence, showing some important elements of the sociography of Islam in Italy, and proposing some interpretative criteria in order to understand the main dynamics at work. Finally, I will focus on how Islam and Muslims have become an object of debate in the Italian public space, particularly in political, religious and cultural circles, drawing attention to some aspects of the present, apparently conflictual situation.     

An empirical investigation into the effect of childbearing on economic wellbeing in Europe

This paper investigates the extent childbearing among couples in Europe affects their level of economic well being. We do so by implementing a propensity score matching procedure in combination with a difference-in-difference estimator. Using data from European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP), we compare how the impact of childbearing on wellbeing varies among countries. We use several measures for wellbeing, including poverty status and various deprivation indices that take into account the multidimensionality of individuals‘ assessment of wellbeing. Not unexpected we find childbearing tend to worsen the economic wellbeing of households, but with important differences in magnitude across countries. In Scandinavian countries the effect is small and rarely significant, it is strong in the UK and also significant in Mediterranean countries. Depending on the measure of wellbeing, we find important differences among countries that are similar in terms of welfare provision.     

The use of different data sources in the analysis of co-authorship networks and scientific performance

Scientific collaboration is usually derived from archival co-authorship data. Several data sources may be examined, but they all have advantages and disadvantages, especially when a specific discipline or community is of interest. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of the use of three data sources – Web of Science, Current Index to Statistics and nationally funded research projects – on the analysis of co-authorship networks among Italian academic statisticians. Results provide evidence of our hypotheses on distinct collaboration patterns among statisticians, as well as distinct effects of scientist network positions on scientific performance, by both Statistics subfield and data source.     

DO BETTER PAID POLITICIANS PERFORM BETTER? DISENTANGLING INCENTIVES FROM SELECTION

The wage paid to politicians affects both the choice of citizens to run for office and the performance of those who are appointed. First, if skilled individuals shy away from politics because of higher opportunities in the private sector, an increase in politicians’ pay may change their mind. Second, if the re‐election prospects of incumbents depend on their in‐office deeds, a higher wage may foster performance. We use data on all Italian municipal governments from 1993 to 2001 and test these hypotheses in a quasi‐experimental setup. In Italy, the wage of mayors depends on population size and sharply rises at different thresholds. We apply a regression discontinuity design to the only threshold that uniquely identifies a wage increase: 5,000 inhabitants. Exploiting the existence of a two‐term limit, we further disentangle the composition from the incentive component of the effect of the wage on performance. Our results show that a higher wage attracts more‐educated candidates, and that better‐paid politicians size down the government machinery by improving efficiency. Importantly, most of this effect is driven by the selection of competent politicians, rather than by the incentive to be re‐elected.