scholarly journals Performance Analysis of Indie Gaming Projects on Crowdfunding Platforms: Evidence from Kickstarter.com

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana R. Stojiljković ◽  
Marko Mihić ◽  
Dragan Bjelica
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Financial Success ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Web Crawler ◽  
Gaming Industry ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Quantitative Indicators

Research question: The aim of this paper is to examine the financial success of projects in game development industry in comparison with to projects in other industries hosted on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com. Motivation: We live in the world of technology where companies arise and disappear on daily basis. The traditional way of financing was expanded with alternative online platforms. Our goal was to conduct an empirical analysis of one crowdfunding platform (Kickstarter.com) in order to understand if technology projects are doing better than other projects. If they do, what are the key factors for their success? Idea: Our goal was to better understand how crowdfunding model supports small indie development projects and projects in other industries. Data: We used the data of 148.510 companies applied for crowdfunding financing between 2015 and 2020, published on the web crawler platform Web Robots. Tools: All statistical analyses were performed using statistical software IBM® SPSS® Statistics v.21. The data were presented using standard methods of non-parametric descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies for medians and interquartile ranges for numeric outcomes). For testing of statistical significance of difference between two groups we used the Pearson´s Chi-Quadrat test and Mann-Whitney test, where appropriate. The effect size for the 2x2 analyses was estimated using Odds ratios. Findings: The paper analyses the financial success of gaming and not gaming projects and tries to identify key factors for successful funding. We found a statistically significant higher prevalence of successful financing in game development projects, with 2.3 times higher odds of successful funding compared to not-gaming industry. Our analysis of quantitative indicators such as the number of backers, goal amount, pledged amount, pledged amount per backer and pledged to goal ratio also showed that projects in game development statistically outperformed projects in other categories. Promising game projects were supported by three times more backers on average and attained almost as double funds as other projects, while still sporting more modest pledged amounts per backer. These findings support the notion of crowdfunding being a viable modality of financing independent game development in emerging economies. Contribution: This paper expands the existing research related to the crowdfunding platforms and indie development companies and formulates key factors for successful financing for technology startup firms.

scholarly journals Combating the Coronavirus Pandemic in Small Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7086
Author(s):  
Martina Maněnová ◽  
Janet Wolf ◽  
Martin Skutil ◽  
Jitka Vítová
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Small Schools ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Result Section ◽  
School Directors ◽  
Ict Competence ◽  
Insight Into

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of distance education in primary schools has become a much-discussed topic. It is therefore no surprise that the issues related to it have come to the forefront of many researchers. There is, however, at least one group that has stayed relatively unnoticed, and it is so-called small schools. Thus, we conducted a qualitative study based on the phenomenological approach, searching for answers to our research question: What has been the experience of the directors of small schools with distance education during the pandemic? Our findings offer an in-depth insight into the life of six schools through the eyes of their directors. Semi-structural interviews with school directors helped us reveal three key factors that, in our opinion, had the greatest influence on the form of distance education. These are (1) the factor of ICT competence of all actors, (2) the factor of organization of educational settings, and (3) the factor of the teaching methods and forms used in education. Furthermore, we conclude the result section with a subchapter that captures the positive aspects of distance education as perceived by the addressed school directors.

Violence committed and victimization in courtship in adolescents: Does gender matter?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
E A Villegas Vázquez ◽  
J C Leyva Chipol ◽  
K C Cervantes Gómez ◽  
S I Valencia Almeida ◽  
F G Márquez Celedonio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
School Students ◽  
History Of ◽  
Del Rio

Abstract Introduction Within the current context in our Mexico, major states of violence for women have been manifested on a daily basis without having any more reason than being female. Veracruz is the first place in feminicides in Mexico with a rate of 3.44 per 100 thousand women. Research question: What is the intensity of the violence committed and victimization in the courtship of young students of the Upper Middle level in the Veracruz - Boca del Río area, according to their gender? Material and Methods A cross-sectional, prospective, observational and analytical study was carried out from December to February 2020. Middle-high school students from the Veracruz-Boca del Río region were included, who had a dating relationship and were excluded those who did not accept to participate. The variable “violence committed and victimization in courtship” was quantified with the CADRI instrument. The spss v22 software was used, Sudent's T was calculated for independent samples, with statistical significance p < 0.05. Results 741 students were included. There was a prevalence of violence committed of 86.2% and victimization of 89.2%. Of the total number of students who suffered and committed violence, women occupy 66.3% and 66.7% respectively. There is a difference in the intensity of violence between women and men in verbal-emotional violence (4.5 ± 4.2 vs. 3.4 ± 3.4), physical violence (0.6 ± 1.3 vs. 0.36 ± 3.6) and violence in general (5.7 ± 5.7 vs 4.3 ± 4.8) (p < 0.05), while victimization scores do not make a difference between both genders (p > 0.05). The history of psychological and sexual violence in previous relationships, as well as sexual violence in daily life are more frequent in the female sex (p < 0.05) Conclusions The violence generated is more intense in women, however, they also have a history of having suffered violence more frequently in previous relationships and in their daily lives. Key messages Women suffer more aggressions at different stages of their lives, which may increase the risk to tolerate aggressions or be more aggressive or suffer mental health problems. We must study if the violence generated by women is a response to a previous aggression from their boyfriend.

scholarly journals Impact of Digital Technologies on Business Performance in Serbia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernad Kahrović ◽  
Atif Avdović
Keyword(s):  
Business Performance ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
General Information ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Ordinal Scale ◽  
Business Transformation ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The Impact

Research Question: The main goal of the study was to investigate the degree to which Serbian businesses accept and use digital technologies as part of the digital business transformation process. Motivation: The main aim was to research the specific determinants of the digital economy, digital technology and digital business transformation. Through an empirical analysis, digital technologies were classified as primary and secondary and the motive was to examine whether digital technologies affect revenue growth, productivity improvement, increase in market share, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction, reduction in operating costs, development and use of digital products, digital market expansion and digital platform development. Idea: The main idea behind the study was to determine to what extent the said technologies are employed in Serbian businesses, as well as to develop a model of the impact of digital technologies on business performance, which may serve as a basis for further research. Data: The research was conducted from October 2020 to March 2021. A questionnaire was sent to over 500 email addresses of Serbian companies, and 98 questionnaires were filled in and duly returned. We displayed the most important characteristics of our sample and that way pointed out its randomness and representativeness and explained the choice of data analytics methods we use. Tools: The research instrument was a questionnaire including the general information (Part I). Part II included the question regarding the primary and secondary digital technologies used in their daily business activities. In Part III, the participants were required to state the specific outcomes their company expects to obtain as a result of digital business transformation. Findings: Mobile technologies, social networks and cloud computing were found to be dominantly employed technologies by the Serbian businesses from the sample. In percentage terms, the second class of disruptive technologies was shown to be insignificantly present in the Serbian companies. Finally, it appears that the role and importance of robotics and artificial intelligence have started to be recognised on the business scene. There is a significant impact of digital technologies on business performances, and we also give correlations between specific digital technologies and business performances, and intensity and statistical significance of impact in each case. We have also determined that some significant technologies make a latent, indirect impact on performances and shown the way that occurs. The analysis is performed after standardizing the ordinal scale values of variables making the results more accurate. Contribution: The paper provides the state of affairs regarding digital technologies use by Serbian businesses, as well as that of digital business transformation.

Strategies to Teach Game Development Across Age Groups

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
Lakshmi Prayaga ◽  
James W. Coffey ◽  
Karen Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
College Level ◽  
School Students ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Age Related

The process of game development can be used as a highly motivating learning experience geared to the teaching and learning of a variety of skills in students of varying ages. This article presents a description of a conceptual framework for teaching and learning based on game creation, including pedagogical foundations, a model of instruction for game development, age-related issues relative to learning tasks, and the basic aspects of game development. The authors compare the expectations for types of concepts and technologies employed with middle and high school students versus those employed with college-level students in game development. Projects that illustrate these differences are then presented, and the article closes with a summary and conclusions.

Adult L2 Learners Need a Reading Comprehension Test: Is it a C-Test or a Cloze Test?

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Reem Ibrahim Rabadi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Comprehension Test ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Cloze Test ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">Many language tests are used to measure language learners’ abilities, two of these tests are the cloze test and the C-test. However, insufficient research has done on the usefulness of these tests as reading comprehension tests. </span><span lang="X-NONE">Therefore, </span><span lang="X-NONE">this study attempts to compare the efficiency of the cloze test with the efficiency of the C-test as reading comprehension tests.  It will explore the main research question if there are any significant differences between the results of the testees on the cloze test and their results on the C-test as reading comprehension tests, in addition to their performance on both tests as advanced level and intermediate level learners. A C-test and a cloze test were administered to 80 international university students at</span><span lang="X-NONE"> Otto-von-Guericke </span><span lang="X-NONE">University in Germany to answer these questions. The statistical analysis used in this study was the (t-test) to test the statistical significance of the differences between the two tests. Results revealed statistically significant differences between the scores of the testees in favour of their scores on the C-test. Furthermore, the results indicated that the cloze test correlated positively with the C-test. Contrary to the finding</span><span lang="EN-US">s</span><span lang="X-NONE"> of previous research indicating that the cloze test is more efficient reading comprehension test than the C-test. It is suggested that this study can be expanded to wider population and to be used for testing the lexical knowledge of language learners.</span></p>

scholarly journals The Survival of Cultural Firms: A Study of Multiple Accounting Parameters in Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1159
Author(s):  
Ma del Pilar Muñoz Dueñas ◽  
Antonio Vaamonde Liste ◽  
Maria do Rosário Cabrita
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cox Regression ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Industry ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Development Factor ◽  
Kaplan Meier ◽  
The Impact

Cultural firms are an important development factor in economic and social terms. Their objectives are often aimed at maintaining and disseminating the traditions and values of societies. The prosperity of these firms in a nation ensures that its tangible and intangible cultural heritage is made known to other nations and generations. Despite their importance, little is known about their survival and the factors associated with it. This paper analyses data from 6951 Spanish firms, of which 2105 are cultural firms. We have studied the survival of non-cultural firms in comparison with cultural firms and also the impact that profitability, solvency and indebtedness may have on their survival. We have used the Kaplan–Meier method in order to assess their survival and the Harrington–Fleming test and the Cox regression model to check the statistical significance of variables. These variables are key factors influencing the survival of cultural enterprises. Particularly, low solvency in firms increases by twenty the risk of disappearance. This paper contributes to literature highlighting some of the key factors for the survival of cultural enterprises. It provides administrations with a roadmap in order to implement measures for the promotion of the cultural industry, favouring the process of enhancement of cultural heritage.

scholarly journals Contribution of Climate Extremes to Variation in Potato Tuber Yield in Prince Edward Island

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4937
Author(s):  
Junaid Maqsood ◽  
Aitazaz A. Farooque ◽  
Xander Wang ◽  
Farhat Abbas ◽  
Bishnu Acharya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Potato Tuber ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Tuber Yield ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Agricultural Management ◽  
Daily Minimum Temperature ◽  
Climate Extreme

Agricultural management practices are responsible for almost two-thirds of the variations in potato tuber yield. In order to answer the research question about the remaining variability of the tuber yield, we hypothesized that climate extremes partly explain the missing component of variations of the tuber yield. Therefore, this research attempts to bridge this knowledge gap in order to generate a knowledge base for future strategies. A climate extreme dataset of the Prince Edward Island (PEI) was computed by averaging the data of five meteorological stations. In detail, changing patterns of 20 climate extreme indices were computed with ClimPACT2 software for 30 years (1989-2018) data of PEI. Statistical significance of the trends and their slope values were determined with the Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimates, respectively. Average of daily mean temperature (TMm), mean daily minimum temperature (TNm) and the occurrence of continuous dry days (CDD), significantly increased by 0.77 °C, 1.17 °C and 3.33 days., respectively, during the potato growing seasons (May-October) of the past three decades. For this period daily temperature range (DTR), frost days (FD), cold days (TX10p), cold nights (TN10p) and warmest days (TXx) showed decreasing trends of −1.01 °C, −3.75 days, −5.67 days, −11.40 nights, and −2.00 days, respectively. The principal component analysis showed that DTR, TXx, CDD, and TNm were the main factors affecting seasonal variations of tuber yield. The multiple regression model attributed ~39% of tuber yield variance to DTR, TXx, CDD, and TNm. However, these indices explained individually 21%, 19%, 16%, and 4% variation to the tuber yield, respectively. The remaining variation in the tuber yield explained by other yield affecting factors. The information generated from this study can be used for future planning about agricultural management strategies in the Island, for example, the provision of water resources for supplemental irrigation of crops during dry months.

Do clusters create shared value? A social network analysis of the motor valley case

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando G. Alberti ◽  
Federica Belfanti
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Quadratic Assignment ◽  
Shared Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cluster Development

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the debate about creating shared value (CSV) and clusters, by shedding light on how clusters might generate shared value, i.e. cause social and business benefits, hence focusing on the following research question “do clusters create shared value?” Design/methodology/approach The study relied on social network analysis methods and techniques. Data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources, in the empirical context of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna. The authors computed three independent and four dependent variables to operationalize the concept of cluster development and shared value creation. A multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure and, more specifically, the most accurate model of that procedure, that is the double semi-partialling method, has been carried out to answer the research question. Finally, empirical evidence has been complemented with other cluster-level data recently collected by the Italian Cluster Mapping project. Findings The findings confirm how the development of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna contributed to the creation of economic and social growth opportunities for all the actors. The study shows that clusters do create shared value and the chosen cluster development variables do explain much of the business and social impact variables at a very high statistical significance level. Originality/value The paper contributes to the under-explored research on clusters and CSV with a very first attempt in providing quantitative evidence of the phenomenon.

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