Peirce and Archaeology: Recent Approaches

The philosophy of Charles S. Peirce, and in particular his theory of signs (semiotic), has seen increasing interest within archaeological theory over the past 20 years. This article reviews Peirce's most influential ideas within archaeology, directs readers to where in Peirce's voluminous works they can find these ideas, and discusses how each of them has been applied by archaeologists to a variety of different research topics. In addition to the semiotic, these ideas include Peirce's metaphysical doctrine of synechism; his methodological pragmatism; abductive logic; and the phenomenological concepts of firstness, secondness, and thirdness. Finally, I discuss two research areas—materiality and paleolithic archaeology—in which a combination of Peirce's ideas has led to important new insights.

Nonground Abductive Logic Programming with Probabilistic Integrity Constraints

Uncertain information is being taken into account in an increasing number of application fields. In the meantime, abduction has been proved a powerful tool for handling hypothetical reasoning and incomplete knowledge. Probabilistic logical models are a suitable framework to handle uncertain information, and in the last decade many probabilistic logical languages have been proposed, as well as inference and learning systems for them. In the realm of Abductive Logic Programming (ALP), a variety of proof procedures have been defined as well. In this paper, we consider a richer logic language, coping with probabilistic abduction with variables. In particular, we consider an ALP program enriched with integrity constraints à la IFF, possibly annotated with a probability value. We first present the overall abductive language and its semantics according to the Distribution Semantics. We then introduce a proof procedure, obtained by extending one previously presented, and prove its soundness and completeness.

Women Rugby Union Coaches’ Experiences of Formal Coach Education in Ireland and the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Study

Although the sport of rugby union has expanded globally in both the men’s and women’s formats recently, there remains an under-representation of women coaches across all contexts. Research has focused its analysis on the under-representation of women coaches in a select few sports such as soccer. No extant research has empirically analyzed this under-representation within rugby union. This study addressed this research lacuna on why this under-representation exists from the perspective of 21 women rugby union coaches based within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The specific research objective was to analyze the coaches’ lived experiences of attending formal coach education courses in rugby union. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed thematically and conceptualized via an abductive logic against LaVoi’s Ecological-Intersectional Model and Pierre Bourdieu’s species of capital. Supportive and positive themes reported how the coach education courses had been delivered in a collegiate and lateral manner. Courses thus acted as settings where greater amounts of cultural and social capital could be acquired from both course tutors and peers. This enabled social networks to be made that were used for continual professional development beyond the courses. Barriers and negative experiences orientated upon the lack of empathy imparted by course tutors on account of men having fulfilled these roles on most occasions. Recommendations on how national governing bodies can improve the experiences of women coaches attending future coach education courses are discussed.

Variability in Value of Health in Social Fields: Challenges and Incentives for Self-Care Practices

Strong motivation to selfcare is assumed by design of contemporary healthcare policy. However, both western and Russian studies show motivational deficit and inattention to prevention care among population. Actual paper examines the problem of motivation as a relational choice. Opposing to the view on motivation as a part of individual will, we consider motivation as a choice between competing requirements to selfcare among multiple social fields. We collected 27 in-depth interviews with Russians from large cities and analyzed them in abductive logic. In the analysis we focused on health practices performed in the fields of family and career. The results demonstrate that individuals succeed in selfcare when the care of health appears essential for execution of important social roles.

Dischargeable Obligations in the 𝒮CIFF Framework

Abductive Logic Programming (ALP) has been proven very effective for formalizing societies of agents, commitments and norms, in particular by mapping the most common deontic operators (obligation, prohibition, permission) to abductive expectations. In our previous works, we have shown that ALP is a suitable framework for representing norms. Normative reasoning and query answering were accommodated by the same abductive proof procedure, named 𝒮CIFF. In this work, we introduce a defeasible flavour in this framework, in order to possibly discharge obligations in some scenarios. Abductive expectations can also be qualified as dischargeable, in the new, extended syntax. Both declarative and operational semantics are improved accordingly, and proof of soundness is given under syntax allowedness conditions Moreover, the dischargement itself might be proved invalid, or incoherent with the rules, due to new knowledge provided later on. In such a case, a discharged expectation might be reinstated and hold again after some evidence is given. We extend the notion of dischargement to take into consideration also the reinstatement of expectations. The expressiveness and power of the extended framework, named 𝒮CIFF𝒟, is shown by modeling and reasoning upon a fragment of the Japanese Civil Code. In particular, we consider a case study concerning manifestations of intention and their rescission (Section II of the Japanese Civil Code).

Entrepreneurs’ interpersonal communication competence in networking

Modern international business calls for competencies that enable entrepreneurs to be creative, innovative, effective and capable of networking. Competencies in forming and developing networks are particularly valuable for organizations and companies in countries with small economies, such as Finland, that are dependent on export and profitable international business. The aim of this research is to build understanding of what kind of interpersonal communication competence (ICC) entrepreneurs need in networking. Since the classic work of Granovetter (1982) and others (see e.g. Håkansson, 1982; Håkansson & Snehota, 2000), network theory and network analysis have become popular when trying to understand the behavior of organizations as well as of individuals in multiple contexts. The importance of networking has been recognized in international business and entrepreneurship research (e.g. Newman et al., 2006; Rauch et al., 2015). In the field of communication, there is a long tradition of studying interpersonal communication competence. Yet little attention has been given to entrepreneurs’ interpersonal communication competence in networking. To date, networking has been mainly studied in the research field of network analysis. Thus, it makes sense to focus on previous research in these fields. The data consist of thematic interviews (N = 14) carried out with entrepreneurs representing different companies from various industries. The data were analyzed with abductive logic by applying thematic analysis. The results show that in networking entrepreneurs’ ICC has four crucial dimensions: (1) behavioral communication competence (relational communication skills), (2) cognitive communication competence (knowledge on communication, meta-cognition), (3) affective dimension (motivation, attitude, ethical mindset), and (4) business-related competence and resources (business expertise, resources). We also discuss a way for other researchers to continue studying context-specific meanings related to interpersonal communication competence, and how the results can be applied when planning and executing entrepreneurs’ communication training.

Desenvolvimento de um Modelo Dinâmico e Adaptativo como Ferramenta para a Orientação Estratégica em Organizações do Setor Aeroespacial

Objective: The article proposes a strategic model, dynamic and adaptive, aiming to improve the capture and use of opportunities in the selection of the technology portfolio in complex and uncertain environments.Method: The methodology defined in this research is the study of multiple cases in the Design Science approach. We seek to generate scientific knowledge about the selection of technologies in organizations in the aerospace sector through the development and application of the proposed model. The study also considers a combination of inductive and abductive logic to deal with the inherent uncertainty in the RD environment.Originality/Relevance: From a theoretical point of view, the main gaps in technological strategy in the aerospace sector can be highlighted: decision making under uncertainty, the lack of integration between areas in decision making, and limitations in the time horizon of strategic development.Results: The main expected results, with the application of the model, are: (1) improve the capture, and use of opportunities, (2) improve the competitive advantage of the organization, and (3) contribute to a more flexible technology strategy in the long term. The cases explored allowed the detailing of the impacts of decision making on strategic development and the technologies domain in the definition of technological routes.Theoretical contributions: From a theoretical point of view, the research contributes to the dynamic capabilities model, including seizing to generative sensing.Management contributions: From a practical point of view, the development of the model contributes to aerospace organizations' strategic management to make them more robust, agile, and flexible.

Reflective Relationality in Social Investigation: Theoretical Considerations for Research Practice

This paper offers a theoretical reflection on the epistemological and methodological reasons listing reflexivity among the main practical issues of social investigation. Inspired by the situational logic of the constructivist paradigm, the paper’s analysis is limited to the preliminary stages propaedeutic to the operativeness of research, in an attempt to argue the insurmountable condition of contingency and circularity of scientific knowledge and of the procedures themselves which need to be problematised and ‘adjusted’ to specific situations. Furthermore, starting from a number of assumptions on the implicit constituents of methodological pragmatism, the paper attempts to illustrate its peculiarities with regard to the abductive logic of construction of appropriate indicators for the issues under investigation.

The growth of hidden champions in China: a cognitive explanation from integrated view

Purpose There is a research gap in strategic management regarding the complement from managerial cognition literature to the behavioral theory of firm, as well as linkage between cognitive structure and cognitive process of strategy formulation in the field of managerial cognition, which also calls for further exploration. The purpose of this paper is to construct a model from an integrated view for explaining the process of cognitive reconstruction under incremental changes. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research is conducted in the form of 17 semi-structured interviews in four hidden champions operating in China. Based on the model generated from the literature review, this paper adopts the abductive logic for data analysis. Findings This paper draws the following conclusions. The cognitive structure is shaped by the changing environment and the performance feedback, the variance in structural attributes will affect whether the changing environment destructs the effectiveness of original cognitive structure or not, the centrality of cognitive structure will promote the efficiency of tried-and-true organizational adaptations to incremental changes, and cognitive structure reconstruction is the result of the recursive process of trial-and-error learning. Originality/value This paper proposes the model explaining the interaction mechanisms between cognitive structure and strategy formulation process. It also presents the iterative sense-making process for reconstructing cognitive structure in strategy formulation. Both of them extend the understanding on managerial cognition in organizational adaptations to incremental environmental changes.