Entrepreneurial Intention and Multidimensional Proverty

The authors intend to identify the level of entrepreneurial intention and multidimensional poverty of the population of a Spanish rural municipality; secondly, they want to know the impact of the factors that, according to the theory of planned behavior, determine the entrepreneurial intention; thirdly, they attempt to show the characteristics of the relationship between the entrepreneurial intention and multidimensional poverty; and, fourthly, and in light of previously generated knowledge, strategies, programs, projects, and/or actions that contribute to the reduction of multidimensional poverty will be proposed. This research provides social utility and is original to the extent that it remedies a weakness in the literature consulted: the deficit of studies that contemplate, from both the theoretical and empirical perspective, the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and multidimensional poverty.

Constitutional Reform, Change of the System and Choices Maximizing Social Utility Function

The paper provides a critical analysis of J. Buchanan’s project of constitutional political economy. It is considered in order to make sense of the present-day political and social crisis in Bulgaria. This innovative project for liberalism proposes a more adequate version of the contractual theory through constitutional rules that determine the rational construction of the state and the common life of the people. They choose to obey these rules, guided by the idea of maximizing the social function of benefit. In the search of a path to social change in Bulgaria, we can learn from the conservative elements in the conception of Buchanan and his followers.

Social Utility of Mobile Phone Technology by Undergraduate University Students in Nairobi, Kenya

This study investigated social utility as a gratification factor influencing mobile phone technology use by public university undergraduate students in Nairobi, Kenya. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of social utility on undergraduate university students’ use of mobile phone technology. The study employed media technological determinism theory. Target population was 246,871 undergraduate university students in public universities in Nairobi, Kenya. The study employed quantitative design. Self-administered questionnaires were used as data collection tools. The study utilized purposive sampling to arrive at a sample size of 573 undergraduate students. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and then processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Findings revealed that mobile phone technology has become essential in social utility activities among undergraduate university students. The research concluded that the more the need for social utility, the more the need for mobile phone technology use among undergraduate university students. The research recommended that software developers should develop a specific mobile phone software for university students to use for social utility and that another research could be carried among postgraduate students and among private universities to find out other gratification factors that may be influencing mobile phone technology use.

Online Opinion Expression about Women Serving as Judges among University Students in Egypt and Kuwait: An Integrative Study of the Spiral of Silence and Uses and Gratifications

This study integrates the Spiral of Silence and Uses and Gratifications theories to examine the willingness of university students to express on Twitter their opinions about a controversial issue, women serving as judges in Kuwait and Egypt. The analysis of a survey of 640 respondents showed that they used Twitter for information seeking, opinion formation, opinion reinforcement, and social utility in discussions, and for its democratizing capability. Democratization was the only motive to predict the expression of opinion online. When the Kuwaiti and Egyptian samples were analyzed separately, the democratization motive predicted opinion expression for the Kuwaiti students but not for the Egyptian students. Interaction effects between motivations and size of the respondent's social network on Twitter were found to predict the online expression of opinion. For example, the variable assessing the size of a respondent's social network interacted with information seeking motivation and also with opinion reinforcement to predict opinion expression online.

Relationship between trust in the police and the effectiveness of the police

In recent decades, a number of studies have appeared, mainly in the Western European police literature, which have examined the role of the police in society, the social utility of their operations and the social trust factors achieved throug the effectiveness of their procedures. These studies have revealed a number of factors which, although indirect, can be measured and understood. Nevertheless, they have hitherto been treated as abstract concepts in scientific approaches. These include the legality, legitimacy and fairness of police actions and procedures. In this study, I will show that the police can have a significant impact on social capital if they focus on these factors. In particular, it can improve that by focusing on aspects of procedural justice in measuring organizational effectiveness. However, the malleability of trust is questionable in a society where the overall level of trust is already low.

Teacher Preparation, Motivation, and Self-Efficacy: A Comparative Study of New Teachers in Japan and the United States

Using the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, this study examines U.S. and Japanese new teachers’ initial teacher preparation (ITP), feelings of preparedness, motivations, and self-efficacy. The analysis of 355 U.S. and 433 Japanese new secondary teachers provided several findings. First, ITP in the U.S. more often included teaching in mixed-ability and multicultural settings, cross-curricular skills, and technology than Japan, and U.S. teachers felt more prepared than Japanese teachers in every category of preparation. Second, Japanese teachers were more likely to declare teaching as their first career choice and reportedly scored significantly higher on motivations to become a teacher of personal utility value, while U.S. new teachers scored higher on social utility value. Third, there were no significant differences in self-efficacy between U.S. and Japanese new teachers. This study contributes to the gap of large-scale, comparative literature between the U.S. and Japanese initial teacher preparation. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

The meanings of work and masculinity: a study with military police officers

The research aims analyze the meanings of work for military police officers and the meanings’ associations with the concepts of masculinity. Based on quantitative research, three hundred Brazilian military police responded to a structured questionnaire classified on a five-point Likert scale. Data was collected in person and online using Qualtrics software, then tabulated and organized using JASP v software. 0.14.1. The results shows that military police officers perceive recognition of their work, based on autonomy. Moreover, they see their work as strongly related to moral rectitude and social utility. They associate the meanings of their work with issues of dignity and respect for human rights and the feeling of generating positive impacts and results for society. However, this also results in a homogenization of the individual within the organization: they cannot show emotions, must be heterosexual, withstand provocations, be conservative in terms of the values of the institution and the profession.

The role of individual characteristics and working conditions in understanding boredom at work

PurposeThis study proposes an examination of the psychometric properties of the French version of two boredom scales (i.e. the Dutch Boredom Scale and the Boredom Proneness Scale Short Version), the antecedents of boredom at work, based on an integrative theoretical framework drawing on the Job Demand-Resources model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) and the moderating effects of individual characteristics on the relation between contextual antecedents and boredom at work.Design/methodology/approachThis study was based on a cross-sectional design with a sample of 363 Swiss workers. First, the two boredom scales were validated through a confirmatory factor analysis. Then, in order to study the relative strength of the predictors of boredom at work, a hierarchical regression model was tested. Finally, the interaction effects between individual characteristics and contextual antecedents of boredom at work were tested.FindingsFactor analyses revealed a unidimensional structure for both instruments. Regression results showed that boredom proneness, job demands, job autonomy and social utility added a significant percentage of incremental variance to the model. Moreover, a significant interaction between contextual and individual characteristics in predicting boredom at work was observed.Practical implicationsOur findings stress the importance of taking into account employees' experiences at work when developing job design interventions to promote well-balanced working conditions for all, as well as targeted solutions for specific populations, in order to adequately address the issue of boredom in the workplace.Originality/valueThis study explores the relatively under-researched topic of boredom at work, known to be detrimental for individuals and organizations. To date, research on its antecedents has been quite fragmented and we particularly contribute to the literature by investigating this aspect.

Optimizing Social Distancing Policies: A Dynamic Programming Approach for Coupled High and Low Risk Populations

Background: Decision makers may use social distancing to reduce transmission between risk groups in a pandemic scenario like Covid-19. However, it may result in both financial, mental, and social costs. Given these tradeoffs, it is unclear when and who needs to social distance over the course of a pandemic when policies are allowed to change dynamically over time and vary across different risk groups (e.g., older versus younger individuals face different Covid-19 risks). In this study, we examine the optimal time to implement social distancing to optimize social utility, using Covid-19 as an example. Methodology: We propose using a Markov decision process (MDP) model that incorporates transmission dynamics of an age-stratified SEIR compartmental model to identify the optimal social distancing policy for each risk group over time. We parameterize the model using population-based tracking data on Covid-19 within the US. We compare results of two cases: allowing the social distancing policy to vary only over time, or over both time and population (by risk group). To examine the robustness of our results, we perform sensitivity analysis on patient costs, transmission rates, clearance rates, mortality rates. Results: Our model framework can be used to effectively evaluate dynamic policies while disease transmission and progression occurs. When the policy cannot vary by subpopulation, the optimal policy is to implement social distancing for a limited duration at the beginning of the epidemic; when the policy can vary by subpopulation, our results suggest that some subgroups (older adults) may never need to socially distance. This result may occur because older adults occupy a relatively small proportion of the total population and have less contact with others even without social distancing. Conclusion: Our results show that the additional flexibility of allowing social distancing policies to vary over time and across the population can generate substantial utility gain even when only two patient risk groups are considered. MDP frameworks may help generate helpful insights for policymakers. Our results suggest that social distancing for high-contact but low-risk individuals (e.g., such as younger adults) may be more beneficial in some settings than doing so for low-contact but high-risk individuals (e.g., older adults).

Financial Big Data Based on Internet of Things and Wireless Network Communication

With the advent of the era of big data, Internet of things technology and wireless communication technology have been in a state of rapid development. Opportunities and challenges in all walks of life are being subverted. Financial management, as the foundation of corporate governance, is important for improving economic efficiency and achieving sustainable business development which plays an important role. In order to realize the management and classification of financial big data, better identify the financial data of different enterprises, strengthen the safe storage of financial information, and provide early warning for the security issues involved, this article is based on the Internet of things and wireless communication networks. In the method part, this article introduces the framework of the Internet of things, Bluetooth, and infrared data transmission in wireless network communication and the principles of financial big data. The algorithm introduces a single-user MIMO system, free space propagation, and spectrum and energy efficiency. The analysis part analyzes the spectrum efficiency of different algorithms, social utility, average number of retransmissions, comprehensive scores of competitiveness in various fields of the Internet of things, and the significance of financial indicators. By comparing the data, it can be seen that the algorithm in this paper is superior to the two algorithms of IAN-CoMP and IA-CoMP. When the number of users is 100, the social utility of the algorithm in this paper is 4.45, while IAN-CoMP is 3.43 and IA-CoMP is 3.67. When the number of users increases to 700, the social utility of the algorithm in this paper is 28.34. The other two algorithms are, respectively, 24.45 and 25.99, and we know that the social utility of the algorithm in this paper is the best. Through comprehensive analysis, it is concluded that the financial big data model based on the Internet of things and wireless network communication in this paper can better realize data management and collection, so as to meet the needs of information developers.