The Role of Vendor Legitimacy in IT Outsourcing Performance: Theory and Evidence

Information technology outsourcing (ITO) relationships today are facing increasingly turbulent environments. This research examines ITO performance by focusing on client firms’ perceived legitimacy of vendors, termed “vendor legitimacy,” consisting of pragmatic, cognitive, and moral dimensions. Based on our surveys with executives and managers at 200 ITO client firms, the study’s findings present the imperative to actively manage vendor legitimacy for achieving and sustaining ITO performance. Specifically, at the strategic level, clients’ perception of vendors as mutually aligned, long-term-oriented, tightly integrated partners is critical. At the operational level, clients should collaborate with vendors to design and establish interorganizational routines that undergird vendor legitimacy. At the managerial level, clients’ relational governance plays a pivotal role in attaining procedural justice, ethical standards, and fairness in the interorganizational collaboration. In sum, our study suggests that creating a dedicated corporate function or unit for continually overseeing and assessing a portfolio of vendors and swiftly identifying and responding to potential issues and crises related to vendor legitimacy would be a worthwhile investment.

The Importance of Educating Girls and Women in Sciences

For the past decades, focus on attaining gender equality in science education has attracted a lot of attention. Governments and international community believe that girls’/women’s science education is a worthwhile investment; it has many direct effects on economic growth and human welfare. In this chapter, we discuss this view as a tool for development as well as the moral aspect of creating equality. We focus on what practically is being done to promote girls’/women’s science education and why their participation continues to be low despite many efforts and heavy investment.

Embracing the value of research data: introducing the JCHLA/JABSC Data Sharing Policy

As health sciences researchers have been asked to share their data more frequently due to funder policies, journal requirements, or interest from their peers, health sciences librarians (HSLs) have simultaneously begun to provide support to researchers in this space through training, participating in RDM efforts on research grants, and developing comprehensive data services programs. If supporting researchers' data sharing efforts is a worthwhile investment for HSLs, it is crucial that we practice data sharing in our own research endeavours. sharing data is a positive step in the right direction, as it can increase the transparency, reliability, and reusability of HSL-related research outputs. Furthermore, having the ability to identify and connect with researchers in relation to the challenges associated with data sharing can help HSLs empathize with their communities and gain new perspectives on improving support in this area. To that end, the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l’Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (JCHLA / JABSC) has developed a Data Sharing Policy to improve the transparency and reusability of research data underlying the results of its publications. This paper will describe the approach taken to inform and develop this policy.

Prevalences of Pospiviroid Contamination in Large Seed Lots of Tomato and Capsicum, and Related Seed Testing Considerations

Analyses of pospiviroids in commercial seed lots of tomato and capsicum, determined by testing of 12,000 to 40,000 seeds per lot, have enabled the development of empirically-derived distribution curves for the observed prevalences of viroids in those commodities. Those distribution curves can be considered in conjunction with statistically-based estimates of detection that would be achieved using other sample sizes. Statistical calculations using binomial distributions show that sample sizes of 3000 and 9400 seeds allow detection of viroid prevalences as low as 0.1% and 0.032%, respectively, with 95% confidence. Applying those calculations to observed viroid prevalences in contaminated tomato seed lots, it is estimated that the use of sample sizes of 3000 and 9400 seeds would detect 15% and 42%, respectively, of the contaminated seed lots identified using the larger sample sizes of approximately 20,000 seeds reported in this study. It is concluded that the higher costs associated with testing of larger sample sizes represent a worthwhile investment in agricultural biosecurity.

Mindfulness Voor LeidinggevendenState of the Art

Mindfulness is een hype. Zowel in wetenschappelijk onderzoek als binnen de populaire media is de aandacht voor de gunstige effecten van mindfulness de laatste jaren erg toegenomen. Organisaties zetten meer en meer in op mindfulnesscursussen voor hun medewerkers. Ook het onderzoek naar 'mindful leiderschap' is in opmars. Als tegenreactie waarschuwen sommige wetenschappers voor de te grote hoera-sfeer rond 'McMindfulness'. Het is dus belangrijk om kritisch te blijven en een genuanceerde visie te ontwikkelen met betrekking tot het nut van mindfulness voor zowel leidinggevenden als hun organisaties. In dit artikel maken we een systematisch overzicht van het onderzoek rond leider mindfulness en bekijken we de mogelijke werkingsmechanismen van leider mindfulness, waarna we ook kritische bedenkingen formuleren en praktische adviezen geven omtrent het toepassen van mindfulness in organisaties.Mindfulness has become a hype. Research and the popular press have been increasingly reporting on the benefits of a mindfulness practice on the work floor. The question still remains whether mindfulness interventions are a worthwhile investment for leaders in organizations. In this article we describe the ‘state of the art’ regarding mindful leadership and what we know with regards to leader mindfulness and its effect on both leaders and employees. We show that mindfulness may diminish stress and enhance self-regulation, information processing, decision making and communication with employees. However, the whole story is not uncritically positive: we elaborate on improvements that can be made in research methods, as well as on how mindfulness may be ineffectively or wrongfully used in organizations. We conclude with some practical advice for organizations.