Browsing by Author "Fontaínha, Elsa"
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- Are scientific memes inherited differently from gendered authorship?Publication . Araújo, Tanya; Fontaínha, ElsaThis paper seeks to build upon the previous literature on gender aspects in research collaboration and knowledge diffusion. Our approach adds the meme inheritance notion to traditional citation analysis, as we investigate if scientific memes are inherited differently from gendered authorship. Since authors of scientific papers inherit knowledge from their cited authors, once authorship is gendered we are able to characterize the inheritance process with respect to the frequencies of memes and their propagation scores depending on the gender of the authors. By applying methods that enable the gender disambiguation of authors, missing data on the gender of citing and cited authors is dealt with. Our empirically based approach allows for investigating the combined effect of meme inheritance and gendered transmission. Results show that scientific memes do not spread differently from either male or female cited authors. Likewise, the memes that we analyse were not found to propagate more easily via male or female inheritance.
- Children and parents time use: empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France, Italy and GermanyPublication . Cardoso, Ana Rute; Fontaínha, Elsa; Monfardini, ChiaraWe analyze a mechanism that has been disregarded in the literature on parental investment in children, as little attention has been devoted to the choices made by children themselves. We model directly time use by youngsters into activities related to the acquisition of human capital, considering not just the decision on study time, but also on socialization/networking at young age, which can enhance personal interaction skills. We provide new empirical evidence for three European countries (France, Italy and Germany) on the link between time allocation by parents and time allocation by youngsters, highlighting country-specific patterns as well as cross-country differences. We run fractional regression models and double hurdle models on multi-member household micro data on time use. Countries diverge concerning the association between parents and youngsters allocation of time to socializing and to reading and studying activities, with Italy standing out as the country where that association, in particular between youngster and mother, is strongest. Our results are consistent with different mechanisms: parental role model directly influencing children behavior, intergenerational transmission of preferences, or network effects, as individuals adapt their behavior to social patterns.
- Communities of practice and virtual learning communities : benefits, barriers and success factorsPublication . Gannon-Leary, Pat; Fontaínha, ElsaA virtual Community of Practice (CoP) is a network of individuals who share a domain of interest about which they communicate online. The practitioners share resources (for example experiences, problems and solutions, tools, methodologies). Such communication results in the improvement of the knowledge of each participant in the community and contributes to the development of the knowledge within the domain. A virtual learning community may involve the conduct of original research but it is more likely that its main purpose is to increase the knowledge of participants, via formal education or professional development. Virtual learning communities could have learning as their main goal or the elearning could be generated as a side effect. Virtual communities of practice (CoPs) and virtual learning communities are becoming widespread within higher education institutions (HEIs) thanks to technological developments which enable increased communication, interactivity among participants and incorporation of collaborative pedagogical models, specifically through information communications technologies (ICTs) They afford the potential for the combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication, access to -and from- geographically isolated communities and international information sharing. Clearly there are benefits to be derived from sharing and learning within and outwith HEIs. There is a sense of connectedness, of shared passion and a deepening of knowledge to be derived from ongoing interaction. Knowledge development can be continuous, cyclical and fluid. However, barriers exist in virtual CoPs and these are defined by the authors and illustrated with quotes from academic staff who have been involved in CoPs. Critical success factors (CSFs) for a virtual CoP are discussed. These include usability of technology; trust in, and acceptance of, ICTs in communication; a sense of belonging among members; paying attention to cross-national and cross-cultural dimensions of the CoP; shared understandings; a common sense of purpose; use of netiquette and user-friendly language and longevity. The authors recognise the enormous potential for the development of CoPs through e-mail discussion lists and discussion boards but have themselves experienced the difficulties inherent in initiating such a community. These are corroborated and illustrated with text from interviews with academic staff. Much of the literature on CoPs emanates from outside Europe, despite the fact that e-learning articles have a large diffusion around Europe. The authors suggest further exploration of this topic by identifying and studying CoPs and virtual learning communities across EU countries.
- Determinants of innovation in European construction firmsPublication . Barata, José Monteiro; Fontaínha, ElsaThe research aims to identify the determinants of process and product innovation in a traditional and low-tech sector, supported in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically European Construction Sector. The study uses micro data from the e-Business Survey of the European Commission. The dependent variables studied are binary (presence or absence of process or/and product innovation). The explanatory variables considered are: suppliers, clients, market orientation, turnover growth and size. In addition, some national context variables – GDP per capita and R&D weight in GDP – are also tested. The results show that the sector of construction innovates, and the factors that contribute more to this innovation are suppliers and growth of business. It is also concluded that firm size is more relevant for process innovation than for product innovation, and companies that are guided by international markets innovate more than those that focus on local and regional markets.
- The specific shapes of gender imbalance in scientific authorships: a network approachPublication . Araújo, Tanya; Fontaínha, ElsaGender differences in collaborative research have received little attention when compared with the growing importance that women hold in academia and research. Unsurprisingly, most of bibliometric databases have a strong lack of directly available information by gender. Although empirical-based network approaches are often used in the study of research collaboration, the studies about the influence of gender dissimilarities on the resulting topological outcomes are still scarce. Here, networks of scientific subjects are used to characterize patterns that might be associated to five categories of authorships which were built based on gender. We find enough evidence that gender imbalance in scientific authorships brings a peculiar trait to the networks induced from papers published in Web of Science (WoS) indexed journals of Economics over the period 2010–2015 and having at least one author affiliated to a Portuguese institution. Our results show the emergence of a specific pattern when the network of co-occurring subjects is induced from a set of papers exclusively authored by men. Such a male-exclusive authorship condition is found to be the solely responsible for the emergence of that particular shape in the network structure. This peculiar trait might facilitate future network analysis of research collaboration and interdisciplinarity.