Enterprise resource planning in construction: An evaluation of recent implementations

In a large number of construction firms, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have replaced non-integrated information systems by integrated and maintainable software. The implementation of ERP systems in the construction industry is a difficult task. So far, ERP implementations have yielded more failures than successes in this industry. Our study tries to understand the underlying factors that cause success or failure of ERP in construction by analysing how ERP fits into the IT and business strategy of a firm. Empirical research was conducted by a multiple case study of three ERP-implementations in different business environments. Based on the results of this study, propositions are developed that relate factors for the success of ERP in construction to concepts of the existing literature on IT and strategy. These propositions are indicative, but present nevertheless a clear overall tren

Journalism in times of cost-cutting and Web 2.0: a study on the impact of marketing and digitization on sourcing practices and editorial content

In order to assess the impact of commercialisation and digitization on journalists’ sourcing practices, we set up a content analysis of the secondary sources and information actors in the news output of four Flemish newspapers over a period of 10 years (2000-2010). From a longitudinal methodological perspective we match our results with reflexions on the expanding or shrinking mediated public sphere. The analysis shows little to no shifts through time. Mainstream sources dominate the news but citizens are also an important part of it. As far as we can observe, Flemish journalists modestly refer to pre-packaged sources. The opportunities for a more diverse source use offered by Web 2.0 applications have not yet penetrated in their newsrooms. The findings indicate that often heard concerns about cost-cutting in newsrooms or sanguinity about the democratic potential of Web 2.0 seem fairly exaggerated, at least in the Flemish context

To follow or not to follow? How Belgian health journalists use Twitter to monitor potential sources

Digital technology, the internet and mobile media are transforming the journalism and media landscape by influencing the news gathering and sourcing process. The empowering capacities of social media applications may constitute a key element for more balanced news access and “inclusive journalism”. We will build on two contrasting views that dominate the social media sourcing debate. On the one hand, literature shows that journalists of legacy media make use of social media sources to diversify their sourcing network including bottom-up sources such as ordinary citizens. On the other hand, various authors conclude that journalists stick with their old sourcing routines and continue to privilege top-down elite sources such as experts and government officials. In order to contribute to this academic debate we want to clarify the Twitter practices of professional Belgian health journalists in terms of how they use the platform to monitor potential sources. Therefore, we examined the 1146 Twitter “followings” of six Belgian health journalists by means of digital methods and social network analysis. Results show that top-down actors are overrepresented in the “following” networks and that Twitter’s “following” function is not used to reach out to bottom-up actors. In the overall network, we found that the health journalists mainly use Twitter as a “press club” (Rupar, 2015) to monitor media actors. If we zoom in specifically on the “following” network of the health-related actors, we found that media actors are still important, but experts become the most followed group. Our findings also underwrite the “power law” or “long tail” distribution of social network sites as very few actors take a central position in the “following” lists while the large majority of actors are not systematically monitored by the journalists

Overeducation and Mismatch in the Labor Market

This paper surveys the economics literature on overeducation. The original motivation to study this topic were reports that the strong increase in the number of college graduates in the early 1970s in the US led to a decrease in the returns to college education. We argue that Duncan and Hoffman’s augmented wage equation – the workhorse model in the overeducation literature – in which wages are regressed on years of overschooling, years of required schooling and years of underschooling is at best loosely related to this original motivation. We discuss measurement and estimation issues and give an overview of the main empirical findings in this literature. Finally we given an appraisal of the economic lessons learned.mismatch, overschooling, underschooling, wage equation

The importance of internal communication in organizational change: Case study of the structural change in a Belgian government agency

Internal communication is an essential element to create willingness to change in organizations (Elving 2005a, 2005b; Clampitt et al. 2000; Armenakis et al. 2007). In this paper, we present the results of a mixed method research assessing change communication in a Belgian governmental institution which recently implemented a change in its organizational structure. Our approach to the data was twofold. The descriptive, quantitative first part of the research relies on a survey of 718 staff members involved in the change. The survey consists of 30 questions assessing the internal communication about the change, and the staff’s willingness to change. The questionnaire is based on existing instruments - such as the ICA audit, the scales of Armenakis et al (2007) and Wanous et al (2000). We addressed the following research questions: RQ1 - To what extent are staff members willing to go along with the change? RQ2 - To what extent are staff members satisfied with the internal communication regarding the change? Second, we conducted 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with staff members, in which we further explored notable findings of the survey. The interviews (each about 20 to 30 minutes) were conducted in the period from June 25, 2014 to July 9, 2014 and aimed at answering the following research question: RQ3 - To what extent has the internal communication had an impact on staff members’ willingness to change or change resistance ? Our findings confirm that a negative assessment of the internal communication correlates with a higher degree of change resistance, but also -if not more so- the results reveal the the extent to which individual self interest acts cause resistance to change. In conclusion, we open up the debate about the role of internal communication in signaling and preventing this from happening. __________ 50-word summary: This paper presents the results of a mixed method research assessing change communication in a Belgian governmental institution which recently implemented a change in its organizational structure. The main finding is that a crucial role is reserved for internal communication in preventing self-interest acts as a brake on change readiness

Civil society organizations at the gates? A gatekeeping study of news making efforts by NGOs and government institutions

This article applies a combination of an input-output content analysis and in-depth interviews with NGO communication professionals to determine whether the growing incorporation of press releases in editorial print content could be a new public forum through which international political actors, such as NGOs, could gain wider news access by serving as emerging key players in global civil society. The study indicates that Belgian news coverage of international aid issues is more often based on NGO press releases than government press releases. We also found that the agenda building capacities of NGOs and government institutions are enhanced as journalists present information subsidies as original journalistic work in most cases. Nonetheless, we must tone down prevailing one-sided conclusions, as most press releases are not just copy-pasted. Instead, most are supplemented with additional sources and information. The data, moreover, identify different journalistic roles of NGOs according to their objectives. While some issue press releases to raise short-term public awareness and donations for humanitarian crises (mobilization), others have developed into established expert news source organizations which provide background information and reliable eyewitness accounts to journalists

Investigating ‘Churnalism’ in real time news

Language Use in Past and Presen

The Effect of Extra Funding for Disadvantaged Pupils on Achievement

This paper evaluates the effects of two subsidies targeted at disadvantaged pupils in the Netherlands. The first scheme gives primary schools with at least 70 percent minority pupils extra funding for personnel. The second scheme gives primary schools with at least 70 percent pupils from different disadvantaged groups extra funding for computers and software. The cutoffs at 70 percent provide a regression discontinuity design which we exploit in a local difference-in-differences framework. For both subsidies we find negative point estimates. For the personnel subsidy these are in most cases not significantly different from zero. For the computer subsidy we find more evidence of negative effects. We discuss several explanations for these counterintuitive results.policy evaluation; disadvantaged students; computers; teachers; regression discontinuity

Bronnen in het nieuws : een onemanshow?

Hoe komt het dat we vaak dezelfde kleine groep elitebronnen in het nieuws aan bod zien komen - zoals politici, experten, grote bedrijven en overheden - terwijl het merendeel van de bevolking veel minder of zelfs helemaal geen stem krijgt in het nieuws? Journalisten trachten weliswaar het nieuws zo evenwichtig mogelijk te brengen en zoveel mogelijk stemmen aan bod te laten komen. Maar onvermijdelijk zijn ze onderhevig aan een aantal wetmatigheden die een impact hebben op de bronnen die ze uiteindelijk kiezen