Based on an empirical investigation, this study explores the influence of institutionalised social structures in governance models of virtual communities. Drawing upon institutional theory, the research shows that virtual communities are subject to the influence of their institutional environment, and that conflictive institutions dispute online spaces similarly to the phenomenon observed in of...

THE DRASTICALLY DECREASED SUPPLY OF INACTIVATED influenza vaccine for the 2004-2005 US influenza season presents a unique challenge for health care institutions. At the core of this challenge is the dual responsibility that health care institutions have to protect patients as well as the health professionals who are integral to the functioning of the institution. Many major hospitals and long-t...

Change has always been an issue for studies in politics and economics. However, there are few systematic treatments of institutions. This paper exemplifies how institutions (i.e., rules, norms and conventions) relate to the time-geography concepts of constraints, which affect different agents, policy-making, as well as economic performance. This paper seeks to advance the current discussion and...

Research networks for data sharing are growing into a large platform for pragmatic clinical trials to generate quality evidence for shared medical decision-making. Institutions partnering in the networks have made large investments in developing the infrastructure for sharing data. We investigate whether institutions partnering on Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's (PCORI) network c...

Conflicts of interest arise when corporations marketing harmful products establish financial relationships with research institutions, researchers, or public health organizations. As obesity becomes a worldwide epidemic, such relationships threaten to jeopardize the integrity of scientific research. Latin America, a region undergoing rapid development, is particularly vulnerable to such conflic...

As demands for limited natural resources increase, developing management institutions that ensure the sustainability of such resources is essential. Natural resources are Common Pool Resources (CPRs), managed under different noncooperative, cooperative, and externally imposed management frameworks. While early studies of non-cooperative CPR management suggest inevitable “tragedy of the commons,...

the current economic crisis that plagued the west since 2008 and followed by the occupy wall street movement in 2011, were the results of the processes started since the last years of the cold war and has turned the western capitalist system into an unstrained ideology. the neoliberal economic model, globalization of economy, limitation of the power of the national governments, the emergence of...

Information technologies are increasingly incorporated into organizational functions. Also in the health sector, the incorporation of new medical technologies brings new challenges for IT managers to gather more and more information about patients. Thus, the aim of this paper is to assess the degree of maturity which healthcare institutions are and have with information technology, ie, how inst...

–Knowledge management (KM) is an essential consideration in engineering education to ensure that institutional knowledge flows efficiently between the stakeholders. Engineering institutions are a nested system of various processes and functions grouped into functional domains. The functional domains are dominated by performance indicators that impact the performance of engineering institutions....

The study was carried out with the aim of examining the effect of institutional leadership on the quality of educational provision in higher education institutions in Zimbabwe. The study analysed the indicators determining provision of quality higher education in state and private universities and how they are influenced by institutional leadership. The major techniques used were documentary an...