Dominion University College
UniversityAccra, Ghana
Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Dominion University College (Ghana). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.
Top-cited papers from Dominion University College
Two experiments, theoretically motivated by the construction-integration model of text comprehension (W. Kintsch, 1988), investigated the role of text coherence in the comprehension of science texts. In Experiment 1, junior high school students' comprehension of one of three versions of a biology text was examined via free recall, written questions, and a key-word sorting task. This study demonstrates advantages for globally coherent text and for more explanatory text. In Experiment 2, interactions among local and global text coherence, readers' background knowledge, and levels of understanding were examined. Using the same methods as in Experiment 1, we examined students' comprehension of one of four versions of a text, orthogonally varying local and global coherence. We found that readers who know little about the domain of the text benefit from a coherent text, whereas high-knowledge readers benefit from a minimally coherent text. We argue that the poorly written text forces the knowledgeable readers to engage in compensatory processing to infer unstated relations in the text. These findings, however, depended on the level of understanding, text base or situational, being measured by the three comprehension tasks. Whereas the free-recall measure and text-based questions primarily tapped readers' superficial understanding of the text, the inference questions, problem-solving questions, and sorting task relied on a situational understanding of the text. This study provides evidence that the rewards to be gained from active processing are primarily at the level of the situation model rather than at the superficial level of text-base understanding.
Significance Satellite altimetry has shown that global mean sea level has been rising at a rate of ∼3 ± 0.4 mm/y since 1993. Using the altimeter record coupled with careful consideration of interannual and decadal variability as well as potential instrument errors, we show that this rate is accelerating at 0.084 ± 0.025 mm/y 2 , which agrees well with climate model projections. If sea level continues to change at this rate and acceleration, sea-level rise by 2100 (∼65 cm) will be more than double the amount if the rate was constant at 3 mm/y.
Although psychological safety research has flourished in recent years, and despite the empirical support for the important role of psychological safety in the workplace, several critical questions remain. In order to address these questions, we aggregate theoretical and empirical works, and draw on 136 independent samples representing over 22,000 individuals and nearly 5,000 groups, to conduct a comprehensive meta‐analysis on the antecedents and outcomes of psychological safety. We not only present the nomological network of psychological safety but also extend this research in 4 important ways. First, we compare effect sizes to determine the relative effectiveness of antecedents to psychological safety. Second, we examine the extent to which psychological safety influences both task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors over and beyond related concepts such as positive leader relations and work engagement. Third, we examine whether research design characteristics and national culture alter validities within the nomological network, thus promoting a more accurate and contextualized understanding of psychological safety. Finally, we test the homology assumption by comparing the effect sizes of the antecedents and outcomes of psychological safety across individual and group levels of analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the areas in need of future examination.
Four psychological theories are considered in determining the effects of disconfirmed expectations on perceived product performance and consumer satisfaction. Results reveal that too great a gap between high consumer expectations and actual product performance may cause a less favorable evaluation of a product than a somewhat lower level of disparity.
The tree of life of fishes is in a state of flux because we still lack a comprehensive phylogeny that includes all major groups. The situation is most critical for a large clade of spiny-finned fishes, traditionally referred to as percomorphs, whose uncertain relationships have plagued ichthyologists for over a century. Most of what we know about the higher-level relationships among fish lineages has been based on morphology, but rapid influx of molecular studies is changing many established systematic concepts. We report a comprehensive molecular phylogeny for bony fishes that includes representatives of all major lineages. DNA sequence data for 21 molecular markers (one mitochondrial and 20 nuclear genes) were collected for 1410 bony fish taxa, plus four tetrapod species and two chondrichthyan outgroups (total 1416 terminals). Bony fish diversity is represented by 1093 genera, 369 families, and all traditionally recognized orders. The maximum likelihood tree provides unprecedented resolution and high bootstrap support for most backbone nodes, defining for the first time a global phylogeny of fishes. The general structure of the tree is in agreement with expectations from previous morphological and molecular studies, but significant new clades arise. Most interestingly, the high degree of uncertainty among percomorphs is now resolved into nine well-supported supraordinal groups. The order Perciformes, considered by many a polyphyletic taxonomic waste basket, is defined for the first time as a monophyletic group in the global phylogeny. A new classification that reflects our phylogenetic hypothesis is proposed to facilitate communication about the newly found structure of the tree of life of fishes. Finally, the molecular phylogeny is calibrated using 60 fossil constraints to produce a comprehensive time tree. The new time-calibrated phylogeny will provide the basis for and stimulate new comparative studies to better understand the evolution of the amazing diversity of fishes.
We conducted a meta-analysis and empirical review of abusive supervision research in order to derive meta-analytic population estimates for the relationships between perceptions of abusive supervision and numerous demographic, justice, individual difference, leadership, and outcome variables. The use of psychometric correction enabled us to provide weighted mean correlations and population correlation estimates that accounted for attenuation due to measurement error and sampling error variance. Also, we conducted sensitivity analyses that removed the effects of large samples from analyses. Then, we conducted subgroup analyses using samples drawn from the United States to provide population correlation estimates that corrected for attenuation due to measurement error, sampling error variance, and indirect range restriction. Finally, we examined measurement artifacts resulting from various adaptations of Tepper’s abusive supervision measure. The results reveal that although the associations between perceptions of abusive supervision and outcome variables appear to be universally negative, the magnitude of the relationships between perceptions of abusive supervision and antecedent and outcome variables varies according to the design features of studies. Contributions to theory and practice, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> This article describes the development and validation of a scale measuring the interactivity of websites. Three studies were conducted to verify the factor structure, content validity, discriminant validity, and reliability of the scale. Results from the studies showed that interactivity comprises three correlated but distinct dimensions: active control, two-way communication, and synchronicity. The multidimensional scale showed a high level of validity and reliability and yielded consistent ratings among both experienced and inexperienced internet users.
Abstract This paper investigates the effect of CFO gender on corporate financial reporting decision making. Focusing on firms that experience changes of CFO from male to female, the paper compares the firms' degree of accounting conservatism between pre‐ and post‐transition periods. We find that female CFO s are more conservative in their financial reporting. In addition, we find that the relation between CFO gender and conservatism varies with the level of various firm risks, including litigation risk, default risk, systematic risk, and CFO ‐specific risk such as job security risk. We further find that the risk aversion of female CFO s is associated with less equity‐based compensation, lower firm risk, a higher tangibility level, and a lower dividend payout level. Overall, the study provides strong support for the notion that female CFO s are more risk averse than male CFO s, which leads female CFO s to adopt more conservative financial reporting policies.
Extensive research indicates that intimate partner violence (IPV) poses a significant risk to the physical health of women. IPV is associated with increased mortality, injury and disability, worse general health, chronic pain, substance abuse, reproductive disorders, and poorer pregnancy outcomes. IPV is also associated with an overuse of health services and unmet need for services, as well as strained relationships with providers. The body of IPV research has several critical gaps. There are almost no longitudinal studies of IPV and health. Most studies are clustered into a few specialties, with almost no research in the areas of allied health, dentistry, or management. A common definition of IPV is still not used. Finally, with some notable exceptions, there has been little success in moving the health care system to routinely screen women for IPV.
Despite the prevalent use of loyalty programs, there is limited evidence on the long-term effects of such programs, and their effectiveness is not well established. The current research examines the long-term impact of a loyalty program on consumers' usage levels and their exclusive loyalty to the firm. Using longitudinal data from a convenience store franchise, the study shows that consumers who were heavy buyers at the beginning of a loyalty program were most likely to claim their qualified rewards, but the program did not prompt them to change their purchase behavior. In contrast, consumers whose initial patronage levels were low or moderate gradually purchased more and became more loyal to the firm. For light buyers, the loyalty program broadened their relationship with the firm into other business areas. The findings suggest a need to consider consumer idiosyncrasies when studying loyalty programs and illustrate consumers' cocreation of value in the marketing process.
Attitudinal body image is a multidimensional construct that includes body‐image evaluation, cognitive‐behavioral investment, and affect. This study examined the nature and extent of gender differences in body‐image attitudes. College students ( n = 277) completed 2 standardized measures of each of the 3 facets of body image. As hypothesized, relative to men, women had more negative body‐image evaluations, greater investments in their appearance, and more frequent, cross‐situational body‐image dysphoria. Gender differences on body‐image affect ( d= .76) surpassed those on evaluation ( d = .51) and investment ( d = .40). Body weight and body‐image evaluation/affect were linearly related for women, but curvilinearly related for men. For both genders, body‐image affect was a predictable function of evaluation and investment combined. Scientific and clinical implications are discussed.
Brian K. Boyd, Gregory G. Dess, Abdul M. A. Rasheed, Divergence between Archival and Perceptual Measures of the Environment: Causes and Consequences, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 204-226
Vulnerability is one of the least examined concepts in research ethics. Vulnerability was linked in the Belmont Report to questions of justice in the selection of subjects. Regulations and policy documents regarding the ethical conduct of research have focused on vulnerability in terms of limitations of the capacity to provide informed consent. Other interpretations of vulnerability have emphasized unequal power relationships between politically and economically disadvantaged groups and investigators or sponsors. So many groups are now considered to be vulnerable in the context of research, particularly international research, that the concept has lost force. In addition, classifying groups as vulnerable not only stereotypes them, but also may not reliably protect many individuals from harm. Certain individuals require ongoing protections of the kind already established in law and regulation, but attention must also be focused on characteristics of the research protocol and environment that present ethical challenges.
The accuracy of structural model parameter estimates in latent variable mixture modeling was explored with a 3 (sample size) × 3 (exogenous latent mean difference) × 3 (endogenous latent mean difference) × 3 (correlation between factors) × 3 (mixture proportions) factorial design. In addition, the efficacy of several likelihood-based statistics (Akaike's Information Criterion [AIC], Bayesian Information Ctriterion [BIC], the sample-size adjusted BIC [ssBIC], the consistent AIC [CAIC], the Vuong-Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test [aVLMR]), classification-based statistics (CLC [classification likelihood information criterion], ICL-BIC [integrated classification likelihood], normalized entropy criterion [NEC], entropy), and distributional statistics (multivariate skew and kurtosis test) were examined to determine which statistics best recover the correct number of components. Results indicate that the structural parameters were recovered, but the model fit statistics were not exceedingly accurate. The ssBIC statistic was the most accurate statistic, and the CLC, ICL-BIC, and aVLMR showed limited utility. However, none of these statistics were accurate for small samples (n = 500).
Abstract We move the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) forward in two important ways by meta‐analysing prior empirical studies. First, we evaluate the two core theoretical tenets of the DCV: (1) Dynamic capabilities are positively related to performance, and (2) this relationship is stronger in industries with higher levels of technological dynamism. We find support for the former (r c = 0.296) but not for the latter, though results suggest the existence of moderators. Second, we theorize and demonstrate empirically that higher‐order dynamic capabilities are more strongly related to performance than lower‐order dynamic capabilities, lower‐order dynamic capabilities partially mediate the relationship between higher‐order dynamic capabilities and performance, and dynamic capabilities contribute more to performance in developing economies than in developed economies. These findings illustrate how the nature of the dynamic capability and the economic context in which it is utilized shape its value, thus offering a more nuanced conceptualization of the dynamic capabilities‐performance relationship.
Abstract:The purpose of this article is to develop the concept, foundations, research directions, and practice implications for System of Systems Engineering (SoSE). First, we introduce the nature of the complex systems problems faced by SoSE. Second, current perspectives of system of systems are explored. These perspectives are synthesized to a set of common themes in the literature and shortcomings in the current state of SoSE are identified. Third, we provide our perspective of SoSE, with implications for design, deployment, operation, and transformation of complex systems of systems. Fourth, we propose the structure for a research agenda to advance the knowledge and practice of SoSE. We close by developing implications of SoSE for systems engineering practitioners.
Awareness of data and information quality issues has grown rapidly in light of the critical role played by the quality of information in our data-intensive, knowledge-based economy. Research in the past two decades has produced a large body of data quality knowledge and has expanded our ability to solve many data and information quality problems. In this article, we present an overview of the evolution and current landscape of data and information quality research. We introduce a framework to characterize the research along two dimensions: topics and methods . Representative papers are cited for purposes of illustrating the issues addressed and the methods used. We also identify and discuss challenges to be addressed in future research.
In two experiments, undergraduates’ evaluation and use of multiple Internet sources during a science inquiry task were examined. In Experiment 1, undergraduates had the task of explaining what caused the eruption of Mt. St. Helens using the results of an Internet search. Multiple regression analyses indicated that source evaluation significantly predicted learning outcomes, with more successful learners better able to discriminate scientifically reliable from unreliable information. In Experiment 2, an instructional unit (SEEK) taught undergraduates how to evaluate the reliability of information sources. Undergraduates who used SEEK while working on an inquiry task about the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet displayed greater differentiation in their reliability judgments of information sources than a comparison group. Both groups then participated in the Mt. St. Helens task. Undergraduates in the SEEK conditions demonstrated better learning from the volcano task. The current studies indicate that the evaluation of information sources is critical to successful learning from Internet-based inquiry and amenable to improvement through instruction.
Privacy is viewed as a process of boundary regulation, controlling how much (or how little) contact an individual maintains with others. Self‐disclosure involves the verbal transmission of information. Adjustment of self‐disclosure outputs and inputs is boundary regulation; the extent of control one maintains over this exchange of information contributes to the amount of privacy one has in a social relationship. Regulation of interpersonal boundaries affects the kinds of relationships we maintain with others (as in friendships and power relationships). There also are implications for personality functioning. Reconceptualizing self‐disclosure as a form of boundary adjustment in the maintenance of privacy may provide a useful framework for integrating the self‐disclosure literature.
Although the involvement construct has received wide spread theoretical and empirical attention over the past 30 years, its application to a subset of leisure such as spectator sport has gone largely ignored. The present research examines both the multidimensionality of the involvement construct and its origins in sport spectator research. A team sport involvement (TSI) model is introduced that accounts for antecedents of motivation, arousal, and interest related to a professional sport team. A series of focus groups and a pilot test were used to develop and refine the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) that measures 18 distinct antecedents of involvement. The SII was next administered to a random sample of season ticket holders and single game attendees of a sport team (N = 1,600). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the psychometric properties of the SII and structural equation modeling analysis supported the TSI model revealing that nine antecedents represented four higher order facets of involvement: Attraction, self-expression, centrality to lifestyle, and risk. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) followed by post hoc comparisons revealed significant differences in prior attendance behavior could be traced to individual's involvement profile score. The results have important implications for applying the TSI model to enhance managers' understanding of sport consumers. The application of the TSI model and its implications for enhancing managers' understanding of sport consumers are discussed.