RSS 1.0Welcome to ChesterRep - the University of Chester's Online Research Repository
ChesterRep is the University of Chester's institutional repository and an online platform designed to collate, store, and aid discoverability of the University’s research.
All University of Chester staff are expected to use the Current Research Information System, Symplectic Elements, to submit material to ChesterRep. Guidance on how to deposit and manage publications using Elements can be found here. You can also discover more about our editorial and open access policies here. Please note that you must be a member of the University to view these pages.
If you are a student at the University of Chester and want to submit work to ChesterRep, please contact researchsupport.lis@chester.ac.uk.
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An elite perspective on interviewing entrepreneurs – methodological considerations for the entrepreneurship fieldPurpose: Elite interviewing is a well-established area of interview research methods. Nevertheless, the actual casting of an “elite” has been generally conducted in a prima facie or broad manner. A consideration of entrepreneurs and owner-managers as “elites” has been less profiled and received less attention, therefore the paper views the entrepreneurs and owner-managers as constituting a form of “local elite” within given and varying sectorial, regional and community boundaries. The authors argue that a consideration of entrepreneurs as “local elites” and transferring knowledge from an elite interviewing perspective may strongly support scholarly research in the entrepreneurship field. Design/methodology/approach: The study conducts a comprehensive narrative literature review of elite interviewing literature and transfers key methodological insights to the entrepreneurship field. The methodological contribution based on literature is complemented by experiences and observations from an extensive inductive interview study with over 30 entrepreneurs of German manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) and are used to reflect on, and refine, interview research approaches with entrepreneurs. Findings: The reflections and discussions in this paper provide valuable insights for other researchers conducting research in entrepreneurship domains regarding the power dynamics of negotiating access, procedural issues of interviews and thereby enhancing the quality of data. Originality/value: The contribution to knowledge is mainly of a methodological nature. While the paper takes a novel act of recasting elite interviewing in the SME and entrepreneurship context, the paper methodologically contributes to the entrepreneurship and elite interview literature thereby facilitating higher quality interviews.
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Numerical approximation for a stochastic time-fractional cable equationAn efficient numerical method is proposed to address a stochastic time-fractional cable equation driven by fractionally integrated additive noise. Under the reasonable assumptions, we rigorously establish for the first time, the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of the mild solution for this equation. For spatial discretization, a semi-discrete scheme is constructed employing the Galerkin FEM, and the optimal spatial error estimate is derived based on the semigroup approach. In temporal discretization, a piecewise constant function is introduced to approximate the noise, leading to the formulation of a regularized stochastic time-fractional cable equation. A detailed proof of the temporal error estimates is provided via the semigroup approach. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the temporal convergence order attains O ( τ 1 / 2 ) for initial data of either smooth or non-smooth type. The order is independent of the parameters α 1 ∈ ( 0 , 1 ) , α 2 ∈ ( 0 , 1 ) , and β ∈ ( 0 , 1 ) in the equation. These results perfectly align with the theoretical predictions.
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Erratum to: An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of coercion towards community dwelling older adults with dementia: findings from Mysore studies of natal effects on ageing and health (MYNAH)A co-author’s name was published incorrectly in the original publication of the article. The author name “Muffadal Bharmal” should be “Mufaddal Bharmal”. The original article has been updated accordingly.
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The role of social capital in SMEs for polycrisis managementSince 2020 several crises have brought unexpected and complex economic, political and social challenges to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have had to innovate to survive but urgent responses often preclude strategic consideration for long-term repercussions. This paper explores the role of social capital in organisations and considers how it can assist in navigating external crises and buffering against future change. Using a hybrid social capital perspective we examine the prospects for SMEs to survive crises using two rounds of purposive and convenience sampling driven semi-structured interviews undertaken twelve months apart with the same respondents drawn from a diverse range of industries such as catering, digital agencies, education, and sport organisations. The interviews explored social capital through the attributes of stakeholder trust, reciprocity and shared values also discerning how integration with, and provocation from, wider networks impacts SMEs. The paper critically evaluates the role of social capital in SMEs during current times of seemingly ever-present crisis. Having clear awareness of the influence and role of social capital, its attributes and its role in shaping the continuity of an organisation through crises is a key application of this work that can be directly used within other organisations of this type.
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Mapping the age of autistic spectrum condition diagnosis, affected by sex and Intellectual disabilityIntroduction/purpose: Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition thought to affect 1 in 100 children globally. More commonly diagnosed in males, and during childhood, diagnoses are increasingly being made throughout adulthood. Purpose: To establish what age autistic people receive their diagnosis, and whether the age of diagnosis was influenced by their sex and by the presence of intellectual disability. Design: A quantitative, cross-sectional, retrospective study. Data was collected from the Primary Care records of 6 GP Practices covering Ellesmere Port, a large town in Northwest England with 71,210 people registered. Mean age of diagnosis was calculated for the group then for each subgroup, to allow comparison between males and females, and those with and without a documented intellectual disability. Findings: Data from 1130 autistic participants were analysed. Age of participants was between 3 - 81 years with an age of autism diagnosis of 1 - 72 years. 85.6% of participants were diagnosed with autism by the age of 25 years, most commonly at 3 years of age (11.9%). The average age of diagnosis was 2.48 years later for females diagnosed across the lifespan. Average age of diagnosis was 5.05 years later for those with a learning disability. Practical implications: This study highlights the importance of healthcare professionals, educators and care givers recognising autistic traits in people across the lifespan, including the potential for diagnostic overshadowing. There are implications for commissioning autistic services, to ensure adequate assessment pathway capacity for adolescents and adults as well as children.