No abstract

Unlike the practices of contracting out and privatization, which reduce public sector involvement and responsibility in service provision, public entrepreneurial practices may be one of the best ways to improve government performance and meet citizens' demand efficiently and effectively. This study examines the relationships between organizational characteristics and public entrepreneurship in order to provide empirical support for entrepreneurial practices in state governments in the United States. The study found that most organizational characteristics influence the entrepreneurial behaviors defined as risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. The findings suggest that organizational structures and strategies in the public sector need to be adjusted to stimulate entrepreneurial activities and culture through opportunity-driven management.

This study used a mixed methods research approach to examine how native English-speaking (NS) and non-native English-speaking (NNS) teachers assess students' oral English performance. The evaluation behaviors of two groups of teachers (12 Canadian NS teachers and 12 Korean NNS teachers) were compared with regard to internal consistency, severity, and evaluation criteria. Results of a Many-faceted Rasch Measurement analysis showed that most of the NS and NNS teachers maintained acceptable levels of internal consistency, with only one or two inconsistent raters in each group. The two groups of teachers also exhibited similar severity patterns across different tasks. However, substantial dissimilarities emerged in the evaluation criteria teachers used to assess students' performance. A qualitative analysis demonstrated that the judgments of the NS teachers were more detailed and elaborate than those of the NNS teachers in the areas of pronunciation, specific grammar use, and the accuracy of transferred information. These findings are used as the basis for a discussion of NS versus NNS teachers as language assessors on the one hand and the usefulness of mixed methods inquiries on the other.

Although further research is still needed, prosthetic treatments may provide superior OHRQoL for fully edentulous patients. In particular, both the FP and RP treatments provided significantly greater improvement of OHRQoL and patient satisfaction than the CD treatment. Reliable information of OHRQoL and patient satisfaction helps experts and patients choose the best prosthetic treatment option.