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1 – 10 of 59Javier Sierra and Ángela Suárez-Collado
There is a growing trend in higher education institutions to develop multi-disciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development and to implement student-centered and…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing trend in higher education institutions to develop multi-disciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development and to implement student-centered and problem-based methodologies to increase student engagement and satisfaction. This paper aims to present an innovative methodology to increase student awareness about the effects of economic decisions on sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This method uses a videogame and two board games to simulate three spheres of economic interaction, namely, local, national and international. For every sphere, three key economic sectors and their relationships with fundamental sustainable development goals (SDGs) are addressed. This study uses pre- and post-simulation data to analyze the students’ perceptions regarding the usefulness of the simulations and their awareness about the effects of economic decisions on sustainability.
Findings
The implementation of this teaching and learning method demonstrated not only that active learning can effectively increase student awareness about the potential social and environmental consequences of economic decisions but also that students perceive games and simulations as useful teaching and learning tools.
Social implications
Students in these areas need to learn not only how to transform original ideas into successful projects but also to align financial results with social and environmental objectives. The methodology presented in this research allows to enhance learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective, helping the students to analyze different economic sectors and their connection with a number of SDGs through the lens of public economics.
Originality/value
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has shown the effects of a global pandemic at the economic, social and environmental levels. This paper presents an innovative active learning framework to increase sustainability awareness among students of economics, business and management.
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Javier Sierra, Mazia Yassim and Ángela Suárez-Collado
This research reveals how a virtual exchange (VE) can foster transnational collaboration in higher education, assist students acquire key learning outcomes and raise awareness…
Abstract
Purpose
This research reveals how a virtual exchange (VE) can foster transnational collaboration in higher education, assist students acquire key learning outcomes and raise awareness regarding the complexities affecting development policy and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Overall 50 students from two universities in Spain and the United Kingdom, enrolled on two different degree courses (Global Studies and Marketing), cooperated in multidisciplinary teams to analyze real development policies and initiatives. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess the students' perceptions of the methodology.
Findings
The students perceived the VE to be of great value, enriching their educational experience by having a positive effect on their overall learning and fostering internationalization. A high number of participants declared the teaching and learning methodology was useful to assist them in reaching crucial cognitive, skill-based and affective educational objectives, and to help them understand how development policy works while also raising awareness regarding real-world complexity.
Practical implications
This methodology proved valuable in helping students acquire the set of skills expected from today's graduates in economics, political science and marketing. This active learning and pedagogical innovation component provides some interesting conclusions contributing toward widening the adoption of VEs in higher education contexts.
Originality/value
The increasing complexity of the globalized world makes it challenging for higher education institutions to develop multidisciplinary approaches to education to foster sustainable development. The experience provided offered the students an online international experience at their home institutions. Consequently, the research elaborates on how VE can be applied in economics, business, management and political science courses to enrich learning experience by applying theory in a practical way.
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Jean Paul Pinto and Javier Medina
This paper aims to propose a new strategic foresight process that combines aspects from science fiction, speculative design and tools linked to organizational processes, first, to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a new strategic foresight process that combines aspects from science fiction, speculative design and tools linked to organizational processes, first, to generate potential new services and products and, second, to reduce problems associated with the construction of low-impact and irrelevant scenarios for decision-making processes. As a new proposal, it invites reflection and debate.
Design/methodology/approach
After reviewing the literature on the key concepts that represent the essence of strategic foresight, as well as the traditional processes to reflect on the future, a proposal for a new hybrid, integrative foresight process that allows moving from imagination to the materialization of scenarios will be presented.
Findings
The new hybrid process makes evident the need to articulate strategic foresight with other areas of knowledge and management tools to build scenarios with greater impact on decision-making and greater added value from strategic foresight to organizational processes.
Originality/value
The proposed integrative model articulates tools that already exist, but the originality of the proposal lies in that there are no models that integrate science fiction, speculative design, and other organizational tools in a single process.
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This article explains the process of construction and configuration of the Brazilian social imaginary on the global '68 using the daily press as source material.
Abstract
Purpose
This article explains the process of construction and configuration of the Brazilian social imaginary on the global '68 using the daily press as source material.
Design/methodology/approach
It looks at the narratives conveyed by the press about the condition, situation, motivations, aspirations and capacity for action of young university students. The analysis is focused mainly on the usage of totalitarian language and permits an in-depth view of the reality of life in Brazil at the time and the role played by the students in the resistance to the dictatorship. It also includes an analysis of how other students' protests of 1968 – in Poland and Mexico – were portrayed through the media, and how they helped to shape the collective imaginary about Brazilian university students, situating it in a conjuncture of broader dimensions and connections.
Findings
The youth of Brazil, Poland and Mexico were represented as active political and social subjects, capable of defying, and sometimes profoundly upsetting, the established order. Violence and the discourse of violence were constant unifying elements in the narratives created by the daily press. This helped generate an image of university students which portrayed them as a rebellious, revolutionary and/or subversive sector of the population, responsible for one of the most extensive and profound social and political crises which those countries had experienced in decades.
Originality/value
This is the first study of the Brazilian reception of the '68 Polish and Mexican students' protest and its implications for the social narrative of students' resistance in Brazil.
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Lizbeth Magdalena Puerta Sierra and Sergio Javier Jasso Villazul
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the variables that play a relevant role in the management of university-industry linkage and technology transfer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the variables that play a relevant role in the management of university-industry linkage and technology transfer in the context of a public university in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is quantitative, and the method is based on an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), to identify the group of variables that relates to university-industry technology transfer, by applying a questionnaire to full time professors and researchers.
Findings
The EFA allowed for the analysis of the relationships within a group of variables, and found that the structure of the principal components presents a close connection to the literature review. The first, second and third factors, named institutional support in the linkage and technology transfer activities, research results management, and university linkage activities planning, respectively, explain the original problem in a greater percentage. Additionally, it is suggested to include other variables, to increase the explained variance percentage of the components.
Social implications
The study of university-industry linkage and technology transfer allows for improvement in the institutional management of these activities, their entrepreneurship, and consequently, their use by companies, government and society.
Originality/value
This study focuses on analyzing a group of variables in a questionnaire, in order to identify those that are related to the university-industry technology transfer management, in the context of a public university in Mexico.
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Mario Giraldo, Luis Javier Sanchez Barrios, Steven W. Rayburn and Jeremy J. Sierra
Low-income consumers’ perceptions of access and inclusion in financial services, remain underresearched. To fill this gap, the purpose of this study, is to investigate elements of…
Abstract
Purpose
Low-income consumers’ perceptions of access and inclusion in financial services, remain underresearched. To fill this gap, the purpose of this study, is to investigate elements of low-income consumers’ informal and formal financial service experiences, from their personal experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed methods using data collected from low-income consumers in Latin America, reveal a spectrum of consumer perceptions making up access, inclusion and social dependence within financial service experiences. Scales, grounded in the consumer experience, are developed, validated and used to test a model of consumers’ service inclusivity perceptions.
Findings
Service costs, information and documentation difficulty, convenience and social dynamics influence low-income consumers’ perceptions of financial service inclusivity.
Research limitations/implications
Analysis reveals differentiation in the impact of aspects of low-income consumers’ experiences between formal and informal financial services. Working directly with this unique population exposes the nuance of their financial service experiences.
Practical implications
This research provides a more holistic perspective on low-income consumers’ financial service experience and provides contextually relevant scales with robust psychometric properties. Services marketers can use this research to inform design and evaluation of financial service offerings for low-income consumers.
Originality/value
This research contributes to study of the wellbeing of low-income consumers by providing understanding of their financial service experiences from their point-of-view and providing contextually-relevant, empirically validated tools for future inquiry.
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Gustavo Adolfo Yepes-López, José Luis Camarena, Julián Mauricio Cruz-Pulido, Luz Jeannette Quintero-Campos, Virginia Lasio, Jorge Rodriguez, Jack Zambrano-Vera, Consuelo Adelaida García de la Torre, María Matilde Schwalb-Helguero, María Ángela Prialé, José Solís-Sierra, Maruzella Rossi-Undurraga, Roberto Carvajal-Ramos, Pedro Javier Martinez, Victoria González-Gutiérrez, Rogelio Sánchez-Reyna, Griselda Lassaga and Nicolás Beltramino
This article aims to report on the development and validation of a bribery measurement index for the business sector, which, based on institutional theory, seeks to overcome the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to report on the development and validation of a bribery measurement index for the business sector, which, based on institutional theory, seeks to overcome the limitations of traditional measurements, recognizing the dynamics that originate the phenomenon and identifying process components.
Design/methodology/approach
To construct the index, correlational and principal component analysis techniques were used, as well as rigorous statistical tests, validating the instrument in a sample of 2,963 companies in Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.
Findings
The result was an instrument composed of two dimensions: (1) anti-bribery game rules, composed of regulations knowledge and anti-bribery efforts, and (2) bribery as a perceived habit, allowing an objective representation of reality due to its internal consistency, concurrent and discriminant validity.
Practical implications
This instrument is one of the few that focuses on measuring bribery in the business sector in terms of corrupt practices, applicable for both public and private institutions to promote game rules against bribery. Additionally, the proposed theoretical model can be used to measure other phenomena with similar characteristics.
Originality/value
This article empirically highlights different variables that make bribery possible. The results can be helpful in the design of strategies to prevent this type of behavior. It also highlights the importance of designing mechanisms to record information related to bribery and the different expressions of corruption in order to explain its different nuances.
Propósito
Este artículo informa sobre el desarrollo y validación de un índice de medición de soborno para el sector empresarial, que, basado en la teoría institucional, busca superar las limitaciones de las mediciones tradicionales, reconociendo las dinámicas que originan el fenómeno e identificando los componentes del proceso.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Para la construcción del índice se utilizaron técnicas de análisis correlacional y de componentes principales, así como rigurosas pruebas estadísticas, validando el instrumento en una muestra de 2.963 empresas de América Latina, entre ellas Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, México y Perú.
Hallazgos
El resultado fue un instrumento compuesto por dos dimensiones: (1) reglas de juego antisoborno, compuestas por conocimiento normativo y esfuerzo antisoborno (2) soborno como hábito percibido, permitiendo una representación objetiva de la realidad debido a su consistencia interna, validez concurrente y discriminante.
Originalidad/Valor
Este artículo pone en evidencia empírica diferentes variables que hacen posible el soborno. Los resultados pueden ser útiles en el diseño de estrategias para prevenir este tipo comportamiento, también destaca la importancia de diseñar mecanismos para registrar la información relacionada con la lucha contra el soborno.
Implicaciones prácticas
Este instrumento es uno de los pocos que se enfoca en medir el soborno en el sector empresarial en términos de prácticas de corrupción, útil para instituciones tanto públicas como privadas para promover mejores reglas de juego en contra del soborno. Adicionalmente el modelo teórico propuesto puede ser utilizado para medir otros fenómenos con características similares.
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Tita Flores, Verónica Greis Andía Flores, Efrain Chura Zea and Javier Mamani Paredes
This article examines the dairy value chain in Southern Peru and identifies four critical success factors that can enhance the local situation.
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines the dairy value chain in Southern Peru and identifies four critical success factors that can enhance the local situation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed descriptive research using semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs from 17 cheese factories across eight districts, namely Azángaro, Ayaviri, Pucara, Lampa, Cabana, Acora, Pomata and Puno. Quantitative market data were also gathered and analyzed alongside qualitative views.
Findings
The study identified four critical issues: quality concerns in milk production, suboptimal managerial practices of cheese-processing plants, lack of compliance to regulations, particularly hygiene and environmental ones, and inadequate access to finance. The findings reveal a gap between the practices of the Puno region's dairy industry and world-class standards for cheese production. Urgent actions are required to improve product quality, increase access to finance, enhance managerial education and ensure compliance with regulations.
Research limitations/implications
Results suggest critical issues to be prioritized, but the article does not propose how to solve the problems identified. External factors, such as economic changes, were also not considered. Interviews were conducted exclusively with cheese processing entrepreneurs, not milk producers.
Originality/value
This case study provides an insight into the interior of Peru, an under-researched region facing several development challenges. The findings have significant implications for dairy value chain stakeholders in Peru and other similar contexts.
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Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Jameson Boex and Javier Arze del Granado