David Tonks and Marc Farr
The general context for this paper is access to higher education (HE) in the UK but the particular concern is participation. An important distinction is drawn between access and…
Abstract
The general context for this paper is access to higher education (HE) in the UK but the particular concern is participation. An important distinction is drawn between access and participation. The heterogeneous characteristics of HE and the complex choice processes of applicants mean that a finer level of description and analysis is required which goes beyond aggregate measures of access and examines the extent and the nature of participation. Equality of opportunity provides the underpinning for this paper, access to HE is the starting point, the focus is on participation and the approach is empirical and pragmatic. In 2002, the target for access to UK HE was set at 50 percent, which requires attention to shift from broad measures of access towards detailed measures of participation; particularly when the agenda is one of social inclusion, and when certain groups within society are still significantly under‐represented and disadvantaged at the level of participation.
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Reports extracts from an exploratory, cross‐sectional studyundertaken in the rapidly changing environment of UK higher education.Begins with introductory material covering some…
Abstract
Reports extracts from an exploratory, cross‐sectional study undertaken in the rapidly changing environment of UK higher education. Begins with introductory material covering some recent changes in higher education and the relevance of marketing and market segmentation to institutional provision. Addresses the issue of access to higher education, however the perspective is largely managerial. Proposes geodemographic analysis as a useful way to segment the market for higher education. The data concern the “market” for home students prior to the removal of the binary divide and provide a geodemographic analysis of applicants and of acceptances by institution type in 1991. Discusses the possible implications for marketing and also for policies concerning the variability of access to higher education.
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Alvin Patrick Valentin, Aivanne Miguel Dela Vega, Marc Ivenson Kho, Sean Russel Licayan, Elijah Liam Nierras and Jose Carlos Pabalate
This study aims to determine and analyze the predictors of food waste reduction intention and behavior among higher education institutions (HEIs) using an extended version of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine and analyze the predictors of food waste reduction intention and behavior among higher education institutions (HEIs) using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB).
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically tested an extended TPB model through regression analyses using data obtained through an online survey.
Findings
Attitude toward food waste reduction, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and food waste knowledge predicted intention to reduce food waste. Furthermore, the intention to reduce food waste predicted food waste reduction behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The results imply that extending the TPB by adding food waste knowledge significantly predicted food waste reduction intention and behavior.
Practical implications
The study identified factors that predict food waste reduction behavior and suggested ways to influence Filipino students in HEIs to reduce food waste.
Originality/value
The findings support the inclusion of food waste knowledge to the TPB in predicting food waste reduction intention and behavior among students in HEIs.
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Seleshi Sisaye and Jacob G. Birnberg
The paper extends the organizational learning framework: Structural-Functional (SF)-single-loop or Conflictual-Radical (CR)-double-loop learning to the management accounting…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper extends the organizational learning framework: Structural-Functional (SF)-single-loop or Conflictual-Radical (CR)-double-loop learning to the management accounting literature. The sociological approach of organizational learning is utilized to understand those contingent factors that can explain why management accounting innovations succeed or fail in organizations.
Approach
We view learning as enhancing an organization’s strategic competitive advantage by making it better able to adopt and diffuse innovation in respond to changes in its environment in order to manage improved performance. The success of management accounting innovations is contingent upon whether its learning process involves SF-single-loop or CR-double-loop learning to adopt and diffuse process innovation.
Findings
The paper suggests that the learning strategy that the organization chooses is the reason why some management accounting innovations are more successfully adopted than others and why some innovations are easily diffused in some organizations but not in others. We propose that the sociological approaches to learning provide an alternative framework with which to better understand the adoption and diffusion of process innovations in management accounting systems.
Originality
It has become evident that management accounting researchers need to pay particular attention to an organization’s approach to adoption and diffusion of innovation strategies, particularly when they are designing and implementing process innovation programs for an organization. According to Schulz (2001), there are two interrelated stages of the learning that can shape the outcome of the innovation process in an organization. The first stage is related to the acquisition/production (adoption) of knowledge that results in gathering information, codification, and exploration. This is followed by the second stage which is the distribution or dissemination (diffusion) processes. When these two stages – adoption and diffusion – are applied within an accounting context, they address issues that are commonly associated with the successes and/or failures of management accounting innovations.
Research limitations/implications
Although innovation involves learning, the nature of the learning process does not completely describe the manner in which an innovation affects the organization. Accordingly, we suggest that the two interrelated organizational sociological dimensions of innovations processes, namely, (1) the adoption and diffusion theories of Rogers (1971 and 1995), to approach organizational learning, and (2) the SF (single loop) and CR (double loop) approaches to learning be used simultaneously to describe management accounting innovations.
Practical implications
When an innovation is implemented, it initially can be introduced as an incremental change, one that can be limited in both in its scope and its breadth of administrative changes. This means that situations which are most likely to benefit from its initiation can serve as the prototype for its adoption by the organization. If successful, this can be followed by systemic accounting innovations to instituting broader administrative changes within the existing accounting reporting and control systems.
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Marc van Veldhoven and Luc Dorenbosch
The purpose of this study is to shed more light on the role of employee proactivity (self‐starting, action‐orientated behaviours aimed at greater organisational effectiveness) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to shed more light on the role of employee proactivity (self‐starting, action‐orientated behaviours aimed at greater organisational effectiveness) in relation to aging and career development. It aims to do this in two ways. First, by investigating how age and HR practices for development initiated by the organisation influence proactivity. Here, proactivity it seeks to study as a career‐relevant outcome. Second, by examining how age, proactivity and HR practices for development influence employee experiences of career opportunities. Here, it aims to use proactivity as career‐relevant predictor.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 619 employees from 47 departments completed a questionnaire, including two scales on proactivity (on‐the‐job and developmental proactivity) as well as a scale on career opportunities. HR and line managers in these departments were interviewed about HR practices directed at career development of the employees. The data combine information from two levels (employee, department) as well as three different sources (employee, line manager, HR manager), and are analysed using multi‐level analysis.
Findings
First, the paper presents the results on proactivity as an outcome: age is positively related to proactivity on‐the‐job but has no association with proactivity towards development. HR practices targeted at career development are positively associated with both types of proactivity. Second, the results on proactivity as a predictor show that career opportunities have a negative association with age, a positive association with proactivity, and a positive association with career development‐orientated HR practices. An additional negative effect on career opportunities is found for the cross‐level interaction between HR practices and age.
Originality/value
This study is original as it combines individual, psychological, and HR perspectives in researching age‐related career issues. It contributes to the literature by showing that age has no negative, but rather a positive impact on proactivity. Proactivity furthermore is sensitive to HR practices for development, implying that organisations can influence the proactivity of their employees. For older employees the study implies that, although organisations tend to offer them fewer HR practices for development, they can offset this disadvantage to some extent by increased proactivity, and thus retain career opportunities.
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Court decisions, based largely on principles of equal protection and non-discrimination, throw out laws with preferences for open source software, demonstrating that such laws are…
Abstract
Court decisions, based largely on principles of equal protection and non-discrimination, throw out laws with preferences for open source software, demonstrating that such laws are not only bad public policy, but may also be illegal, and that neutrality and choice in software procurement is the better approach.
Michael Ozlanski and Emma Marie Fleck
New entrepreneurial businesses are one of the key drivers of innovation and economic development. However, one of their greatest obstacles is accessing capital, especially since…
Abstract
Synopsis
New entrepreneurial businesses are one of the key drivers of innovation and economic development. However, one of their greatest obstacles is accessing capital, especially since they are often initially unprofitable and lack tangible assets in the first few years of operation. Since debt financing from banks can be difficult for them to obtain, their capacity for growth can be limited. This case introduces students to Kabbage, a company that reduced the barriers associated with start-up and microbusiness lending by using a fully automated, data-driven platform. Kabbage made instant decisions on whether these businesses should qualify for a line of credit by reviewing its clients’ electronic data, analyzed quickly and accurately using specific algorithms.
Research methodology
Given the applied nature of the case, the data were gleaned from a wide range of secondary sources, specifically popular business press which was verified for authenticity.
Relevant courses and levels
This case can be used in a variety of undergraduate courses. Some course examples include small business management, introduction to entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial finance.
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This paper aims to explore the views of human resource (HR) professionals on work motivation and retention of older workers. Furthermore, it seeks to generate qualitative data to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the views of human resource (HR) professionals on work motivation and retention of older workers. Furthermore, it seeks to generate qualitative data to inspire measures for future survey research.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a qualitative approach, using focus groups. A total of 15 participants were purposefully selected from different organisational settings (e.g. private and public organisations, various sectors, various organisational sizes, HR departments and HR consultants) and from different areas of HR practice (e.g. recruitment, selection, training, evaluation, diversity management, industrial relations). Several procedures are applied to carry out a rigorous qualitative analysis (i.e. interview guide, video recording and field notes, prompt transcripts, double coding, direct quotes and rich data slices when presenting findings).
Findings
The paper reveals that focus groups generate rich interaction and their content analysis results in five topics: definition of older workers, diversity amongst older workers, work motivation of older workers, retention policy and practices, and contexts of work motivation and organisation retention policy/practices.
Research limitations/implications
Three focus groups with HR professionals give just a glance of the intended retention practices. Broader qualitative and quantitative research with HR professionals and older workers is needed, preferably carried out by an international and multidisciplinary team.
Practical implications
The paper provides preliminary advice to HR professionals as to which practices aim at retention of older workers, based on insights in theories on work motivation.
Originality/value
The study takes place within Belgium where far‐reaching societal reform is still needed to promote employment of older workers and to move away from the early‐retirement culture. The paper confronts the wealth of work motivation theories and the plethora of HR practices with HR professionals being challenged to retain older workers and to keep them motivated.
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ANTHONY E. BOPP and MITCHELL DURST
Forecasters have frequently been concerned with designing seasonal adjustment procedures that satisfy particular theoretical criteria (e.g. orthogonality, idempotency, symmetry…
Abstract
Forecasters have frequently been concerned with designing seasonal adjustment procedures that satisfy particular theoretical criteria (e.g. orthogonality, idempotency, symmetry, Lovell). In evaluating the merits of a particular technique, Monte Carlo studies are often undertaken and the results are then compared to those derived from the Census Bureau's X—11 routine (Wallis, Stephenson, Grether). However, many practical questions have not been addressed, such as to what extent can seasonal routines affect parameter estimates, forecast values, and policy scenarios? The purpose of this article is to focus upon these questions. Data from a short‐term petroleum demand model is seasonally adjusted six different ways. The seasonally adjusted data is then used to estimate the demand relationships of the model using the same structural equation in each case. The results of these estimations provide illuminating information about how seasonality affects parameter values. For policy purposes, this information can be crucial as various policies can be predicated upon an estimated response to a particular variable (e.g. the price of gasoline). The question answered here is how sensitive are the expected policy results to the type of seasonal routine employed in making the estimations.