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Assessing educational outcomes has been an ongoing activity for higher education over the past several years. This concern is important for business educators as well. Regardless of any problems institutions have experienced, there is definitely a need to continue for many reasons: e.g., mandates by state legislatures, accreditation bodies and others, and its potential as an input into strategic planning. Thus far, assessment activities have consisted of a proliferation of methodologies ranging from student portfolio analysis to standardized testing. This paper specifically examines the use of importance‐performance analysis for an evaluation of the business core curriculum, as well as some differences among major areas of study, at two distinct points in time.

States that the workplace is becoming an increasingly stern taskmaster in its demands for literate employees. However, employees may be moving in the opposite direction, resulting in a so‐called “literacy gap”. To make progress towards eliminating this gap, it is necessary, first, to investigate the extent of the problem, or whether there truly is a problem. This is the purpose of this exploratory study, which seeks to focus on the identification of the problem. Using various readability indices, the study examines examples of a typical organization’s reading expectations in terms of grade and difficulty levels. Representative samples from high school textbooks are examined to ascertain the existence of a reading level gap. Three particular readability indices are selected for use. The methodology utilized involves the transcription of selected pieces of both job‐ and education‐specific literature. Each piece is analysed using the readability indices, with resulting measurements of readability providing some indication of the assumed educational level of the reader.

The purpose of this study is to identify an appropriate factor structure that may be utilized to effectively measure a hotel’s performance relative to service quality in a mid-scale setting. Customer perceptions of service quality in mid-scale hotels have largely been ignored; the focus of researchers has been the upscale (4-star) and luxury (5-star) segments.

A 27-item questionnaire is utilized to measure service quality with an initial sample size of over 2,500 respondents. Principle component analysis is utilized to determine the factor structure and regression analysis to determine which factors may serve as predictors of a hotel’s ability to meet customers’ expectations and to provide value.

A three-dimensional model emerged from the data, consistent with the theorizing of Rust and Oliver (1994), which includes the service product, service delivery and service environment. The service environment is the strongest predictor of a hotel’s ability to meet guests’ expectations and to provide guests with value within this context, which is inconsistent with findings in upscale and luxury hotels.

The generalizability of this research may be challenged, as the study was conducted within the context of an oceanfront resort destination dominated by leisure travelers; however, the study may be replicated in additional settings to determine if a similar bundling of service quality attributes occurs in other mid-scale settings including business hotels, as well as economy hotels.

A three-factor model may be more appropriate for assessing service quality in a mid-scale (3-star) environment. In this setting, the service environment and service product may be more important measures of service quality than service delivery. This is an important finding, as many mid-scale and select-service, as well as new mid-scale, lifestyle hotel concepts, attempt to drive profitability by deemphasizing service delivery or by utilizing technology to facilitate service delivery. These findings may also assist operators of mid-scale hotels in improving guests’ perceptions of quality, which has been found to increase perceived value and may positively influence purchase or revisit intentions (Kashyap and Bojanic, 2000).

Service quality research has been conducted, almost exclusively, in first-class (4-star) and luxury (5-star) hotels, while the majority of hotels do not fall into these categories. Although guest expectations relative to service quality may be lower in more moderately priced, mid-scale hotels, service quality remains a critical variable that influences a guest’s decision to return or recommend a hotel to others. Many travelers now utilize online reviews to minimize purchase risk by seeking information relative to service quality when selecting a hotel. Consequently, it is more important than ever that service quality is understood in hotels at all service levels. The present research contributes to filling this gap in the literature.

Although studies have shown that electronic media exposure can negatively affect infants’ and young children’s language development, exposure to these forms of media is increasing in North America. To better understand the types of electronic media exposure and their potential effects, we utilized naturalistic daylong recordings collected in the homes of bilingual Spanish–English infants of Latinx descent (n = 37). The present study examines contextual aspects of electronic media exposure, and the effects of electronic media on two types of parent–infant social interactions associated with child language development: parentese (a style of infant-directed speech distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation) and parent–infant turn-taking. Using Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA), two daylong audio recordings were collected from each family. These recordings were manually annotated for electronic media type, directedness, language, parental support, parentese, and turn-taking. Our results showed that the infants in our study experienced exposure to many different forms of electronic media, in both English and Spanish, and that the programming was predominantly adult-directed rather than child-directed. While both parentese and turn-taking were reduced in the presence of electronic media, the strength of these effects was modulated by electronic media sources, demonstrating that various devices differentially affect parental language input. These results provide a glimpse into what types of media young bilingual Spanish–English learning infants are experiencing and can help researchers design language interventions that are inclusive and relevant for families from these populations.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Social and technological changes of the 21st century influence how and what students learn while in college. New research about student learning suggests a critical need for higher education to reform teaching and learning methods. Experiential and inquiry-based learning (IBL) are essential to engaging students and achieving the type of learning demanded by today’s global workforce. These skills include critical analysis, systems thinking, problem-solving, and spanning cultural and disciplinary boundaries. For decades, international educators purported that education abroad provided these skills for participants, yet recent research suggests that the same factors inhibiting deep learning on campus can also affect global, experiential environments. No longer can faculty members assume that students will learn from experience alone; they must intentionally construct activities accounting for the specific characteristics and needs of learners. This chapter outlines trends influencing student learning, making the case that traditional, content-based, directed instruction is poorly suited for student learning in the 21st century. The authors suggest that applying experiential and inquiry-based practices is essential to constructing effective education abroad program. Case studies, strategies, tools, and resources are provided to assist faculty with developing competencies to teach through an experiential and inquiry-based pedagogical framework.