Using software to engage design students in academic writing

First year undergraduate design students have found difficulties in realising the standards expected for academic writing at university level. An assessment initiative was used to engage students with criteria and standards for a core interdisciplinary design subject notable for its demanding assessment of academic writing. The same graduate attribute categories linked to assessment criteria and web-based software (REVIEW?) were used for assessing students’ other design assignments. Students engaged with criterion-referenced assessment of an essay exemplar in order to reflect on their own essay writing process. Tutor marking of the exemplar and student essays used a visual mark on a grading scale to reveal the variation between the tutor’s marks and students’ own judgments against each criterion. Data from the software and post-semester focus group discussions and questionnaires showed that the initiative promoted engagement and dialogue between tutors and students and fostered independence and confidence. Results suggest that students’ understanding of the required academic writing standards was improved by this reflective intervention and increased their appreciation that writing and research skills are important attributes for designers.     

Implementing an exemplar-based approach in an interaction design subject: enhancing students’ awareness of the need to be creative

In higher education effective teaching includes making learning goals and standards clear to students. In architecture and design education in particular, goals and standards around assessment are often not well articulated. There is good evidence that when teachers engage students before an assessment in marking exemplars, and explain why the exemplars received the grades they did, students’ performance in their written assessment is consequently enhanced. However some teachers are concerned that exemplars may discourage students from being creative; this concern is particularly important in design education. In this small-scale mixed methods study we explore interaction design students’ perceptions of the effect of an exemplar-based teaching approach on their work in a design task. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that students developed their understanding of task criteria and standards; far from discouraging their creativity, most students perceived that their experience of the approach enhanced their awareness of the need to produce an original design. The exemplar-based approach used in this study complements the studio-based teaching approach in design education, and helps to make clear the design goals and standards that teachers expect their students to strive for.     

“Voice Within Voice”: Members’ Voice Responses to Dissatisfaction with Their Union

While the role of unions as collective voice is well understood, how union members themselves voice their preferences within their union is not. This study represents an important step in understanding this critical dimension of the union–member relation. Using survey data from an Australian union, I investigate how union members voice dissatisfaction with their union. Union loyalty, perceived opportunities to voice, union responsiveness, and collectivist ideology predicted willingness to voice directly to the union. Perceived union support and instrumentality did not predict members’ willingness to voice directly to the union but were associated with other voice responses.     

Peak Union Campaigning: Fighting for Rights at Work in Australia

Many peak unions are in crisis, their traditional reliance on economic or political exchange with employers and the state undermined through falling union membership and the collapse of national bargaining systems. New methods, chiefly as agents of mobilization, and new sources of power, including community organizations, are often advanced as solutions. In Australia, where trade unions faced a fundamental and immediate threat from a national government after an election in 2004, the ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign signalled a shift in peak union strategy. Although this campaign unseated the government in 2007, its legacy is unclear: reviving the power of peak unions and conceptualizing the means to do so remain difficult.     

Viewpoint: The costs and benefits of deception in economic experiments

The historical justifications typically given for the prohibition against deception in economic experiments are less relevant for today’s experiments that are often conducted in non-lab settings with non-student subjects. I describe a variety of research questions that might be most adequately answered with some form of deception, and call for a more nuanced view of the issue that requires a consideration of the importance of the research question relative to the potential costs of deception. For example, in the case of new food products that have not yet been developed, does the sin of hypothetical bias outweigh the sin of deceiving subjects in a non-hypothetical experiment? It is important for journals or professions, which ban the use of deception, to actually define what practices fall under the ban.     

Context-bridging and context-embedded experience: Growth drivers of emerging economy business groups

This study examines emerging economy business groups’ growth directions during institutional change. Building on Penrose’s Theory of Growth of the Firm, we explore managerial resources as foundations for growth. Specifically, we argue that their growth directions are critically shaped by the nature of managerial experience of business groups. Experience that is context-embedded supports growth within the existing strategic paradigm, whereas context-bridging experience enables international growth. We test hypotheses derived from this theoretical argument for business groups in Taiwan, and find empirical support for our arguments.

     

When Do U.S. Workers First Experience Unionization? Implications for Revitalizing the Labor Movement

Debates over revitalizing the U.S. labor movement often overlook when workers are first unionized. This article analyzes the frequency and nature of workers’ first unionized jobs by tracking a cohort of individuals from age 15/16 to 40/41. Though workers are most likely to be unionized when they are in their forties, this article shows that surprising numbers of individuals first encounter unionization in their jobs at a much younger age. These results highlight the importance of experiential union membership models as well as life‐cycle union representation strategies that recognize the young age at which many workers are first unionized.     

Business model innovation processes of average market players: a qualitative-empirical analysis

Business model innovation is by now mainly understood as a strategic option for firms to enhance competitiveness. As a result, business model innovation research usually focuses on outperforming firms that deliberately innovate their business models. We enhance this rather narrow perspective by analysing business model innovation processes of average market players against the background of a multiple-case study. Our findings show that average market players do at least initially not deliberately pursue business model innovation. Instead, they experience business model innovation as a highly emergent and very often unintended process. We identify four phases of this process and describe them in detail. Furthermore, we highlight factors that determine whether a firm is able to complete the process step or not. The results of our study are reflected in a newly developed process model that considerably enhances the understanding of business model innovation processes with regard to average market players and may serve as framework for future research.     

Persuading to participate: Coordination on a standard

We study coordination among competitors in the shadow of a market mechanism. Our main example is standard setting: either firms coordinate through a standard-setting organization (SSO), or a market solution—a standards war—emerges. A firms veto to participate in the SSO triggers a standards war. Participation constraints are demanding, and the optimal SSO can involve on-path vetoes. We show that vetoes are effectively deterred if firms can (partially) release their private information to the public. We discuss several business practices that can serve as a signaling device to provide that information and to effectively ensure coordination.     

Investment opportunities and R&D investments in family and nonfamily firms

The firm’s investment opportunity set (IOS) reflects the prospective growth opportunities related to physical and human capital investments. IOSs are largely firm specific, embedded in assets-in-place, or generated by experience curves, learning-by-doing, and other similar phenomena. However, the value of an IOS can be destroyed if a firm does not exercise the option to invest. In this study, we theorize that a firm’s ability to invest in R&D is conditional on the availability of a favorable IOS. We test our theoretical propositions in the European business environment using a sample of large publicly traded firms with concentrated ownership. Our findings support the notion that the IOS is a significant determinant of corporate R&D investments, but the magnitude of this effect depends on the identity of the ultimate owner. Specifically, the sensitivity of R&D investments of family- and state-owned corporations is higher to favorable IOS than that of widely held corporations, suggesting these firms are more responsive to favorable IOS than others. By introducing the IOS dimension, our results have interesting implications for both theory and practice.     

The Effects of Multi-unionism: a Survey of Large Manufacturing Establishments

Multi-unionism is a distinctive feature of British industrial relations, which is often criticized for reducing the effectiveness of trade unions and also for reducing the efficiency of British business. It is commonly argued that multi-unionism increases strikes, leads to inefficient working practices and complicates the conduct of collective bargaining, although evidence to support this is sparse. This article investigates the process by which multi-unionism reduces business efficiency by a random sample survey of large manufacturing establishments in the North-West of England. Semi-structured interviews with the manager responsible for dealing with trade unions were held in those establishments that were multi-union. It was found that the typical pattern of multi-unionism is for each union to represent distinct groups of workers, rather than competing to represent the same group of workers, and this restricted union competition for members. Even in the minority of establishments that did experience union competition for members, the nature of this competition meant that multi-unionism did not reduce competitiveness. Nor did multi-unionism prevent most employers from introducing efficient working practices. The main implications of multi-unionism are for the conduct of collective bargaining, but any view that this necessarily reduces a firm's efficiency is far too simplistic.     

First Things First

Although successful new product development practices often require joint efforts of professionals from various departments, all too often these professionals are trained as specialists with little exposure to other functional viewpoints. Colin Clipson describes the results of an educational initiative designed to bring together selected technical, business and design students enrolled in classes at The University of Michigan. Members of various student teams quickly ascertained a need to overcome language and cultural barriers in order to develop product recommendations for sponsoring firms. The results of this educational experiment have implications for current educational programs as long as improved innovation management is seen as a desirable social goal.     

Organizational and institutional barriers to value-based pricing in industrial relationships

In their effort to differentiate themselves from cost-driven rivals, many industrial companies are beginning to serve their customers through value-based offerings. Such companies often engage actively in collaborative value creation with their customers. To capture a fair share of the value created, they need to adopt a value-based pricing approach. Therefore, value-driven competition necessitates value-based pricing (VBP). The present study explores the barriers to exercising value-based pricing and suggests ways to overcome those obstacles in putting value-based pricing into action in B2B sales. The study is implemented as an exploratory multi-case study applying an abductive research methodology. Our cases show that industrial sellers try to understand and influence their customers' desired value perception, influence customer-perceived value (CPV), and improve their bargaining position as means to overcome these barriers to improved value capture. Hence, our findings deepen the current understanding of value-based pricing in industrial buyer–seller relationships. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on customer value, organizational capabilities, business models, and sales management in previously unexplored areas. Moreover, the study provides guidance to business practitioners willing to develop value-based pricing as part of their business model.     

The Union Wage Effect in Japan

Previous studies point to Japanese labor unions’ lack of bargaining power that results from their organization at an enterprise level. However, a detailed examination of the institutional setting backed by the Labor Standard Law and Trade Union Law reveals that unions have strong bargaining power against deteriorating work conditions. This paper examines the effect of unions on wages using the Japanese General Social Surveys 2000–2003, which cover a period of economic stagnation. We find a robust union wage premium for both males and females. A Cotton–Neumark decomposition reveals that about one‐fifth of union workers’ higher wage is explained by the difference in the union and nonunion wage structures. We also can confirm the union wage compression effect using the DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996 ) method. Union workers are likely to think that they will not find jobs with similar compensation packages if they leave their current jobs. In summary, unions in Japan contribute to an increase in the average wage and compress the wage distribution among their workers. This result is reconciled with previous findings by considering the uniqueness of the macroeconomic conditions of the sample period.     

Demand‐side strategy,relational advantage,and partner‐driven corporate scope: The case for client‐led diversification

Research Summary: We advance research on corporate diversification by joining insights from the demand‐side and relational views in strategy to offer a novel theory of client‐led diversification. We propose that client‐led diversification results from a combination of the customer‐driven opportunities emphasized in the demand‐side view and the creation of added value through relational assets that is a central tenet of the relational view. Furthermore, we hypothesize that suppliers’ client‐specific knowledge, clients’ relational commitment to suppliers, and growth opportunities in clients’ markets (relative to the suppliers’ own markets) will magnify the client‐led diversification effect. We test our hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset on patent law firms and their diversification into new domains of patent prosecution work for their corporate clients. Managerial Summary: Explanations of why firms diversify into new lines of business have largely concerned the redeployment of underutilized resources, with little regard to opportunities or influences stemming from firms’ existing customers. In our article, we show how the changing scope of business needs from a knowledge‐based supplier firm's set of existing clients is a central driver of supplier‐firm diversification, and this is especially the case when the level of relational assets shared between a supplier and its clients is higher. In a competitive landscape where suppliers compete intensively for the business of clients, our results show how managers can increase the likelihood of capturing additional business from its existing exchange relationships rather than bearing the risks of seeking new exchange relationships.     

Help with solving technological problems in project activities

In France, project activities figure predominantly in technology education. The general idea behind learning based on project activity is to allow the pupil to get involved in the activity in question, with the pupil tackling real situations rather than ones of an abstract nature. But too often, we notice that the pedagogical strategies used by teachers in project activities are not particularly effective from a learning point of view. What must be done in order to render project work in technology teaching genuinely effective? In this article, we make the following suggestion: if specific help, based on the pupil’s level of understanding of the activity relating to technologically based problem solving in project work, is made available by the teacher, then project activity can become much more effective from a learning point of view. By using situations highlighting project activities in the technology teaching domain, we analyse the knowledge used by pupils. We then present the specific help used by the teacher as well as the resulting effects upon student activity. We highlight the fact that if specific help conceived as a result of analysing student activity is put in place, the pupil learns more effectually.     

Rethinking Power,Strategy and Renewal: Members and Unions in Crisis

Why are some unions unable to rebuild membership and bargaining coverage despite significant changes in strategy? We examine the trajectory of a key union in a vital sector, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, calling into question aspects of the union renewal literature. Much scholarship sees members’ associational power as a power resource that can cover the loss of other power resources, but we show that this assumption does not necessarily hold. To explain why members are not necessarily a resource in renewal, we argue that studies of renewal must more fully consider the interplay between different forms of power resources — institutional, structural and societal — and locate union strategies within that dynamic. Critically, this interplay also shapes members’ perceptions of their power, which may further limit a union's options as it responds to external threats.     

Declining Union Density in the 1980s: What Do Panel Data Tell Us?

In this paper we analyse data from the 1980—4 WIRS panel for the light they can shed on the causes of the decline in aggregate trade union density in the UK. We argue that, contrary to conventional wisdom, intra-establishment union density did, on average, decline between 1980 and 1984. This suggests that a traditional compositional change story is untenable. We proceed to investigate the correlation of intra-establishment change with variables suggested by the various hypotheses advanced to explain declining density over the period. We find some evidence for an influence of intra-establishment compositional changes, but the most statistically significant variables are wages and unemployment. These take the wrong sign, however, to support the business cycle interpretation of falling aggregate union density.     

Migration,Ethnicity and Solidarity: ‘Multinational Workers’ in the Former Soviet Union

We investigate migrant construction workers’ experiences in the Former Soviet Union, examining their attitudes to other ethno-national groups, unions and collective action. Industrial relations and migration studies view migrant workers’ hypermobility and diversity, under conditions of low union coverage and rising nationalism, as potentially obstructing consciousness-raising and mobilizing. Workers in our study faced union indifference, ethno-national segregation and discrimination. However, managerial abuses, informality and contestation from below led to spontaneous mobilization. Lack of institutional channels to solve these disputes drove workers’ further mobility. Complex mobility trajectories and collective action translated into increased awareness of collective interests and rejection of nationalist ideologies. The outcome is ‘multinational workers’ potentially resistant to nation-state politics and capital's logics but also aware of the value and usefulness of collective solidarities. Thus, previous arguments solely associating exit with individualistic attitudes, and post-socialist legacies with workers’ quiescence present only partial pictures.     

Building B2B relationships via initiation contributors: Three cases from the Norwegian-South Korean international project business

Initiation is still an unclear phase of B2B relationship development. Here, we build on existing theoretical knowledge derived from relationship development, project marketing and international business literature. We use this to analyze three cases of business relationship initiations between Norwegian and South Korean actors in the shipping industry. By piecing together theoretical and empirical insights, we develop a dynamic model of the relationship initiation process that highlights the role of initiation contributors in international project business. The developed model reveals that multiple entities— such as contacts, rituals and standards—serve as initiation contributors. These trigger or facilitate the focal dyadic relationship initiation, while also preparing future initiations in the focal context. Thus, our key contribution is to bring processual and contextual dimensions to business relationship initiation. Our research also suggests practical insights as to which actors and entities suppliers need to mobilize, in order to initiate new business relationships in international project business contexts.