Trends in undergraduate economics degrees, 1991–2017

Undergraduate degrees awarded in economics by U.S. colleges and universities were stagnant from 2009–10 through 2012–13, increased rapidly (almost 15 percent) over the two years from 2012–13 through 2014–15, but have again leveled off in 2015–16 and 2016–17.     

Higher education and stakeholders’ donations: successful civic crowdfunding in an Italian university

Can civic crowdfunding be used to improve the structures and services offered by public universities? Are stakeholders willing to make donations to such projects? This paper answers these questions by analysing a successful civic crowdfunding project in an Italian university. Stakeholders were found to be willing to engage in crowdfunding and make donations. The key to success is to ensure effective communication and to draw on feelings of belonging to the institution.     

Are you really doing good things in your boss's eyes? Interactive effects of employee innovative work behavior and leader–member exchange on supervisory performance ratings

Organizations increasingly depend on employee efforts to innovate. However, the quality of relationships between leaders and employees may affect the recognition that employees receive for their innovative work behaviors. Drawing from a social cognition perspective, we tested a model in which leader–member exchange (LMX) moderates the impact of employee innovative work behavior on supervisory ratings of employee performance. Results from two multisource studies combining self, colleague, and supervisor ratings consistently showed that employees receive more favorable performance ratings by engaging in innovative work behavior when they have high‐quality LMX relationships. Moreover, we found that this interactive relationship was mediated by leader perceptions of innovative employee efforts, providing support for a moderated mediation model. Implications for the literatures on performance appraisal, LMX, and innovation are discussed.     

To each according to their ability? Academic ranking and salary inequality across public colleges and universities

This article compares the salary structure of tenured and tenure-track faculty across schools within the university systems of North Carolina and New York. Specifically, we establish a positive relationship between school prestige and salary inequality, both overall and within specific academic ranks. This result suggests that the value to teaching is less discipline-specific than the value to research output. Marked differences in the aforementioned statistical linkage across academic ranks also confirm prior speculation that junior faculty salaries are more closely tied to academic value than senior faculty salaries.     

互联网背景下工商管理模式的创新发展研究

随着信息时代的到来,互联网技术在各个行业的应用也越来越普遍,这也为我国经济的发展提供了非常有利的条件。工商管理模式的创新实践是现代企业经营管理中的核心内容,工商管理模式将直接影响企业在日常经营中解决各种管理问题的效率,是企业稳定持续发展的重要指标。因此,企业的管理者应该合理地运用现代化信息技术,提升企业工商管理的水平,实现企业的健康稳定发展。     

民营企业党员教育要做好三个结合

加强民营企业党员教育工作,对增强党的阶级基础、扩大党的群众基础、巩固党的执政基础具有十分重要的意义。做好党的宗旨和企业宗旨相结合、企业党建活动与生产运营活动相结合、党课内容革新与企业文化建立相结合,不仅能加强民营企业基层党组织建设,而且能促进民营企业又好又快发展。     

The Macro Pedagogy Debate: Teaching DSGE to Undergraduates Symposium

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models have become the workhorse of modern macroeconomics and the standard way to communicate ideas among applied macroeconomists. Undergraduate students, however, often remain unaware of their existence. The lack of specialized knowledge can hurt them if they decide to attend graduate school. Indeed, many first-year PhD students discover that the material they are currently learning differs significantly from what they mastered in college. But this can change. In this article, the author describes how to teach a full-fledged macroeconomics course where DSGE models take center stage. He discusses how to arrange such a course within a one-semester time frame, details the main components of instruction, and finishes with some thoughts based on his teaching experience at Macalester College.     

‘Good’ farm management employment: Emerging values in the contemporary Irish dairy sector

The number of Irish dairy farms with herds greater than 100 cows has increased from 4.5 % in 2005 to 23 % in 2016. The abolition of the dairy quota in 2015 has led to predictions that this trend will continue and that an additional 6000 people will be required to work on dairy farms by 2025. Ownership of farms is esteemed, with farm employment perceived as a poor second option, so it is necessary to identify possible routes towards creating 'good' farm employment relationships. This paper explores the social, cultural and economic values of employers and employees in the context of early experiences of farm employment in post-quota Ireland. Using narrative analysis, this study found that employees gained esteem and pride from acquiring managerial responsibilities and receiving recognition for their abilities and accomplishments from their employers. Greater social recognition of employ’ abilities by peer groups and in networks (social capital) cemented ‘good employee’ status. Employers, in a context of unprecedented dairy production expansion, emphasised the need for and demonstrated changing of power structures to open up the farm to new forms of influence. However, employers’ reflexivity in support of employment relationships was undermined overall by what the management literature calls a weak ‘rewards system’ for employees. Without the supportive scaffolding of a formalised rewards system, relational gestures of responsibility-devolution and employ’ appreciation of employees may be insufficient to sustain quality farm management employment in the long term. Inevitably, this diminishes the attractiveness of farm employment, limiting the drawing of talent not only into farm employment but into associated capacity-building programmes.     

The role of university Knowledge Transfer Offices: Not just commercialize research outputs!

While there is a prevailing rich body of studies on the role of university knowledge transfer office (KTO) in the commercialization process as part of the Third Mission, research on its role in community engagement activities is relatively neglected, even as funding agencies and policy makers conceive these as instrumental to sustaining social and economic development. This article focuses on the role of university KTO in supporting, facilitating or undertaking Third Mission community engagement activities. Drawing on data from the annual Higher Education Business and Community Interaction survey for the years 2007–2012, this paper empirically explores the relationship between a range of Third Mission activities by university KTO and performance of three key business-community services – provision of consultancy, provision of continuous professional development courses (CPD), and leasing of facilities and equipment (FE). It emerges that the routines of developing strategic plan and creating spin-off are positively associated with all types of community knowledge transfer (CKT) activities. Further, the routines of establishing partnerships with local and regional bodies, and licensing are positively related to CPD and FE, respectively. The article is concluded with implications for theory, practice, policy, and suggestions for future research.     

Identity Building Through Mediation by African Tailors

In contemporary African cities, dressing well and wearing exclusive garments has become crucial for people in search of identity, distinction and individuality. The research presented in this article, situated at disciplinary intersections of cultural studies, fashion practices and sustainability, provides a case study of African tailors conducted in Maputo and Lisbon, with a special focus on identity building of African immigrants in Portugal. However, the role of tailors in this acculturation process has been ignored in the consumption approach to creative cities. This study is therefore also a reaction to the mainly Western world of regular couture, and to ‘creative city materials’ that focus on consumption. Instead, we emphasize the importance of African tailors who de facto shape urban experiences—visually incrementing practices—that are fundamental to the comprehension of sartorial culture, while we also allude to the complex intersections between local and global markets. In the first part of this article we describe a semi-ethnographic study among tailors in Maputo and Lisbon. The second part presents a participatory action approach that entailed developing an educational programme for African tailors where culture and creativity meet. This programme empowered tailors to tap into their cultural knowledge on tailoring and their awareness of community identity. In our study we argue that the idea of creative cities and their creative economy should be approached from a cultural perspective, by building awareness of the importance of local creative classes instead of focusing on importing those classes.