“Do You Use English in Your Daily Life?” Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Their Extramural Use of English

The aim of this research is to analyse the students’ perceptions about their extramural use of English, comparing undergraduates studying their degree in English (EMI) with those studying theirs in their native language (non-EMI) within a span of five academic years. Data collected from a Spanish University suggest that the students´s interest and perception of their possibilities of working abroad in English differ. Results also reveal key differences in the use of extramural English and suggest that exposure to reading books or watching English-language films will eventually contribute to the formation of global mindset in students. The trend of the importance of English during a five year span is also considered, for both strands of students. This study makes a contribution in the field of teaching in international business settings for high education institutions.     

Research collaboration model in academic social networks

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a hybrid collaboration recommendation method that accounts for research similarities and the previous research cooperation network. Research cooperation is measured by combining the collaboration time and the number of co-authors who already collaborated with at least one scientist. Research similarity is based on authors’ previous publications and academic events they attended. A weighted directed graph is built to discover new collaborators by using direct and indirect connections between scientists. Moreover, a consensus-based system is built to integrate bibliography data from different sources. The experimental results show that our method improves the recommendation performances over other methods.     

Are Chinese nationals’ attitudes to wildlife tourist attractions different from those of other nationalities?

Many wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) have negative impacts on animal welfare and species conservation. In the absence of regulation, raising standards requires tourists to create market pressure by choosing to attend WTAs with benefits for wildlife. We surveyed respondents from five countries – China, Australia, Canada, UK, and USA – to quantify how attitudes to captive animals, and towards WTAs’ outputs and standards, may vary with nationality. Our aim was to provide a firm basis for behaviour change interventions to alter current patterns of tourist consumption of WTAs. All respondents agreed on the importance of conservation and animal welfare, but Chinese respondents were twice as likely to believe that WTAs would not be allowed to exist if they were bad for animals, and that WTAs’ promotional materials were reliable indicators of welfare and conservation standards. These findings indicate Chinese respondents had fundamentally similar attitudes to those from the other countries, but differed in how those attitudes were likely to be applied. Chinese tourists may experience more barriers to aligning their actions with their values with respect to WTAs. Removing these barriers may require information campaigns to highlight the lack of regulation, and the unreliability of some WTAs’ promotional materials and tourists’ reviews.     

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.     

The importance of career goal in relation to academic performance: a case study of hospitality management students

ABSTRACT

Hospitality management programs have commonly offered exclusive learning opportunities to talented students in order to keep “brains” in the industry. While academic performance indices are often used to identify “brains” in the education sector, scant research has empirically examined whether “brains” are intended to stay in the industry. This study surveyed 304 hospitality management students and examined the relationships between their career-goal related factors and academic performance. Findings indicate that career goal and positive job valence toward the hospitality industry are significantly related to academic performance. The results of this study contribute to the limited literature on the relationship between career goal and academic performance.     

浅谈铁路建设项目资格预审申请文件、商务标编写方法及建议

2014年以来,铁路固定资产投资每年基本稳定在8000亿元左右,对施工企业而言,要抓住当前的有利机会,争取更多的施工任务。结合当前铁路建设项目资格预审及招标的特点,简要介绍资格预审申请文件、商务标的编写方法,提出相关建议,以期为从业人员提供借鉴。     

企业社会责任与企业价值——组织惰性与行业敏感度的调节作用

以2012—2016年沪深两市A股上市公司的数据为依据,通过实证分析研究了企业社会责任对企业价值的影响,并从组织层面和行业层面的视角探讨了组织惰性和行业敏感度对该影响的调节作用。研究结果表明,企业社会责任对企业价值具有显著的促进作用;组织惰性减弱了企业社会责任对企业价值的促进作用;行业敏感度阻碍了企业通过履行社会责任进而提升企业价值的过程。     

参与产学研合作对科研人员国际和国内论文发表的影响——区域边界和院校层次的调节作用

当前文献对参与产学研互动是否会正向或负向影响科研人员的学术绩效尚未形成一致结论。本文搜集参加广东省企业科技特派员计划的共3 524名科研人员的相关数据,考察参与学企人员流动形式的产学研互动对其学术绩效的影响,包括对国际和国内论文发表的影响。研究发现,参与学企人员流动对学术绩效既有正向促进作用,也有负向削弱效应。结果表明,参与计划对特派员国际论文发表的促进作用大于国内论文。参与后,特派员国际论文发表的增长速率有显著增加,而国内论文发表的增长速率却明显减低。且高层次院校科研人员参与学企人员流动比一般院校人员获得更高的国际论文产出。本地科研人员参与学企人员流动能够比区域外人员获得更高的国际论文产出。研究结论对平衡科研人员学术研究和创新成果转化活动的政府产学研政策、学研机构行政机制和企业管理策略都具有重要参考价值。     

跨境电商英语沟通中的语用移情策略研究

跨境电商的飞速发展离不开跨境电商英语沟通质量的提升,跨境电商英语沟通是在交流过程中,买卖双方传递、共享信息和感情的过程。运用语用学的移情理论,结合跨境电商英语沟通特点,从礼貌语、委婉语、模糊语和幽默语等方面,建构语用移情策略,有助于缩短买卖双方的心理距离,达到预期的语用效果,推动畅通有效地跨境电商沟通。     

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.