Learning to glow

Create a cooperative environment within your organization and you will radiate energy, innovation and success, says Lynda Gratton .     

Linking Mission to Learning Activities for Assurance of Learning

Can accreditation-related requirements and mission statements measure learning outcomes? This study focuses on triangulating accreditation-related requirements with mission statements and learning activities to learning outcomes. This topic has not been comprehensively explored in the past. After looking into the requirements of AACSB, ISO, and the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (QF), “mission/objective/goal/outcome, improvement, learning, activities, review, and consistent” were identified as the key elements which can be applied to designing learning activities with a teaching log. From teachers' observations and studying the reflections of learners, it was found that “Ability, Affection, All-round Development and Appreciation” improved to align with the elements of the mission statement “Capable and Caring.” It was found that guest lectures by academics and industry practitioners can also help nurture learners' overall development. These findings are of great value as a mission statement is intended to lead to action and continuous improvement; and accreditation exercises involve mission verification and validation. Longitudinal studies of a similar nature are suggested to further test the findings of the present study.     

Learning the wrong lessons from history: Underestimating strategic change in business turnarounds

The historical literature on Bryant and May, market leaders for many years in the English match trade, is rich and interesting although it contains little on the connections between labour and technology-related managerial practices and the economic returns that they engendered. This is surprising given the importance of profit considerations to business behaviour in general and to Bryant and May's functioning in particular. This paper accordingly examines the connections between the firm's approach to technological innovation and labour relations and the financial returns it was able to generate and distribute to its owners across the period 1884 to 1927.     

Learning to export from neighbors

This paper studies how learning from neighboring firms affects new exporters' performance. We develop a statistical decision model in which a firm updates its prior belief about demand in a foreign market based on several factors, including the number of neighbors currently selling there, the level and heterogeneity of their export sales, and the firm's own prior knowledge about the market. A positive signal about demand inferred from neighbors' export performance raises the firm's probability of entry and initial sales in the market but, conditional on survival, lowers its post-entry growth. These learning effects are stronger when there are more neighbors to learn from or when the firm is less familiar with the market. We find supporting evidence for the main predictions of the model from transaction-level data for all Chinese exporters over the 2000-2006 period. Our findings are robust to controlling for firms' supply shocks, countries' demand shocks, and city-country fixed effects.     

Learning to manage international joint ventures

This paper identifies the key lessons of managing international joint ventures (IJVs) from the perspectives of IJV experienced partners and managers. The study adopts a multi-method personal interview and self-administered questionnaire approach to identify the major management lessons. Broadly, the response categories are grouped into three distinct areas of learning: (1) the management of the IJV formation process; (2) management of the boundary relationship between partners; and (3) the management of the operation of the IJV. The paper elucidates the lessons regarding these three areas of IJV management and provides a set of propositions for future research.     

Using Inductive Learning to Predict Bankruptcy

An emerging trend in organizational computing is using information technology to learn decision knowledge from enterprise data. The primary contribution of this study is the presentation of a sound theory and a comprehensive technique for learning the decision model for predicting bankruptcy. The theory is based on the information contained in cash flow components, which is the foundation of valuation theory, and an analytical system that measures the amount of uncertainty in the cash flow information. The approach links a tree-based inductive learning system that relies on the concept of entropy, with an information system based on the cash flow of a firm. A test of the cash flow approach involves the cash flow components for a sample of 99 failed and 99 non-failed companies. The structural instability of cash flow components generated by an inductive learning system is a serious issue for financial analysts. However, this shortcoming is overcome by using a jackknife procedure to develop a global tree that identifies the most important cash flow components. The final global tree found only 3 cash flow components were needed to classify correctly 89% of the companies as either failed or non-failed. Only a few early studies achieved a higher level of predictive accuracy. The 3 significant cash flow components were dividends, net investment, and net operating cash flow. Using the same data, a probit statistical technique generated a 67.5% predictive accuracy. In summary, the inductive learning results indicate that cash flow components are not only a natural tool for explaining the bankruptcy process, but they provide a high level of predictive accuracy.     

航运业应正确应对市场变化

航运市场是高度竞争的市场 产业的竞争强度与市场结构有着密切的关系。根据新古典综合经济学理论．根据买卖双方的个数及其规模构成、产品的差别程度、市场进出自由程度和信息的完全性．可以将市场结构区分为完全竞争市场、垄断竞争市场、寡头市场和垄断市场四种类型．买卖双方的个数越多、产品的差别程度越小、市场进出自由程度越高、市场信息越完全就越接近于安全竞争的市场结构。     

Globalisation and union opposition to technological change

Trade unions have a rational incentive to oppose the adoption of labour-saving technology when labour demand is inelastic and unions care much for employment relative to wages. Trade liberalisation typically increases trade union technology opposition. These conclusions are reached in a model of unionised international duopoly with two-way trade. We also find that the incentive for technology opposition is stronger in the more technologically advanced country and in the country with the larger home market, complementing earlier explanations for technological catch-up and leapfrogging.     

Chinese sock makers change tactics to survive

Canadian movie format company IMAX Corp has recently signed an- other agreement to team up with local partners to open more theaters in China.     

Business Ethics Teaching: Using Conversational Learning to Build an Effective Classroom Learning Environment

Building an effective classroom learningenvironment requires that business ethicsteachers pay particular attention to creating aclassroom environment that values the ideasothers have to offer. This article discussesthe importance of conversational learning tobusiness ethics teaching for effectivelearning. The paper also considers thebusiness ethics teacher's role in using aconversational learning approach to teachingbusiness ethics and some learning processesused to create a classroom climate conducive tothis approach for those interested in creatingnew kinds of conversation in their businessethics teaching efforts.     

Aid to agriculture,trade and structural change

This paper studies the effect on the industrialization process of developing countries of foreign aid given to agriculture to expand its productive capacity. According to our theoretical analysis, this effect is conditional on the openness of receiving countries. Our empirical results based on panel data for developing countries confirm this analysis, as we find that the effect of this kind of agricultural aid on the rate of growth of the industrial sector of landlocked countries is indeed positive.     

A Challenge-Feedback Learning Approach to Teaching International Business

This article introduces a challenge-feedback learning (CFL) approach based on the goal-setting theory of human motivation, the deliberate practice theory of expert performance, and findings from the research on active and collaborative learning. The core of the teaching concept is the CFL cycle in which students repeatedly progress through four steps (Challenge–Act–Feedback–Reflect). Upon completion of one cycle, a new, more complex challenge is introduced in which students have the chance to go beyond their current skills level. The article also presents an example for an implementation of the CFL approach in an international business (IB) curriculum. The CFL approach is particularly useful for acquiring the problem-solving, adaptation, communication, metacognition, and intercultural teamwork skills needed in IB practice.     

Learning from the best leads to superior performance

Xerox Corp., one of the earliest US proponents of benchmarking, has institutionalized the practice in its organization. This had lead to fundamental changes in how Xerox manages suppliers and develops products.