Efficiency in the provision of university teaching and research: An empirical analysis of UK universities

A flexible three-output, two-input cost function model is used to examine the cost efficiency of UK universities as producers of teaching and research ‘outputs’. Unlike previous studies, a comprehensive peer review of research quality is incorporated. Overall, product-specific and input-specific economies of scale, global and product-specific economies of scope, marginal costs and cost complementarities are estimated. Overall and product-specific scale results indicate considerable increasing returns, while the scope results generally suggest neither economies nor diseconomies. Sensitivity analysis is used to simulate the impact of current government policy, regarding the expansion of undergraduate teaching output, on these results.     

The effects of re‐branding large UK charities on staff knowledge,attitudes and behaviour

• Despite the costs of charity re‐branding, there is little research in the public domain of its effect on staff. This study addresses that gap in knowledge by evaluating the effects of re‐branding large UK charities on staff knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
• A quantitative survey of 465 charity staff was carried out in 10 large UK charities. The study shows that knowledge has benefited most from re‐branding although unevenly across different levels of seniority. Length of service has no effect on levels of knowledge but level of support was positively correlated.
• The impact of re‐branding on attitudes proved positive with staff at all levels feeling more motivated, involved and valued as a consequence. However, the study also demonstrates that not all staff feel engaged with the re‐branding process for the organisation to capitalise fully on enhanced staff performance.
• Behaviour was less affected by re‐branding with the exception of a very positive impact on staff retention. The report discusses the practical implications for charity managers.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

UK universities and the state: a Faustian bargain?

The universities are now‘one of the last seminationalised sectors of the British economy,’used by government as an instrument of social policy. This situation represents a‘Faustian bargain’which threatens both the quality and the prosperity of universities. One solution would be privatisation of some universities through public flotation. These universities could then contract with government to take state-funded students. Two objections are that the scheme would promote elitism and that it would encourage greater inequality between universities, but the relevant question is whether it would offer an improvement on the present regime.     

An investigation into the values dimensions of branding: implications for the charity sector

• Branding is being adopted by charities and written about in academic and practitioner charity literature with increasing frequency. There is also growing concern, however, about the over-commercialistion of the sector and the misappropriation of techniques developed specifically for the commercial environment. Literature supporting the claim that charities are values-based organisations is reviewed and the proposition is made that it is in fact the non-negotiability of charity values that differentiate them from commercial organisations. Given the significance of values in the charity sector, the paper argues that a clearer understanding of how values are conceptualised in branding is necessary in order to establish whether branding is an appropriate and effective tool in the charity context. To achieve this, the paper reviews relevant branding literature focusing in particular upon the delineation of the values dimensions identified in for-profit branding models. To aid further understanding of these values dimensions in the non-profit context and their applicability (or otherwise) to it, the metaphors of brand as ‘mirror’, ‘lamp’ and ‘lens’ are introduced.
• It is argued that in the corporate sector the brand concept has been utilised to ‘mirror’ those values that underpin the needs and desires of consumers. In contrast to the passive mirror, when operationalised as ‘lamp’, it is claimed that the brand aims to influence both the values of the organisation and the values of its target audience. It is postulated that neither of these approaches is appropriate for values-led organisations and that it is only as a metaphorical ‘lens’, projecting the values of the organisation itself that branding offers an applicable and effective model in the charity context.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

关于宾馆业资本经营方式的探讨

宾馆业资本经营的前提条件、有利因素和实行资本经营的几种方式。     

An econometric model of new-car demand in the UK

An econometric model which explains the demand for new cars is specified and estimated, and good empirical results are obtained which imply that the model should provide reliable forecasts of new-car demand. Furthermore, these forecasts are likely to be greatly superior to those generated by simple naive models.     

关于开征教育税的探讨

开征教育税,理顺现行财政分配体制,减少教育经费的体外循环,增强财政监管力度,对规范政府行为,改善投资环境,都有着十分重要的作用.本文遵循教育税设计中的普遍性原则、效率原则及稳定增长原则,提出了具备宽税基、低税率、易征管特征的征税方案.     

How UK universities engage with their local communities: a study of employer supported volunteering

• In 2000, the UK Prime Minister pledged that employers should be encouraged to release staff for 1 day a year to undertake volunteering activity. Many and varied programmes are being set up to assist employees to volunteer, whether during work hours or in their own time. This is called employer supported volunteering (ESV). This paper discusses the increasing use of ESV and aims to provide an understanding of the key concepts of this phenomenon. An E‐mail survey was completed of all 122 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. University websites linked to volunteering for staff and students were also examined. Responses were received from 65 institutions (a response rate of 53%). This initial research reveals that university commitment to ESV varies across the sector. Many universities support staff volunteering and informally encourage links with the local community through voluntary activity but only seven institutions had developed a formal policy allowing staff time off work to volunteer. From this initial research, three best practice universities have emerged and their activities are discussed. The next stage in this project is to research the areas identified and to explore the extent of volunteering by university staff and staff attitudes to volunteering with a view to provide a full picture of ESV in the UK university sector.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高档房地产项目品牌塑造策略探讨

文章分析了高档房地产项目品牌塑造的来源,剖析了高档房地产项目品牌的定位与推广及核心品牌营销模式,并有针对性地提出了品牌塑造的对策和建议。     

ENTRE-U: An entrepreneurial orientation scale for universities

The development of a new scale, ENTRE-U, that measures the entrepreneurial orientation of university departments is described. Governments, industry, and funding organizations challenge universities to become more "entrepreneurial", often in the context of increasing the commercialization outcomes of publicly funded research. The extant literature on corporate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) suggests this orientation is beneficial when organizations face dynamic or hostile environments. However, the EO concept and related empirical research focus on firms in competitive markets. Little is known about the nature of EO in other organizational contexts. ENTRE-U was developed to facilitate empirical research on EO within public universities. Interviews and a follow-up focus group with faculty members from departments in computer science, health science, and engineering at Canadian Universities elicited items for the new scale. A survey of university department heads provided data for statistical development of the scale. ENTRE-U consists of four dimensions – research mobilization, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and perception of university policies – that successfully predict department involvement in commercialization activities. Implications of the findings and opportunities for research using the ENTRE-U scale are discussed.     

Local Government in the UK: An Historical Perspective

Nigel Healey and Bob Leach of Leeds Polytechnic Policy Research Unit put the current controversies over local government into historical perspective.     

上海培育跨国公司初探

跨国公司的形成需要具备一定的条件。上海目前全面发展跨国公司的条件尚不成熟 ,应重点选择几家基础比较好的企业进行重点扶持。     

高职院校教学科研一体化探析

推进教学科研一体化是高职院校创新发展的必要举措,旨在提升高职院校教学质量和科研水平,促进高职院校内涵建设。本文阐述了教学科研一体化的内涵,高职院校推进教学科研一体化的实践意义和落脚点,探讨了如何通过教学科研一体化引领高职院校的创新发展。     

预设的语义和语用分析

预设理论是逻辑学界和自然语言学界都非常关注的重要问题。预设可以分为语义预设和语用预设,它们有各自的应用情形。文章从语义预设的逻辑内涵、语用预设的特征及两者的关系3个方面对预设问题进行了探究,希望引起更多的人对预设问题的浓厚兴趣。     

我国反倾销法律制度探析

加入WTO后,大量的倾销与反倾销,光靠政府机构根本难以应付。因此,必须加快发展行业协会,削弱目前行业协会过多的厅政色彩,使之成为公司的、产业的、领域的行业协会,并充分发挥行业协会的服务、监督协调、保护和开拓的作用,规范国内市场,开拓国外市场,充分利用世界贸易组织规则赋予的权利,发挥行业协会的作用,积极进行反倾销应诉。     

Gamifying employer branding: An integrating framework and research propositions for a new HRM approach in the digitized economy

The digital age calls for digital HRM approaches, as the “digitized” workforce confronts companies with changing requirements regarding their human resource practices. Most importantly, companies need to build strong employer brands to attract, motivate, and retain employees. One promising approach to employer branding in the digital age is to gamify companies' employer branding activities by means of serious games (i.e., digital games with an educational purpose). Both serious games and employer branding share the key characteristic of facilitating learning to create knowledge. Despite existing research on employer branding and serious games in separate streams, virtually no research addresses their relationship, albeit its strong relevance for researchers and practitioners alike. The authors discuss both domains and their relation, propose a conceptual framework building on a novel learning-based extension of the affective events theory, and derive directions for future research to advance the understanding of gamifying employer branding in the digitized economy.