Visioning 2035: The future of the higher education sector in the UK

The concept of ‘university’ has been around for centuries and yet the majority of British Universities have yet to reach their 50th birthday. The higher education sector has been through extensive change over a relatively short period of time and this is likely to continue in the future. This paper presents the results of a futures study focussed on the Higher Education sector in the UK in 10 and 25 years time. Following an extensive, broad ranging literature review covering business, education, futures, and socio-political texts and studies, a series of scenarios were developed for the future of the sector as a whole. This study differs from other studies in its field as it is does not focus on individual institutions, but rather at the environmental factors that are going to impact on the sector, setting out a range of scenarios within which institutions will need to shape their individual futures. Five scenarios are presented in this paper with their underlying driving factors, and their implications for the academic workforce being employed in the sector.     

Postgraduate research students: You are the future of the Academy

This paper explores the changing role of the university developed and changed over time, and how this is likely to change further in the next 25 years. By drawing on scenarios for the future of the HE sector in the UK in 2035, the article argues that postgraduate research students will be the key factor that sustains the future of the Academy as universities focus more and more attention on the teaching of ever increasing numbers of undergraduate students. The paper highlights the danger of a divide occurring between the idea of the university and the notion of the Academy in the future, and the essential role that research students will play in ensuring this divide remains bridged. The article argues that it is imperative for universities to expand their postgraduate research degree provision if the Academy is to continue in the future as the foundation to knowledge creation.     

Behavioral changes following the collaborative development of an accounting information system

This research examines physician response to implementation of an activity-based costing (ABC) system developed and designed with physician input. We analyze changes in resource utilization for treatment of cataract patients and find changes in practice patterns, where physicians redeployed resources toward more severely ill patients and decreased average length of stay. We also find preliminary evidence of improvement in financial performance. We contribute to research investigating the influence of user participation on accounting system success, ABC system success, and hospital accounting information systems.     

A Group Identity Analysis of Organizations and Their Stakeholders: Porosity of Identity and Mobility of Attributes

I propose an ethnographic study on the incremental transformation of identity. Through an analysis of managerial perceptions of stakeholder influence, I suggest that identity is adaptive rather than enduring and that, to explain adaptive identity, group identity is more appropriate than an organizational identity perspective. The case study uses qualitative data collected in organizations manufacturing flavors and fragrances for the large consumer goods industries. The analysis reveals that attributes shared with clannish stakeholders gradually replace attributes of a claimed identity, and that, when confronting hostile stakeholders, organizations act in solidarity with clannish stakeholders. The discussion elaborates on the porosity of identity boundaries and the mobility of attributes, two important mechanisms that have emotional, behavioral, and strategic consequences.     

Supplier's Internal Communication Network During the Project Sales Process

The nature of internal communication networks in project sales has remained largely unexplored. This article sheds light on a supplier's internal communication network during a project sales process by using social network analysis and in‐depth qualitative data. We analyzed the project sales process and related internal communication network of a material handling equipment provider. The results illustrate the non‐centralized and complex nature of internal communication networks and highlight four barriers to and four drivers of efficient communication during project sales. Above all, using communication training seems to be the most efficient way to improve internal communication.     

Globalisation,Hegemony and Passive Revolution

Across the social sciences the last decade has witnessed a proliferating interest in the relationship between the state and globalisation. By the early 1990s a range of writers working within what we label a structuralist approach asserted that globalisation is, if not challenging the viability of the sovereign state, then at least forcing it to adapt its policies to conform to the new global reality‐being 'hollowed out', as the phrase had it. The pendulum then swung the other way when an 'agent-centric' backlash emerged, insisting that states have what we call agential power, such that they can mitigate and even shape global structures. In this article we build upon an emergent third way, or 'structurationist' perspective, between these two antinomies, in which we synthesise structuralist and agent-centric theory. We begin in Part I by taking stock of the central issues in the state/globalisation debate and examine the various structuralistand agent-centric approaches, while Part II sketches the theoreticaloutlines of a structurationis t approach and conceptualises what we call the spatial promiscuity of the state. In Part III we apply this approach to the case of Singapore. We choose Singapore only because it provides an excellent litmus test for critically appraising the various positions on globalisation, including our own, not least because Singapore is a small state that has perhaps the most globalised economy in the world.     

Economic decision-making by cohabitors: findings regarding income pooling

Cohabitation rates are increasing in the US but little is known about how cohabitors make economic decisions. For instance, do female cohabitors treat their male partner's income as shared household income when choosing hours worked? Does income sharing differ among types of cohabitors? This study investigates whether or not cohabitors pool income by drawing inferences from a generalized model of labour supply. The empirical work uses data from the 1993 Current Population Survey and the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households. These data sets provide evidence that cohabitors, taken as a group, do not pool all income. However, there is also evidence that cohabitors are not homogeneous in their behaviour; income pooling is not rejected for cohabitors in longer-term relationships and for those who have a biological child together.     

Household decision-making for everyday travel: a case study of walking and cycling in Lancaster (UK)

Increased walking and cycling for short journeys in urban areas has many obvious advantages yet so far gains from the promotion of more sustainable travel of this type are mostly small. This paper reports on a large research project which uses a mixed method approach to explore attitudes to and perceptions of walking and cycling, and which examines the process of household decision-making for everyday travel and the constraints that this imposes. Using survey, interview and ethnographic data it is argued that many people hold ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views of walking and cycling as effective means of everyday travel, that what they do rarely matches precisely what they believe, and that the complexity and contingency associated with everyday travel for many households is a major barrier to the use of more sustainable travel modes. It is suggested that better understanding of these processes could help to inform both future transport policy and the promotion of walking and cycling for short trips in urban areas.