Managing Organizational Change in Higher Education: Lessons From the University of Botswana

ABSTRACT

Utilizing data collected from a randomly selected sample of 360 academic and managerial staff, regression analysis was performed to identify the determinants of acceptance of change among employees at the University of Botswana. The results showed moderate levels of employee acceptance of innovations and revealed that, of the four categories of substantive factors analyzed, managerial features were the most important determinants of acceptance of organizational change. It was concluded that management action is needed to boost the levels of acceptance of change and that a more participative approach to the management of the change process is necessary to guarantee the involvement of all stakeholders from the decision-making to the implementation and administration stages of the process.     

Web-Based Promotions

Abstract

Numerous business and popular articles continue to appear to stress the importance of the Internet as a powerful and interactive means of communication. As with other media, the web affects viewers' product evaluations and behavioral intentions. This article attempts to understand how students (recently admitted freshmen) form opinions about their school through interaction with the university web site. Multiple studies are conducted using website variables. The results of study one suggest website vividness, interactivity, and entertainment value are crucial in the formation of positive evaluations of and word of mouth behaviors directed toward the university. In study two, these same predictors helped explain word of mouth intentions but contributed little to evaluations.     

Retailing evolution research: Introduction to the special section on retailing research

This JBR Special Issue on Retailing includes several high quality research studies presented at the 10th and 11th Society for Marketing Advances Retail Strategy and Patronage Behavior Symposiums. The articles cover a wide range of interesting and important retailing topics including topics such as atmospherics, self-esteem and advertising. This introduction offers a few comments on the 2007 and 2008 Symposiums' content including a brief overview of each article.     

A dynamic view on interactions between academic spin-offs and their parent organizations

Literature on academic spin-offs gives evidence of different modes of interaction between spin-offs and their parent and their relative role in different modes of knowledge production. In this article, we examine the development of interactions between academic spin-offs and their parent organizations over a mid- to long-term period (4–15 years), drawing on a series of 25 case studies of spin-off/parent pairs from France and Switzerland. We show that the relational trajectories can be captured by four major dynamic patterns. These patterns range from an early cut-off of interactions in line with a linear model of innovation to sustained interactions supporting joint production of knowledge. Some patterns even include a change in the mode of knowledge production over time. In addition, we identify a number of determinants, internal or external to the pair, affecting the dynamic pattern. We conclude that management of spin-off processes and support policies for academic spin-offs should embrace this dynamic diversity.     

To each his own: Matching different entrepreneurial models to the academic scientist's individual needs

This paper presents a comparative case study of academic group leaders, active in three different scientific fields at a leading Swiss technical university. It examines the obstacles that prevent scientists from commercializing their technologies and how they can be reduced. Traditional models of technology transfer assume that scientists prefer either to 'go it alone' and become entrepreneurs (the inventor entrepreneur model) or to let go of their technologies to people interested in their commercialization (the surrogate entrepreneur model). The results of qualitative research suggest that these two models capture the extremes of a continuum populated by a variety of intermediate situations where scientists are unwilling completely to let go of their findings, but also do not want to become full time entrepreneurs. This results in considerable commercial potential that is unexploited. The Founding Angels approach might be a solution to this problem; it is designed for academics in these intermediate situations. The study contributes to the literature on university-industry technology transfer and should be useful for practitioners and scientists interested in maximizing the synergies between academia and industry.     

Academic Performance in Introductory Accounting: Do Learning Styles Matter?

Abstract

This study examines the impact of learning styles on academic performance using major assessment methods (examinations and assignments including multiple-choice and constructed response questions (CRQs)) in an introductory accounting course. Students' learning styles were assessed using Kolb's Learning Style Inventory Version 3.1. The results indicate that students' learning styles, after controlling for other variables, are associated with academic performance, particularly, in the final examination including both formats, multiple-choice questions and CRQs. Students who exhibit the ‘assimilating’ learning style appear to perform better in some of the assessments than students with ‘diverging’ or ‘accommodating’ learning styles. The findings have implications for designing assessments to ensure that they are not biased towards particular learning styles which would improve their validity and fairness.     

《科技进步与对策》1984—2014年刊文综述与知识图谱分析

透析了《科技进步与对策》1984—2014年关注的学术热点,廓清了研究内容的知识脉络、结构、动态变化过程及近年来最新研究趋势等。基于文献计量学视角,以《科技进步与对策》创刊30余年来刊文为研究对象,借助Ucinet、CiteSpace、VOSviewer等工具进行了高被引文献分析,以及合作团队、单位、关键词热点变迁等知识图谱的可视化研究。     

“We are all so different that it is just … normal.” Normalization practices in an academic hospital in the Netherlands

Internationally, academic hospitals are giving increasing attention to diversity management. This paper sheds light on the actual praxis of cultural diversity management by professionals in workplace interactions. An ethnographic study in a Dutch academic hospital showed that normalization practices were obscuring diversity issues and obstructing inclusion of cultural minority professionals. The normalization of professionalism-as-neutral and equality-as-sameness informed the unequal distribution of privilege and disadvantage among professionals and left no room to question this distribution. Majority and minority professionals disciplined themselves and each other in (re)producing an ideal worker norm, essentialized difference and sameness, and explained away the structural hierarchy involved. To create space for cultural diversity in healthcare organizations in the Netherlands and beyond, we need to challenge normalization practices.     

Performance measurement in universities: ambiguities in the use of quality versus quantity in performance indicators

Performance measurement (PM) is now common in Western universities. This is also the case in Finland, where a new funding scheme was implemented to ensure that quality was included in universities’ PM. However, this paper shows that the quality indicators in use are, in practice, quantitative. The paper is based on a large survey and has implications for university PM systems in Finland and internationally.     

Birth order effects and parenting behaviors

While it is well known that there are systematic birth order effects on life cycle outcomes, there is less consensus about underlying channels and mechanisms of birth order effects. We find negative birth order effects among Chinese adolescents, favoring earlier-born children within household in academic achievement, cognitive skill measures, and in parenting behaviors including harsh parenting and parental investment. We highlight harsh parenting as a novel channel of birth order effects, in which earlier-born children are less likely to be physically punished by their parents. Heterogeneity analysis results are consistent with parents reinforcing academic advantage of better-performing earlier-born children, but do not support resource dilution, son preference, or reputation concerns as primary mechanisms underlying birth order effects. Our findings are in contrast to positive birth order effects found among earlier generations of Chinese siblings reported in the literature.