Service-learning through multiple client-sponsored projects in an MBA marketing course

This paper outlines an approach for teaching Marketing Principles in an MBA course through service-learning to enable adult learners to connect the lectures’ marketing content to a real-world marketing project. During the course, 40 students in groups of four to five individuals were involved in eight different client-sponsored marketing projects executed simultaneously. The rationale, planning and management of this approach utilised current research on service-learning, living cases and client-sponsored projects in marketing education. The experimental curriculum design is presented in a timeline that mirrors the preparation and management of the group projects and the considerations to be taken into account when initiating and facilitating the projects. Reflections from this iteration of the service-learning design suggest the importance of: detailed project planning, the involvement of students in choosing the projects, the introduction of forms and feedback loops, the role of the instructor in facilitating the students and managing expectations, and the role of the company representative in supporting the groups.

Wrestling with schools, schooling and educational research (Personal Reflections on the European Union-supported Educational Research 1995-2003: Briefing Papers for Policy Makers)

I must admit that I approached the European Union-supported educational research 1995-2003: Briefing papers for policy makers with a sense of trepidation. As a researcher who defines himself as socially critical, I wondered about the dynamics of a policy document that was published by the bureaucracy that has, in some form, a vested interest in the structure and operation of education in its various guises. In turning my attention to this review, I decided to focus my attention on the third guiding question that argues education and training "are strongly interconnected with concerns that include citizenship and democratic participation, inequalities and social justice, cultural diversity and quality of life" (Millei, 2005). The Briefing Papers include recommendations on democracy and citizenship, social exclusion and equality, gender and dealing with mental illness in schools...

Client learning and the performance of collaborative infrastructure projects

Australia is a leading user of collaborative procurement methods, which are used to deliver large and complex infrastructure projects. Project alliances, Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), and partnering are typical examples of collaborative procurement models. In order to increase procurement effectiveness and value for money (VfM), clients have adopted various learning strategies for new contract development. However client learning strategies and behaviours have not been systematically analysed before. Therefore, the current paper undertakes a literature review addressing the research question “How can client learning capabilities be effectively understood?”. From the resource-based and dynamic capability perspectives, this paper proposes that the collaborative learning capability (CLC) of clients drives procurement model evolution. Learning routines underpinning CLC carry out exploratory, transformative and exploitative learning phases associated with collaborative project delivery. This learning improves operating routines, and ultimately performance. The conceptualization of CLC and the three sequential learning phases is used to analyse the evidence in the construction management literature. The main contribution of this study is the presentation of a theoretical foundation for future empirical studies to unveil effective learning strategies, which help clients to improve the performance of collaborative projects in the dynamic infrastructure market.

Developing green procurement framework for construction projects in Malaysia

With the current emerging development pattern in Malaysia, Malaysian government has enthusiastically promoted green procurement approach that will help the construction project being green. Previous studies highlighted that the concept of green procurement is still very new to the Malaysian construction industry, and this increases the needs for further research in this area. This paper addresses the needs of guidelines for stakeholders to procure environmentally-friendly construction. Currently, there is a limited practical guideline for stakeholders to procure green projects. This paper discusses the progress to date of a research project aimed at developing a green procurement framework for construction projects in the Malaysian construction industry. This framework will guide the stakeholders to plan the green procurement implementation to procure a construction projects. Through literature and expert opinion, this paper explores the list of green practices within procurement practices which becomes the basis to develop a survey instrument that will be used in the later part of this study. The paper will shed useful information for construction researchers and practitioners in exploring the green procurement concept for construction industry in Malaysia.

Time and cost performance of design–build projects

The design-build (DB) delivery method has been widely used in the United States due to its reputed superior cost and time performance. However, rigorous studies have produced inconclusive support and only in terms of overall results, with few attempts being made to relate project characteristics with performance levels. This paper provides a larger and more finely grained analysis of a set of 418 DB projects from the online project database of the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), in terms of the time-overrun rate (TOR), early start rate (ESR), early completion rate (ECR) and cost overrun rate (COR) associated with project type (e.g., commercial/institutional buildings and civil infrastructure projects), owners (e.g., Department of Defense and private corporations), procurement methods (e.g., ‘best value with discussion’ and qualifications-based selection), contract methods (e.g., lump sum and GMP) and LEED levels (e.g., gold and silver). The results show ‘best value with discussion’ to be the dominant procurement method and lump sum the most frequently used contract method. The DB method provides relatively good time performance, with more than 75% of DB projects completed on time or before schedule. However, with more than 50% of DB projects cost overrunning, the DB advantage of cost saving remains uncertain. ANOVA tests indicate that DB projects within different procurement methods have significantly different time performance and that different owner types and contract methods significantly affect cost performance. In addition to contributing to empirical knowledge concerning the cost and time performance of DB projects with new solid evidence from a large sample size, the findings and practical implications of this study are beneficial to owners in understanding the likely schedule and budget implications involved for their particular project characteristics.

Critical risk factors affecting the implementation of PPP waste-to-energy projects in China

Since 2003, Mainland China has been promoting the public–private partnership (PPP) procurement model in the waste-to-energy incineration sector to reduce the waste burying rate and improve environmental quality. Five critical risk factors (CRFs) that affect the construction and operation of waste-to-energy incineration projects have been identified from real-life risk events of 14 PPP waste-to-energy incineration plants through content analysis. These risk factors are insufficient waste supply, disposal of non-licensed waste, environmental risk, payment risk, and lack of supporting infrastructure. A recently completed PPP waste-to-energy incineration plant, the Shanghai Tianma project, was investigated to learn from the effective management of CRFs. First-hand data about the Shanghai Tianma project was collected, with a focus on project negotiation and concession agreement. Lessons learned about risk management were acquired. This paper presents a detailed study of the contractual structure, risk sharing scheme, risk response measures to CRFs, and project transfer of a PPP project. The study results will provide governments with management implications to prepare equitable concession agreements and benefit private investors by effectively mitigating and managing risks in future PPP waste-to-energy incineration projects.

Workplace stress and its impact analysis for strategic stress management in construction projects

Workplace stress has been an increasing concern in the construction industry. Workers are working longer hours and construction managers’ responsibilities are becoming more complex and complicated due to reduced resources and widespread stakeholder involvements. These additional pressures potentially trigger workplace stress and impact on project performance. The purpose of this study is to examine and advance understanding of stress and its impact relationships that support holistic and strategic stress management. 17 key stress sources are identified with their impact relationships on different stress types examined. Based on the research findings, this paper concludes with a Stressor-Stress-Performance relationships map.

Collaborative learning from distributed places and spaces: Exploring the use of virtual collaborative tools for local and global student teamwork projects

Educating responsive graduates. Graduate competencies include reliability, communication skills and ability to work in teams. Students using Collaborative technologies adapt to a new working environment, working in teams and using collaborative technologies for learning. Collaborative Technologies were used not simply for delivery of learning but innovatively to supplement and enrich research-based learning, providing a space for active engagement and interaction with resources and team. This promotes the development of responsive ‘intellectual producers’, able to effectively communicate, collaborate and negotiate in complex work environments. Exploiting technologies. Students use ‘new’ technologies to work collaboratively, allowing them to experience the reality of distributed workplaces incorporating both flexibility and ‘real’ time responsiveness. Students are responsible and accountable for individual and group work contributions in a highly transparent and readily accessible workspace. This experience provides a model of an effective learning tool. Navigating uncertainty and complexity. Collaborative technologies allows students to develop critical thinking and reflective skills as they develop a group product. In this forum students build resilience by taking ownership and managing group work, and navigating the uncertainties and complexities of group dynamics as they constructively and professionally engage in team dialogue and learn to focus on the goal of the team task.

European audiovisual production companies adapting to strategic challenges

These are turbulent times for audio- visual production companies. Radical changes, both inside and outside the organizations, reach across national markets and different genres. For instance, production methods are changing; the demand from audiences and advertisers is changing; power relations between the actors involved in the value chain are changing; and increasing concentration makes the market even more competitive for small independent players. From a perspective of the structure–conduct– performance paradigm (Ramstad, 1997) it is reasonable to expect that these changes on a structural level of the industry will cause the production companies to adapt their strategic behaviour. The current challenges for media companies are a combination of rising complexity and uncertainty in the market (Picard, 2004). The increasing complexity can for instance be observed in the growing number of market segments and in the continuing trend towards cross- media strategies where media companies operate in multiple markets and on multiple platforms...

Cumulative effects on the change of residual value in PPP projects: A comparative case study

Public private partnerships (PPPs) have been adopted widely to provide public facilities and services. According to the PPP agreement, PPP projects would be transferred to the public sector. However, problems related to the subsequent management of ongoing PPP projects have not been studied thoroughly. Residual value risk (RVR) can occur if the public sector cannot obtain the project in the desired conditions as required in the agreement when a project is being transferred. RVR has been identified as an important risk in PPPs and has greatly influenced the outputs of the projects. In order to further observe the change of residual value (RV) during the process of PPP projects and to reveal the internal mechanism for reducing the RVR, a comparative case study of two PPP projects in mainland China and Hong Kong was conducted. Based on the case study, different factors leading to RVR and a series of key risk indicators (KRIs) were identified. The comparison demonstrates that RVR is an important risk that could influence the success of PPP projects. The cumulative effects during the concession period can play significant roles in the occurrence of RVR. Additionally, the cumulative effects in different cases can make the RVR different because of different stakeholders’ efforts on the projects and ways to treat RVR. Finally, alternatives for the public sector to treat RVR were proposed. The findings of this research can reduce RVR and improve the performance of PPP projects.

On the efficacy of Fourier series approximations for pricing European options

This paper investigates several competing procedures for computing the prices of vanilla European options, such as puts, calls and binaries, in which the underlying model has a characteristic function that is known in semi-closed form. The algorithms investigated here are the half-range Fourier cosine series, the half-range Fourier sine series and the full-range Fourier series. Their performance is assessed in simulation experiments in which an analytical solution is available and also for a simple affine model of stochastic volatility in which there is no closed-form solution. The results suggest that the half-range sine series approximation is the least effective of the three proposed algorithms. It is rather more difficult to distinguish between the performance of the halfrange cosine series and the full-range Fourier series. However there are two clear differences. First, when the interval over which the density is approximated is relatively large, the full-range Fourier series is at least as good as the half-range Fourier cosine series, and outperforms the latter in pricing out-of-the-money call options, in particular with maturities of three months or less. Second, the computational time required by the half-range Fourier cosine series is uniformly longer than that required by the full-range Fourier series for an interval of fixed length. Taken together,these two conclusions make a case for pricing options using a full-range range Fourier series as opposed to a half-range Fourier cosine series if a large number of options are to be priced in as short a time as possible.

Place making facilitators of knowledge and innovation spaces: Insights from European best practices

Knowledge economy seeks its nourishment from diversity and dissemination of ideas and creativity of its talent base. This has led to the acknowledgement of place making as a major strategy to attract and retain the knowledge base into the emerging knowledge and innovation spaces. The study seeks to explore the adoption of place making in this context. Literature and practice provide information to understand the evolution of various spatial typologies and the specialised role of place making in such locations. This helps in determining the key facilitators of place making. The paper takes an interdisciplinary approach and develops an integrated conceptual framework considering dimensions and facilitators of place making. Through the lens of the framework, best practices across Europe—i.e., Cambridge Science Park (UK), 22@Barcelona (Spain), Arabianranta (Finland), Strijp-S (Netherlands), and Digital Hub (Ireland)—are scrutinised to highlight various approaches to place making. The findings provide insights and a discussion into the interplay of form, function, image and underlying processes in globally emerging spatial typologies of contemporary knowledge and innovation spaces.

On an unexpected career path? Using Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance concept to determine the power of projects to transform project management careers

The power of projects has been demonstrated by the growth in their use across an increasing range of industries and workplaces in recent years. Not only has the number of people involved in project management increased, but the qualifications and backgrounds of those people have also broadened, with engineering no longer being the only path to project management (PM). Predicting the career trajectories in Project Management has become more important for both organisations employing project managers and project managers building career portfolios. Our research involved interviewing more than 75 project officers and project managers across a range of industries to explore their career journey. We used Wittgenstein’s family resemblance theory is to analyse the information from the transcripts to identify the extent to which the roles of participants fit with the commonly accepted definition of project management. Findings demonstrate diversity of project manager backgrounds and experiences and relational competencies across these backgrounds that form and shape PM careers.