A module-based approach to foster and document the intercultural process before and during the residence abroad.

This article contributes to the debate on what form of preparation and support can enhance the intercultural student experience during the Year Abroad. It presents a credit-bearing and multi-modal module at a UK university designed to both prepare students prior to departure through a series of workshops and activities on an e-portfolio and help them engage in meta-reflection on intercultural issues during their stay. The presentation of the curricular components of the course and instances extracted from student blogs are contextualised within theoretical considerations on intercultural education and a holistic approach to student development. The longitudinal evolution of the module is presented in the context of an iterative approach leading to a cycle of revisions and amendments. With its pragmatic stance this article aims to address one of the concerns recently expressed about intercultural education, namely that although intercultural theories are suitably incorporated in the latest thinking on communicative competence, there is a lack of evidence-based practice.

The role of knowledge facilitators and inhibitors: lessons from airline reservations systems.

Strategic frameworks seeking to explain how an organisation may generate superior performance are numerous. Earlier approaches centred on the competitive position of an organisation within its industry, with subsequent attention focused on an organisation's core competences. More recently, research has concentrated on knowledge and organisational learning. By reference to a study of airline-developed computer reservation systems (CRSs), this article explores the strategic importance of information in creating knowledge to generate superior performance. By examining developments in the use, management and control of information derived from CRSs, evidence is presented to explain how CRS-owning airlines have circumvented regulatory controls and increasingly competition to sustain competitive advantage through the development of their information and knowledge systems. This research demonstrates the need for organisations to develop 'knowledge facilitators' that foster the creation of new knowledge. Equally, managers must develop 'knowledge inhibitors' that help to sustain competitive advantage by limiting the abilities of competitors to create knowledge themselves.

Changes in innovation styles - comprehensive study of the changes in innovation styles to identify the causes and effects of different influencing factors and capabilities to create a general innovation pattern.

An investigation in innovation management and entrepreneurial management is conducted in this thesis. The aim of the research is to explore changes of innovation styles in the transformation process from a start-up company to a more mature phase of business, to predict in a second step future sustainability and the probability of success. As businesses grow in revenue, corporate size and functional complexity, various triggers, supporters and drivers affect innovation and company's success. In a comprehensive study more than 200 innovative and technology driven companies have been examined and compared to identify patterns in different performance levels. All of them have been founded under the same formal requirements of the Munich Business Plan Competition -a research approach which allowed a unique snapshot that only long-term studies would be able to provide. The general objective was to identify the correlation between different factors, as well as different dimensions, to incremental and radical innovations realised. The 12 hypothesis were formed to prove have been derived from a comprehensive literature review. The relevant academic and practitioner literature on entrepreneurial, innovation, and knowledge management as well as social network theory revealed that the concept of innovation has evolved significantly over the last decade. A review of over 15 innovation models/frameworks contributed to understand what innovation in context means and what the dimensions are. It appears that the complex theories of innovation can be described by the increasing extent of social ingredients in the explanation of innovativeness. Originally based on tangible forms of capital, and on the necessity of pull and technology push, innovation management is today integrated in a larger system. Therefore, two research instruments have been developed to explore the changes in innovations styles. The Innovation Management Audits (IMA Start-up and IMA Mature) provided statements related to product/service development, innovativeness in various typologies, resources for innovations, innovation capabilities in conjunction to knowledge and management, social networks as well as the measurement of outcomes to generate high-quality data for further exploration. In obtaining results the mature companies have been clustered in the performance level low, average and high, while the start-up companies have been kept as one cluster. Firstly, the analysis exposed that knowledge, the process of acquiring knowledge, interorganisational networks and resources for innovations are the most important driving factors for innovation and success. Secondly, the actual change of the innovation style provides new insights about the importance of focusing on sustaining success and innovation ii 16 key areas. Thirdly, a detailed overview of triggers, supporters and drivers for innovation and success for each dimension support decision makers in putting their company in the right direction. Fourthly, a critical review of contemporary strategic management in conjunction to the findings provides recommendation of how to apply well-known management tools. Last but not least, the Munich cluster is analysed providing an estimation of the success probability of the different performance cluster and start-up companies. For the analysis of the probability of success of the newly developed as well as statistically and qualitative validated ICP Model (Innovativeness, Capabilities & Potential) has been developed and applied. While the model was primarily developed to evaluate the probability of success of companies; it has equal application in the situation to measure innovativeness to identify the impact of various strategic initiatives within small or large enterprises. The main findings of the model are that competitor, and customer orientation and acquiring knowledge important for incremental and radical innovation. Formal and interorganisation networks are important to foster innovation but informal networks appear to be detrimental to innovation. The testing of the ICP model h the long term is recommended as one subject of further research. Another is to investigate some of the more intangible aspects of innovation management such as attitude and motivation of mangers. IV

Reflections on the development of a dynamic learning, teaching and assessment strategy.

Developing learning, teaching and assessment strategies that foster ongoing engagement and provide inspiration to academic staff is a particular challenge. This paper demonstrates how an institutional learning, teaching and assessment strategy was developed and a ‘dynamic’ strategy created in order to achieve the ongoing enhancement of the quality of the student learning experience. The authors use the discussion of the evolution, development and launch of the Strategy and underpinning Resource Bank to reflect on the hopes and intentions behind the approach; firstly the paper will discuss the collaborative and iterative approach taken to the development of an institutional learning, teaching and assessment strategy; and secondly, the development of open access educational resources to underpin the strategy. The paper then outlines staff engagement with the resource bank and positive outcomes which have been identified to date, identifies the next steps in achieving the ambition behind the strategy and outlines the action research and fuller evaluation which will be used to monitor progress and ensure responsive learning at institutional level.