Measuring organisational capabilities in the higher education sector

Purpose – Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework and instrument to measure the organisational capabilities of university schools/ departments. In doing so, this study provides evidence of the way competitive resources are bundled to generate organisational capabilities that give university schools/departments a sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire to measure the resources that contribute to the capabilities of university schools/departments was developed. Constructs were determined, and the questionnaire was refined based on an analysis of responses from 166 Heads of schools/departments across all 39 Australian public universities. Findings – Heads conceive of the development of capabilities within their schools/departments along the core operating functions of research, teaching, and networking. Reliability and supplementary analysis confirm these constructs have strong convergent and discriminant validity as well as internal consistency. Research limitations/implications – The findings confirm that effective management and coordination of research, teaching, and networking with important stakeholders are keys to success. The framework and instrument developed in this paper also provides the opportunity to investigate university performance through the perspective of the RBV, which will enhance the understanding of the determinants of universities’ performance. Practical implications – The framework and questionnaire developed in this study can be utilised by Heads as a diagnostic tool to gain an understanding of their department’s/school’s organisational capabilities in the areas of research, teaching, and networking. Originality/value – This paper is the first study to develop a framework and questionnaire to measure organisational capabilities for university academic schools/departments.

The affordances of blended learning in a higher education flipped art classroom

In this paper the author reports on the conceptualization and implementation of the flipped classroom, integrating located, online and virtual world learning environments to support the collaborative lived experiences of a group of students and the educator participating in a higher education undergraduate art unit, Navigating the Visual World. A qualitative narrative methodology, A/r/tography, incorporating both image making and textual recording is used to explore and identify interwoven aspects of the artist/ researcher/ educator relationship in the creative artistic process of exploring concepts of identity within inquiry based art practice. Selected student examples, including a collaborative group assessment project demonstrate effective student engagement with experiential blended learning within the flipped classroom.

Peer mentoring in higher education and the development of leadership skills in mentors

Purpose - We examine the question of whether peer-mentoring programs in higher education develop leadership skills in student mentors.

Methodology/approach - The various forms of peer mentoring are discussed, as well as the benefits that these programs can bestow on mentors. We then turn to a discussion of the relationship between peer mentoring and leadership, and place particular emphasis on implicit leadership theories and the research in this area. A case study of a large peer-mentoring program at an Australian university is undertaken and the various aspects of implicit leadership theory are examined in the light of comments collected from both mentees and mentors.

Findings - Evidence of implicit leadership skills of mentors was seen in the responses of mentees. However, the explicit treatment of' leadership skills in the peer-mentoring program needs to be approached in a more deliberate manner if students are to benefit fully from the experience of mentoring.

Originality/value - While the results of this study were inconclusive, it does provide a basis for further inspection of leadership development within peer- mentoring communities.

Portfolio selection under higher moments using fuzzy multi-objective linear programming

Since asset returns have been recognized as not normally distributed, the avenue of research regarding portfolio higher moments soon emerged. To account for uncertainty and vagueness of portfolio returns as well as of higher moment risks, we proposed a new portfolio selection model employing fuzzy sets in this paper. A fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) for portfolio optimization is formulated using marginal impacts of assets on portfolio higher moments, which are modelled by trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Through a consistent centroid-based ranking of fuzzy numbers, the fuzzy MOLP is transformed into an MOLP that is then solved by the maximin method. By taking portfolio higher moments into account, the approach enables investors to optimize not only the normal risk (variance) but also the asymmetric risk (skewness) and the risk of fat-tails (kurtosis). An illustrative example demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed methodology comparing to previous portfolio optimization models.

Virtual worlds as pedagogical places: experiences of higher education academics

This thesis explores how academics in higher education experience virtual worlds as pedagogical places. Using the virtual world Second Life™ as a lens, I examine the changing nature of embodiment, pedagogy and place for academics and the significance these changes have for academic identity and practices.