Education 2.0: Exploring the challenges of Corvinus University in the long tail economy of global higher education

Our basic storyline is how the business and economics higher education landscape has changed with the introduction of the Bologna programs. We borrowed the fashionable long tail concept from e-business, and used it for modeling the new landscape of internationalization of universities. Internationalization, mobility, and the appearance of the internet generation at the gates of our universities in our opinion has brought us to a new e-era which, appropriately to our web analogies we might as well call Education 2.0.In our paper first we show the characteristics of the long tail model of the Bologna-based European higher education and potential messages for strategy making in this environment. We illustrate that benchmarking university strategies situated in the head of the long tail model will not always provide strategic guidance for universities sitting in the tail. For underlining some key concerns in the Hungarian niche, we used Corvinus University as a case study to illustrate some untapped challenges of the Hungarian Bologna reform. We explored three areas which are crucial elements of the “tail” strategy in our opinion: a) the influence of state regulation, b) social situations and impacts and c) internal university capabilities.

Társas kapcsolatok és interakció a szabadidősportban (Social relationships and interaction in the leisure sport)

A sporttermékek iránti kereslet kialakulására a sportszocializáció meghatározó befolyással bír. A sport kiemelkedő szerepet játszik a mai modern társadalomban. Jelentős gazdasági súlyt képvisel, továbbá lehetőséget ad a személyes fejlődésre és a társas kapcsolatok kialakítására, ápolására. Az egyéni személyes előnyök mellett a sportolás támogatása révén a társadalom egészségi állapotának költséghatékony megőrzése is biztosítható. Ezzel együtt hazánkban alacsony a szabadidősportban való részvétel, a lakosság egészségi állapota romlik, az ülő életmód egyre terjed. Az elvégzett kutatás célja az volt, hogy olyan ismeretekre tegyen szert, amelyek segítségével megérthető a sportolást befolyásoló legfőbb tényezők hatása, így az egyén szűk környezetének (család, barátok, iskola) jelentősége, a társas befolyás hazai jellegzetességei. Ezek az ismeretek elősegíthetik mind a profit, mind a non-profit szféra számára a lakosság sikeresebb megszólítását, hozzájárulva egy aktívabb társadalom megteremtéséhez. _______ Sport socialization has high relevance to generate demand for sport. Sport plays an important role in today’s modern societies. It has enormous economic significance and provides opportunity for personal development and for establishing new or keeping existing social relationships. Besides individual personal benefits, supporting sport also ensures the costefficient maintenance of good health on a social level. However sport participation and sport spectatorship are both low in Hungary. At the same time the health status of residents are worsening and the society is characterized by a sitting, sedentary lifestyle. The goal of the study is to gather information on the primary factors influencing sport participation, especially the significance of the close social environment of the individual (family, friends and education). Understanding why people participate in sports and how they can be motivated to do so is of primary importance to both the private and the state sector, explained by business interest and by the need to ensure the healthy operation of the society.

Spirituality and business: An interdisciplinary overview

The paper gives an interdisciplinary overview of the emerging field of spirituality and business. It uses insights from business ethics, theology, neuroscience, psychology, gender studies, and philosophy to economics, management, organizational science, and banking and refers to different religious convictions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the Baha'i faith, and the North-American aboriginal worldview. The authors argue that the materialistic management paradigm has failed. They explore new values for post-materialistic management: frugality, deep ecology, trust, reciprocity, responsibility for future generations, and authenticity. Within this framework profit and growth are no longer ultimate aims but elements in a wider set of values. Similarly, cost-benefit calculations are no longer the essence of management but are part of a broader concept of wisdom in leadership. Spirit-driven businesses require intrinsic motivation for serving the common good and using holistic evaluation schemes for measuring success. The Palgrave Handbook of Business and Spirituality, edited by the authors, is a response to developments that simultaneously challenge the “business as usual” mindset.

Business relationships and relationships with stakeholders – Perception of Hungarian executives.

Relationships are crucial concepts in numerous management theoretical frameworks. Both stakeholder theory and IMP’s business network approach put business and non-business relations in the forefront. However, the two theories – stakeholder and business network – are seldom discussed together, and stakeholder theory rarely appears in the IMP literature. In this paper although we want to focus on supply chain relations we strive to conduct our analysis within a more general framework of stakeholder theory. In our research we observed and analyzed the mutual expectations related to various stakeholder groups – business partners (suppliers and buyers) among them.

Education, earnings, and rates of return: The case of Taiwan

Educational planners and economists have long recognized the importance of education as a form of productive investment in both advanced countries and developing countries. In the case of Taiwan, along with impressive economic growth, there was an even faster rate of growth of the government's investment in education. This leads some to question whether education has any role in economic development. ^ The purpose of this study is to provide a broad overview of the role of education, in terms of private rates of return to education, in Taiwan. In the process, a variety of hypotheses about human capital theory are examined and an empirical study of Taiwan's earnings functions are tested to show that education can be an important instrument to increase private rate of return, even under conditions of scarcity of natural and physical resources. Data was collected using the Manpower Survey and Manpower Utilization Survey, conducted by the government. Research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, and regression analysis. ^ Results indicated that the Manpower Development Plans have been the decisive influence in allowing Taiwan to develop its human resources and achieve success in meeting the needs of Taiwan's economy. The structure of age-earnings profiles showed a strong relationship between earnings and education, and the profiles that successively shift upward are associated with higher levels of education. In the cross-sectional results of the rate of return in 1997, each additional year of schooling leads to a 6.2% increase in income. As to the private rates of return to different levels of education, the results found that the private rates of return are 2.88%, 4.85% and 10.05% for primary, secondary and higher education respectively. In an intertemporal comparison for 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1997, the results showed no significant trend except the private rates of return for primary education have been falling from 3.9% to 2.88%. ^ On the basis of this study, for individual student or family in Taiwan, there is likely to be a strong demand for education, particularly at the higher level. Therefore, a well-developed higher educational level becomes essential and the content of curriculum in higher education becomes another crucial question facing planners in Taiwan if they are going to use education as a means to foster economic development. ^

An assessment of computer usage within the Bahamian public school system and recommended guidelines towards the development of a strategic national computer plan

Computers have dramatically changed the way we live, conduct business, and deliver education. They have infiltrated the Bahamian public school system to the extent that many educators now feel the need for a national plan. The development of such a plan is a challenging undertaking, especially in developing countries where physical, financial, and human resources are scarce. This study assessed the situation with regard to computers within the Bahamian public school system, and provided recommended guidelines to the Bahamian government based on the results of a survey, the body of knowledge about trends in computer usage in schools, and the country's needs. ^ This was a descriptive study for which an extensive review of literature in areas of computer hardware, software, teacher training, research, curriculum, support services and local context variables was undertaken. One objective of the study was to establish what should or could be relative to the state-of-the-art in educational computing. A survey was conducted involving 201 teachers and 51 school administrators from 60 randomly selected Bahamian public schools. A random stratified cluster sampling technique was used. ^ This study used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Quantitative methods were used to summarize the data about numbers and types of computers, categories of software available, peripheral equipment, and related topics through the use of forced-choice questions in a survey instrument. Results of these were displayed in tables and charts. Qualitative methods, data synthesis and content analysis, were used to analyze the non-numeric data obtained from open-ended questions on teachers' and school administrators' questionnaires, such as those regarding teachers' perceptions and attitudes about computers and their use in classrooms. Also, interpretative methodologies were used to analyze the qualitative results of several interviews conducted with senior public school system's officials. Content analysis was used to gather data from the literature on topics pertaining to the study. ^ Based on the literature review and the data gathered for this study a number of recommendations are presented. These recommendations may be used by the government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to establish policies with regard to the use of computers within the public school system. ^

Analysis and comparison of the moral development of students required to graduate with an ethics course

Accounting students become practitioners facing ethical decision-making challenges that can be subject to various interpretations; hence, the profession is concerned with the appropriateness of their decisions. Moral development of these students has implications for a profession under legal challenges, negative publicity, and government scrutiny. Accounting students' moral development has been studied by examining their responses to moral questions in Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), their professional attitudes on Hall's Professionalism Scale Dimensions, and their ethical orientation-based professional commitment and ethical sensitivity. This study extended research in accounting ethics and moral development by examining students in a college where an ethics course is a requirement for graduation. ^ Knowledge of differences in the moral development of accounting students may alert practitioners and educators to potential problems resulting from a lack of ethical understanding as measured by moral development levels. If student moral development levels differ by major, and accounting majors have lower levels than other students, the conclusion may be that this difference is a causative factor for the alleged acts of malfeasance in the profession that may result in malpractice suits. ^ The current study compared 205 accounting, business, and nonbusiness students from a private university. In addition to academic major and completion of an ethics course, the other independent variable was academic level. Gender and age were tested as control variables and Rest's DIT score was the dependent variable. The primary analysis was a 2 x 3 x 3 ANOVA with post hoc tests for results with significant p-value of less than 0.05. ^ The results of this study reveal that students who take an ethics course appear to have a higher level of moral development (p = 0.013), as measured by the (DIT), than students at the same academic level who have not taken an ethics course. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.034) exists between freshmen who took an ethics class and juniors who did not take an ethics class. For every analysis except one, the lower class year with an ethics class had a higher level of moral development than the higher class year without an ethics class. These results appear to show that ethics education in particular has a greater effect on the level of moral development than education in general. Findings based on the gender specific analyses appear to show that males and females respond differently to the effects of taking an ethics class. The male students do not appear to increase their moral development level after taking an ethics course (p = 0.693) but male levels of moral development differ significantly (p = 0.003) by major. Female levels of moral development appear to increase after taking an ethics course (p = 0.002). However, they do not differ according to major (p = 0.097). ^ These findings indicate that accounting students should be required to have a class in ethics as part of their college curriculum. Students with an ethics class have a significantly higher level of moral development. The challenges facing the profession at the current time indicate that public confidence in the reports of client corporations has eroded and one way to restore this confidence could be to require ethics training of future accountants. ^

Women and development in Senegal: Microcredit and household well being

The challenging living conditions of many Senegalese families, and the absence of a providing spouse, have led women to covet new economic opportunities, such as microcredit loans. These loans offer Senegalese women the possibility to financially support their households and become active participants in their economies by starting or sustaining their micro businesses. The study takes place in Grand-Yoff, an overpopulated peri-urban area of the Senegalese capital city Dakar, where most people face daily survival issues. This research examines the impact of microcredit activities in the household of Senegalese female loan recipients in Grand-Yoff by examining socioeconomic indicators, in particular outcomes of health, education and nutrition.^ The research total sample is constituted of 166 female participants who engage in microcredit activities. The research combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data for the study were gathered through interviews, surveys, participant observation, focus-groups with the study participants and some of their household members, and document analysis.^ While some women in the study make steady profits from their business activities, others struggle to make ends meet from their businesses’ meager or unreliable profits. Some study participants who are impoverished have no choice but to invest their loans directly into their households’ dire needs, hence missing their business prerogative. Many women in the study end up in a vicious cycle of debt by defaulting on their loans or making late payments because they do not have the required household and socioeconomic conditions to take advantage of these loans. Therefore, microcredit does not make a significant impact in the households of the poorest female participants. The study finds that microcredit improves the household well-being - especially nutrition, health and education - of the participants who have acquired significant social capital such as a providing spouse, formal education, training, business experience, and belonging to business or social networks.^ The study finds that microcredit’s household impact is intimately tied to the female borrowers’ household conditions and social capital. It is recommended that microcredit services and programs offer their female clients assistance and additional basic services, financial guidance, lower interest rates, and flexible repayment schedules. ^

Globalization and the public provision of higher education: Empirical evidence from selected countries

This research study was designed to examine the relationship between globalization as measured by the KOF index, its related forces (economic, political, cultural and technological) and the public provision of higher education. This study is important since globalization is increasingly being associated with changes in critical aspects of higher education. The public provision of education was measured by government expenditure and educational outcomes; that is participation, gender equity and attainment. The study utilized a non-experimental quantitative research design. Data collected from secondary sources for 139 selected countries was analyzed. The countries were geographically distributed and included both developed and developing countries. The choice of countries for inclusion in the study was based on data availability. The data, which was sourced from international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, were examined for different time periods using five year averages. The period covered was 1970 to 2009.^ The relationship between globalization and the higher education variables was examined using cross sectional regression analysis while controlling for economic, political and demographic factors. The major findings of the study are as follows. For the two spending models, only one revealed a significant relationship between globalization and education with the R 2 s ranging from .222 to .448 over the period. This relationship was however negative indicating that as globalization increased, spending on higher education declined. However, for the education outcomes models, this relationship was not significant. For the sub-indices of globalization, only the political dimension showed significance as shown in the spending model. Political globalization was significant for six periods with R2 s ranging from .31 to .52.^ The study concluded that the results are mixed for both the spending and outcome models. It also found no robust effects of globalization on government education provision. This finding is not surprising given the existing literature which sees mixed results on the social impact of globalization.^

*Postsecondary access for individuals with psychological disabilities: An analysis of federal rulings and institutional philosophies, *policies, and practices

This study was a qualitative investigation, with demographic quantitative features, of post-secondary educational access and legal guidelines for individuals with psychological disabilities. Although disability laws have positively influenced post-secondary educational attitudes and practices relative to accommodating many individuals with disabilities, prevailing stigmas regarding mental illness have discouraged the equal access to higher education for individuals with psychological disabilities. Little research concentrating on this area was found.^ Thirty-six relevant legal case decisions, focusing on a variety of realms of higher education, were scrutinized. The policies, procedures, and practices of six Southeastern United States universities were analyzed through official documents and participant responses from disability service providers and other university employees. Comparisons were made between legal cases, and within and between universities. Case findings also provided standards through which participating university practices could be studied.^ The legal analysis revealed that most institutions did not discriminate against individuals with psychological disabilities. Practices of a few of these institutions, however, suggested non-compliance despite favorable decisions on their behalf. Institutions found to have discriminatory practices were cited for inadequate procedures, or for presumptive assessments of the educational functioning levels of individuals with psychological disabilities.^ Participant university practices generally suggested disability law compliance; however, certain campus interventions were determined to be ineffective in identifying, addressing, and communicating about the educational needs of individuals with psychological disabilities. The most effective services for these individuals, who were described as rapidly increasing in number but lagging in self-advocacy and acceptance by others, went beyond legal requirements.^ Recommendations were made for institutional practices concerning disability-related documentation, written standards and operations, and student identification and referral. Directions for future research focused on study skills training for students; exposure of mental health professionals to client educational needs; and expansion of the current research, on a nationwide collegiate level, and a parallel analysis focusing on business and industry. ^

The relationship of managers' self -reported leadership practices and their spirituality

The role of spirituality in leadership in business and other organizations has gained growing recognition. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between spirituality and nine selected transformational leadership practices. Community leaders (N = 138) in business, education, and other professions who were graduates of a 10-week leadership program, Leadership Fort Lauderdale, from 1994 to 2004 completed the Spirituality Assessment Scale (SAS), the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), and four transformational leadership items of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). ^ The predictor variables were participants' scores on the LPI and MLQ. The criterion variable was their score on the SAS. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis: Is there a combination of nine selected transformational leadership practices that would account for a significant portion of the variance of each of two spirituality measures? The Definitive and Correlated dimensions and Total spirituality score of the SAS were used in the analysis. ^ Results showed that two of the LPI leadership practices were significantly related to spirituality. The variable Inspiring a Shared Vision accounted for 10% of the variance of the SAS Definitive dimension. The variable Encouraging the Heart accounted for 30% of the variance of the Correlated dimension. For the Total spirituality score, two models were revealed. In the first model, Encouraging the Heart accounted for 28% of the variance of the total spirituality score. In the second model, Encouraging the Heart and Inspiring a Shared Vision together accounted for 31% of the total spirituality score. None of the transformational leadership practices from the MLQ were significantly related to spirituality. ^ The data partially support the hypothesis: two of the nine leadership variables did in combination correlate with leaders' spirituality. The results also support at least a partial relationship between spirituality and certain transformational leadership practices among leaders in various spheres, such as education, business, and other professions. ^

Hospitality Graduate Students’ Program Choice Decisions: Implications for Faculty and Administrators

Despite rapid growth in the quality and volume of hospitality graduate research and education in recent years, little information is available in the extant body of literature about the program choices of hospitality management graduate students, information that is crucial for program administrators and faculty in their attempts to attract the most promising students to their programs. This paper reports on a study among graduate students in U.S, hospitality management programs designed to understand why they chose to pursue their degrees at their programs of choice. Given the large numbers of international students presently enrolled, the study additionally looked into why international hospitality management students chose to leave their home countries and why they decided to pursue a graduate degree in the U.S. Based on the findings, implications for hospitality administrators and faculty in the U.S. and abroad are discussed and directions for future research are presented.

Crossing boundaries to education: Haitian transnational families and the quest to raise the family up

Nearly 175, 000 Haitian immigrants have settled in South Florida since the 1970s. Their lives are often lived transnationally with persistent connections and obligations to family members in Haiti. Yet, traditional theories of immigrant assimilation focus on the integration of immigrants into host countries, giving little consideration to relationships and activities that extend into migrants' countries of origin. Conversely, studies of transnational families do not explicitly address incorporation into the receiving country. This dissertation, through the experiences of Haitian immigrants in South Florida, reveals a transnational quest "to raise the family up" through migration, remittances, and the pursuit of higher levels of education. I argue that familial duties and obligations, which have cultural foundations in the Haitian lakou, structure the activities of Haitian transnational families as they pursue socioeconomic advancement through migration and education. With the support of transnational families, many students cross boundaries to academic achievement and improve their opportunities for socioeconomic mobility in the US. With higher levels of education, these individuals contributed to a more favorable incorporation into the United States for their extended families, as well. The data were collected through participant observation and 78 in-depth interviews documenting the migration histories of 27 Haitian immigrant families in South Florida. This dissertation contributes to the existing literature on Haitian immigrants in the United States and to an understanding of the transnational dimensions of immigrant incorporation more broadly.

Analysis and comparison of the moral development of students required to graduate with an ethics course

Accounting students become practitioners facing ethical decision-making challenges that can be subject to various interpretations; hence, the profession is concerned with the appropriateness of their decisions. Moral development of these students has implications for a profession under legal challenges, negative publicity, and government scrutiny. Accounting students moral development has been studied by examining their responses to moral questions in Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), their professional attitudes on Hall's Professionalism Scale Dimensions, and their ethical orientation-based professional commitment and ethical sensitivity. This study extended research in accounting ethics and moral development by examining students in a college where an ethics course is a requirement for graduation. Knowledge of differences in the moral development of accounting students may alert practitioners and educators to potential problems resulting from a lack of ethical understanding as measured by moral development levels. If student moral development levels differ by major, and accounting majors have lower levels than other students, the conclusion may be that this difference is a causative factor for the alleged acts of malfeasance in the profession that may result in malpractice suits. The current study compared 205 accounting, business, and nonbusiness students from a private university. In addition to academic major and completion of an ethics course, the other independent variable was academic level. Gender and age were tested as control variables and Rest's DIT score was the dependent variable. The primary analysis was a 2x3x3 ANOVA with post hoc tests for results with significant p-value of less than 0.05. The results of this study reveal that students who take an ethics course appear to have a higher level of moral development (p=0.013), as measured by the (DIT), than students at the same academic level who have not taken an ethics course. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p=0.034) exists between freshmen who took an ethics class and juniors who did not take an ethics class. For every analysis except one, the lower class year with an ethics class had a higher level of moral development than the higher class year without an ethics class. These results appear to show that ethics education in particular has a greater effect on the level of moral development than education in general. Findings based on the gender specific analyses appear to show that males and females respond differently to the effects of taking an ethics class. The male students do not appear to increase their moral development level after taking an ethics course (p=0.693) but male levels of moral development differ significantly (p=0.003) by major. Female levels of moral development appear to increase after taking an ethics course (p=0.002). However, they do not differ according to major (p=0.0 97). These findings indicate that accounting students should be required to have a class in ethics as part of their college curriculum. Students with an ethics class have a significantly higher level of moral development. The challenges facing the profession at the current time indicate that public confidence in the reports of client corporations has eroded and one way to restore this confidence could be to require ethics training of future accountants.

Business information systems:technology, development and management for the e-business

In order to run a successful business, today’s manager needs to combine business skills with an understanding of information systems and the opportunities and benefits that they bring to an organisation. Starting from basic concepts, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to: •understanding the technology of business information systems; •choosing the right information system for an organisation; •developing and managing an efficient business information system; •employing information systems strategically to achieve organisational goals. Taking a problem-solving approach, Business Information Systems looks at information systems theory within the context of the most recent business and technological advances. This thoroughly revised new edition has updated and expanded coverage of contemporary key topics such as: •Web 2.0 •enterprise systems •implementation and design of IS strategy •outsourcing