The student practitioner: developing skills through the marketing research consultancy project

This paper examines the perceptions of a group of undergraduate students undertaking marketing research consultancy projects for employers. The projects are informed by action learning. The author’s intention is to demonstrate that this method of learning facilitates a level of student skill development that more traditional marketing courses find difficult to achieve. Design/methodology/approach The study is underpinned by an interpretivist approach. Research involved students taking part in two focus groups during the consultancy and the completion of pre consultancy and post consultancy open ended questionnaires. Findings Findings suggest that the marketing consultancy project represents a way to help develop the general skills required by novice marketers. Students show an understanding of the importance of acquiring communicative, interpersonal, creative and team based skills. These assist them in developing a practical knowledge neglected by much existing marketing teaching. Research limitations/implications The findings although based on a small sample, indicate that marketing education if based on action learning, positively engages learners. The emphasis on practice suggests that experience, work place socialisation and tacit knowledge, are essential components of learning about marketing that often get overlooked in more traditional marketing courses. Originality/value This paper suggests that much established marketing education does not take sufficient account of experiential based learning and instead, is wedded to a model of teaching that sees marketing as being mainly about the transmission of administratively based knowledge. This paper argues that relying overly on the latter will not provide tomorrows marketers with an appropriate skill set for employment

Preparing for Health Reform: The Role of the Health Insurance Exchange

Outlines the potential roles of a health insurance exchange, state-specific issues for state policy makers to consider in deciding whether to create an exchange, and options for the structure, funding, and operation of an exchange

How Registries Can Help Performance Measurement Improve Care

Suggests ways to better utilize databases of clinical information to evaluate care processes and outcomes and improve measurements of healthcare quality and costs, comparative clinical effectiveness research, and medical product safety surveillance

Using supervision: Support or surveillance?

This is the author's pdf version of an book chapter published by SAGE© 2007.This chapter will analyse supervision of staff in relation to developmental and managerial functions; argue that pressures on social services organisations have ensured that the need for agency accountability far outweighs its developmental function; suggest that the need for professional supervision is greatly enhanced given the development of inter-professional working arrangements; and propose that approaches to supervision can be applied to social work that have first been developed in the health service

Engaging Local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the Response to HIV/AIDS.

During the past few years, a number of key donor programs have scaled up their global response to the crisis of HIV and AIDS. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Bank’s Multi-country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP), and other bilateral donors and charitable foundations have raised significant resources to fight HIV/AIDS. Spending on HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries increased from $1 billion in 2000 to$6.1 billion in 2004. By 2007, global resources for HIV/AIDS are expected to expand to $10 billion. Local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith-based organizations (FBOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs) have been at the center of the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In many countries, they have been responsible for the majority of the resources reaching individuals and have played a leading role in developing and implementing sustainable strategies to mitigate and prevent HIV/AIDS. One of PEPFAR’s strategic principles is to encourage and strengthen faithbased and community-based non-governmental organizations. The identification of sustainable and efficient local NGOs and the capacity building of these partners is the cornerstone on which the effective engagement of local NGOs is built. The goal of this paper is to begin a discussion among donors, international and local NGOs, and multilateral and U.S. government representatives on how to effectively engage indigenous partners and transfer much-needed resources

Mechanism Choice

This chapter reviews the literature on the selection of regulatory policy instruments, from both normative and positive perspectives. It first reviews the mechanism design literature to identify normative objectives in selecting among the menu or toolbox of policy instruments. The chapter then discusses the public choice and positive political theory literatures and the variety of models developed to attempt to predict the actual selection of alternative policy instruments. It begins with simpler early models focusing on interest group politics and proceeds to more complicated models that incorporate both supply and demand for policy, the role of policy entrepreneurs, behavioral and cognitive choice, and public perceptions and mass politics. It compares these theories to empirical experience. The chapter examines literature in law, economics, political science, and related fields, and it draws examples from US, European, and international regulation. It concludes with suggestions for future research. Document is the author\u27s manuscrip

Use of Research Evidence: Social Services Portfolio

The William T. Grant Foundation intends that the emerging research evidence from its Use of Research Evidence (URE) portfolio be useful to those engaged in these (and other) diverse efforts. But broad and meaningful use of research evidence will require conversations that extend beyond researchers and expert forums. Indeed, URE findings suggest that policymakers and practitioners should not be viewed simply as "end users" of research evidence. To provide insight into how URE studies and the resulting evidence could be most relevant and useful to them, policymakers and practitioners at all levels in the social services system must have a voice in these conversations. This paper is intended to foster and inform dialogue among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners by reflecting on the Foundation's social services URE portfolio from the perspective of policy and practice and by identifying potential opportunities for the next generation of studies and considerations for those undertaking that work

Misunderstanding Models in Environmental and Public Health Regulation

Computational models are fundamental to environmental regulation, yet their capabilities tend to be misunderstood by policymakers. Rather than rely on models to illuminate dynamic and uncertain relationships in natural settings, policymakers too often use models as “answer machines.” This fundamental misperception that models can generate decisive facts leads to a perverse negative feedback loop that begins with policymaking itself and radiates into the science of modeling and into regulatory deliberations where participants can exploit the misunderstanding in strategic ways. This paper documents the pervasive misperception of models as truth machines in U.S. regulation and the multi-layered problems that result from this misunderstanding. The paper concludes with a series of proposals for making better use of models in environmental policy analysis.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Chapter 7: Institutional Support

The OTiS (Online Teaching in Scotland) programme, run by the now defunct Scotcit programme, ran an International e-Workshop on Developing Online Tutoring Skills which was held between 8–12 May 2000. It was organised by Heriot–Watt University, Edinburgh and The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. Out of this workshop came the seminal Online Tutoring E-Book, a generic primer on e-learning pedagogy and methodology, full of practical implementation guidelines. Although the Scotcit programme ended some years ago, the E-Book has been copied to the SONET site as a series of PDF files, which are now available via the ALT Open Access Repository. The editor, Carol Higgison, is currently working in e-learning at the University of Bradford (see her staff profile) and is the Chair of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)