Best Practice in Developing Critical Analyses: An Empirical Study of Self-Efficacy from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

Despite substantial usage of case study analyses as learning tools in diverse fields of study, business graduate students often arrive with little to no prior knowledge in how to effectively use this tool. Using the Sams efficacy model (2009) strategic to business education this study identified a dearth in the usage of case study analyses in business graduate courses and also provides a step-by-step process to increase critical analysis and efficacy through the usage of case studies. Findings demonstrate that critical analysis is developed through a combination of teaching tools through additive strategies to impact more learning modalities at the graduate education level. A counter-intuitive finding was that formative written feedback did not significantly increase the development of case study analyses skills; this finding supports the additive model. This research brings forward universal best practices for developing critical analysis, as self-efficacy in business applications also increases

Impact of Personal Beliefs in Business-to-Business Buyer Decisions

For school transportation buyers, who have depended on diesel for decades, gaining knowledge of complex and dynamic information is complicated by the growing number of alternative fuel vehicles. As with a number of business purchases, school bus acquisitions represent a major expense for school districts. It a multi-faceted decision and is typically made by a group of influencers who weigh the various alternatives and have extensive input in the purchase process. As would be expected from a process of this nature there are many elements that are considered such as product cost, safety, reliability, maintenance costs, and anticipated fuel expenditures. As with many B2B decisions the general assumption, both by the bus companies and the school districts, is that while each district has different goals, price points, and expectations, these purchases follow a basic model of economic utility. The purchase that is expected is the one in which utility is maximized and cost is minimized. However, psychological ownership implications have the potential to help practitioners in understanding and predicting the important dimensions of customer value in the business-to-business context that influence the purchase decision. Therefore, a survey study was conducted that examined the importance of a variety of elements of the purchase decision with a clear sub-focus on sustainability as well as some demographic and psychographic questions. Individuals listed in two industry databases were contacted with an invitation to take the survey. Of those individuals 498 USA and Canadian school bus decision-makers and influencers responded. The primary relationship that was of interest was whether personal interest in sustainability and alternative fuel vehicles altered perceptions or behavior in the business decisions of the respondents (H1: Owners of hybrid vehicles will be more likely to purchase alternative fuel buses.) The hypothesis was supported. An implication for academicians from the study is that for Business-to-Business (B2B) purchasing individual perspectives of those carrying out policies have a significant influence on purchase decisions. Furthermore, from the study it can be seen that individuals in the buying center add value to economic theory of rational choice by bringing their personal knowledge to the buying center decision. While this has been accepted as a major aspect of individual decision making, it implies a much stronger weight to the psychological aspects of purchase in B2B decision than is currently accepted in modeling B2B buyer behavior. For practitioners, this study shows that it is very important for salespersons to know the personal driving habits of the buyers in a group as their behavior weighs on their interpretation of the benefits of other alternative fuel products in B2B setting. Alternately, if an influencer is not an alternative fuel owner then it will be much more difficult to make the argument for conversion to an alternative fuel bus fleet. In summation, because buying centers are made up of people with varying roles, previous knowledge from personal experience could impact final decisions. This knowledge of a gap and the personal experience with similar products provide just the opportunity needed to adjust the marketing mix needed to make the sale

Examining the Effectiveness of Marketing Practices of a Nonprofit Institution of Higher Education: Internal Service Provider

Abstract - Quality education is the sum of Institutions of Higher Education’s (IHE) parts, including classroom instruction and internal services, that are key to a student’s success during and after college. The purpose of this study is to address an understudied sector in the nonprofit marketing literature (i.e., Institutions of Higher Education internal service providers). The current study extends Dakouan et al. (2019) work by examining the marketing efforts of an IHE’s career services center’s effectiveness in creating awareness and increasing attendance at career events. The study focuses on outbound marketing strategies addressing the research question “to what extent are outbound marketing strategies successful in creating awareness and increasing attendance at IHE’s career fairs?” Data were collected over three academic years through an intercept survey provided at career fairs and through a database of social media and digital marketing analytics at a medium-sized university located in the Southeastern United States. Frequency analyses were used to determine the effectiveness of marketing strategies in bringing awareness and increasing attendance to IHE career fairs. Further, attendance data were compared between results of frequency analyses of outbound marketing strategies. The findings revealed that only two effective forms of outbound communications used by the subject IHE’s career center were personal selling by faculty and email blast. Findings also revealed that social and internet marketing strategies used by the subject IHE career center were not effective. The results have implications as to a need for continual marketing research of trends in marketing best practices. The findings demonstrated the need for adding inbound marketing strategies(Dakouan et al., 2019) and hiring and/or training staff in marketing research, social media, and internet marketing skills. From the study’s findings, it was concluded that Filip’s(2012) study was supported. Thus, to create awareness and increase attendance at events provided by an IHE’s internal services providers, strategically applied marketing best practices are necessary

SoTL Best Practices: 21st Century College Students’ Perceptions of Learning Styles and Instructional Design Materials’ Influence on the Successful Completion of Assignments

There is a long history of interest in individual differences in learning styles. Beginning in the 1960s, academic research endeavors began examining the concept of personalizing teaching as the best scholarship of teaching and learning best practice (SoTL). This current series of interconnected empirical studies take a fresh look at SoTL by examining students’ self-perception of their learning styles and whether their perceptions relate to how they learn. Today’s college students are growing up in the information age of the 21st Century. Many educators believe that a best practice is to focus on delivering personalized instructional material through technology. Thus, the current mixed methods study adds value to SoTL research by examining these concepts through a representative sample of the subject university in the United States. To assure the reliability and validity of the complex series of three integrated studies, research assistants were trained by a researcher experienced in experimental and survey designs. Data were analyzed using SPSS27®. The study\u27s findings indicated that focusing instructional materials on individual learning styles does not equate to learning success; in fact, the data showed no relationship. The data showed that a combined instructional delivery methodology (kinetic and audio) had a positive influence on learning success. The findings revealed that explicit instructions with or without audio were the most effective in leading to students’ ability to follow instructions successfully. Managing students’ self-perceptions of learning styles is important to assure successful learning experiences. Findings, conclusions, implications, recommendations, and limitations are presented herein

Empirical Study: Mentorship as a Value Proposition (MVP)

Greater access to college education, owed in part to technology and globalization, increases opportunities for students to prepare and thrive professionally. Undergraduate education must offer pedagogies of engagement to meet needs of the competitive global workforce and post-baccalaureate programs requiring advanced research and analytical skills. Many universities and colleges recognize the critical need for undergraduate engagement in research and participation in professional world experiences to cultivate aptitudes required in the 21st century. Using a triangulation inquiry methodology, this empirical study contributes to the research on undergraduate research mentorship pedagogy by assessing its merits operationalized across multiple disciplines at a public liberal arts university. Findings support the added value of the pedagogy in its capacity to optimize marketable aptitudes. The study presents participants’ unique voices, as their perceptions are significant in identifying the value-added by this pedagogy

Empirical Study: Mentorship as a Value Proposition (MVP)

Greater access to college education, owed in part to technology and globalization, increases opportunities for students to prepare and thrive professionally. Undergraduate education must offer pedagogies of engagement to meet needs of the competitive global workforce and post-baccalaureate programs requiring advanced research and analytical skills. Many universities and colleges recognize the critical need for undergraduate engagement in research and participation in professional world experiences to cultivate aptitudes required in the 21st century. Using a triangulation inquiry methodology, this empirical study contributes to the research on undergraduate research mentorship pedagogy by assessing its merits operationalized across multiple disciplines at a public liberal arts university. Findings support the added value of the pedagogy in its capacity to optimize marketable aptitudes. The study presents participants’ unique voices, as their perceptions are significant in identifying the value-added by this pedagogy

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Arts Education as a Vehicle for Social Change: An Empirical Study of Eco Arts in the K-12 Classroom

Arts education has been part of the United States K-12 educational system for over a century. However, recent administrative policy decisions addressed the economic bottom line and the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, and complied with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). These decisions resulted in standardisation of both core curricula and testing, leaving arts programs to function in a diminished capacity, curtailing both individuality and creative thinking. This study unpacks the role of the arts as change agents with the ability to: address current discourse; question ideologies and culture; convey complex problems in artistic form; engage the viewer in aesthetics; provide a perspective not found in regimented thinking; and empower creative problem solvers. This work also highlights the role of eco-art as a medium for addressing complex environmental challenges. The study also empirically examines, through a self-report survey, K-12 arts educators\u27 perceptions of integrating eco-arts into curricula. Findings revealed respondents\u27 desire to integrate eco-arts into the arts curricula and identified the most significantly perceived barriers to integration, as well as the role of policy on practicality. The authors also identify the study\u27s limitations and recommend areas for future research