Student interactions in online discussion forums: their perception on learning with business simulation games

Digital technology offers new teaching methods with controversial results over learning. They allow students to develop a more active participation in their learning process although it does not always drive to unequivocal better learning outcomes. This study aims to offer additional evidence on the contribution of business simulation games to students' learning outcomes, considering student interactions in online discussion forums. We conducted a qualitative research with the online discussion forums of 5 different courses at bachelor and master levels, which involves 41 students' teams. The final sample was composed of 3681 messages posted by the students. The results reveal that some generic and specific managerial skills exert a positive influence on learning outcomes. Students mostly highlighted teamwork, decision-making, information processing, reaching agreements, and dealing with uncertainty as the most relevant contributions of the game towards their learning. These results have instructional and pedagogical implications for determining the best way to enhance students' motivation and learning outcomes when using digital technology methods, which involves recommendations that affect their design and monitoring

Do business games foster skills? A cross-cultural study from learners’ views

Purpose: This study seeks to analyse students’ perception of the effectiveness of business games as an e-learning method in management training. This analysis of games’ effectiveness is centred in the generic and managerial skills acquired, through the comparison of students’ opinions in different cultural contexts within Europe. Design/methodology: The analysis focuses on 120 management students at postgraduate level who use the same business game at different universities in five European countries: Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Germany. Findings: The results indicate that students positively assessed the generic and specific managerial skills fostered by the business game. The generic skills most valued were information and decision-making, and leadership. Regarding the specific skills, the most valued were management skills and the least valued, skills related to planning and the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. However, significant differences were found between students in different cultural contexts and education systems in the case of certain specific managerial skills. Practical implications: This finding suggests that the students’ perception of how a business game helps them acquire specific managerial skills is influenced by cultural aspects and previous exposure to experiential learning, which determine that the teachers’ role and the teaching process should be adapted to the students’ learning model. Originality/value: With this study, a better knowledge about the students’ perception of this e-learning method is obtained, not just considering a specific educational environment, but comparing opinions of students from different cultural contexts, which adds value to the analyses developed.Peer Reviewe

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Research on sharing economy: why are some articles more cited than others?

The present article seeks to identify the reasons why some articles are more cited than others, with a specific focus on the recent and innovative research area of the sharing economy. To determine how characteristics of the research drive citations, we carry out a systematic analysis of articles published from 2012 to 2018 in high-impact social science journals. Comparative analyses were conducted to visualise what features relate to higher citations. The results show that citations vary depending on the approach, field, unit of analysis, and the data analyses used in the research. Our contributions will be useful both for authors when deciding the type of analysis to undertake and the journal to which to send their papers, as well as for editors setting editorial policy

The contribution of virtual enterprises to competence-based learning: An assessment from the students' perspective: Case study

The use of virtual enterprises has evolved from secondary, vocational and professional education to the university level, becoming in recent times a relevant experiential e-learning tool based on the simulation of the functioning of a company. The purpose of this study is to analyze the perspective of students taking part in virtual enterprises about their acquisition of generic and specific managerial skills fostered by this e-learning methodology. We analyzed data of 76 students from Faculties of Business and Economics, who had participated during the academic year 2014-2015 in a virtual company during the development of their degrees at two different Italian universities, University of Bologna and Parma. Our results show that the most valued generic skills were related to the capacity of learning and adaptation, problem solving and teamwork, whilst the least valued ones were related to the skills of communication and interaction with people of other countries and cultures. In the case of specific managerial skills, the most valued ones were about understanding managerial concepts and the role and functions of economic agents, and the least valued were skills related to providing managerial advice, dealing with risks and analyzing financial statements. Besides, the analyses conducted to determine the existence of a learning profile in the students reveal that the skills acquired were quite similar, not being affected by the students' gender or the economic activity developed by the virtual enterprise. This study makes a contribution in terms of the effectiveness of virtual enterprises for competence-based learning

Las competencias del emprendimiento y su papel en los planes de negocio: una revisión literaria sistemática

En este artículo se presentan los resultados de una revisión sistemática de la literatura sobre la incorporación de las competencias emprendedoras en la educación superior, específicamente a través de la evaluación de la adquisición de este tipo de competencias al realizar un plan de empresa. Como resultado de la gran cantidad de literatura sobre competencias emprende- doras, pensamos que una revisión sistemática de la literatura sobre este tema será útil para aclarar, sistematizar y determinar lo que ya se conoce y las lagunas que aún que- dan en este campo académico. Una revisión sistemática de la literatura nos permitirá determinar la importancia de la relevancia dada por la investigación a este tema y su trayectoria. Por lo tanto, en este artículo vamos a elaborar un estado del arte sobre la incorpo- ración de las competencias emprendedoras a distintos niveles: en la educación, en la educación superior, y más específicamente en los planes de empresa. El estudio de las competencias ha sido ampliamente analizado en las últimas dé- cadas debido a su incorporación en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. La abundancia de literatura sobre este tema justifica la idoneidad de realizar una revisión sistemática de la literatura, además de la revisión clásica de los contenidos. La revisión sistemática de la literatura la llevamos a cabo a partir de la base de da- tos Web of Science desde el primer trabajo sobre esta materia hasta el momento actual. El procedimiento ha consistido en restringir la búsqueda determinando los conceptos clave y combinándolos adecuadamente. Con el objetivo de identificar aquellos estudios que, de una u otra manera, están relacionados con el tema del emprendimiento y la educación, las palabras clave genéricas consideradas fueron emprendimiento y com- petencias emprendedoras, mientras que las palabras clave específicas fueron planes de empresa, educación, enseñanza, aprendizaje, evaluación y universidad. A continua- ción, hemos identificado los artículos, y los hemos exportado a un software de gestión de referencias, y finalmente hemos revisado los artículos seleccionados resultantes y descartado los que no se adecuan al tema de la investigación. Los resultados muestran que en los últimos años, con las reformas del Proceso de Bolonia, se han incrementado considerablemente los estudios sobre competencias emprendedoras y su relación con el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje. Así, hemos observado que en la literatura científica existen muchas experiencias que incluyen el estudio de las competencias o de las competencias emprendedoras en general y su relación con la educación. Sin embargo, no conocemos ningún estudio que analice el grado de adquisición de las competencias emprendedoras por parte de los estudiantes al desarrollar un plan de empresa

Applying learning analytics to students’ interaction in business simulation games. The usefulness of learning analytics to know what students really learn

Nowadays, different ways of communication and interaction among multiple actors are dominating learning processes. However, there are critical opinions that question the contribution of student interaction to real learning. This study applies learning analytics and data mining techniques to explore the online discussion forums of 362 business students at the bachelor and master levels, who participated in business simulation games between 2011 and 2016. The findings revealed that the most frequent contents in the students’ online discussion forums were related, firstly, to the parameters and features of the business simulation game, and, secondly, to elements that fostered the students’ learning process, while small talk or regular conversation did not appear to be relevant. In addition, the contents with predictive power over learning results were related to uncertainty, time, interaction, communication and collaboration, although none of these elements influenced teacher assessment of student learning. This study reveals the usefulness of learning analytics tools to gain a more wide and holistic view of the learning process of students, discovering new aspects that affect students’ learning resultsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Valoración de la herramienta Dolceta: una herramienta de aprendizaje electrónico para primaria y secundaria

El objeto del presente trabajo es describir la valoración efectuada sobre Dolceta, una herramienta en línea para la alfabetización financiera de alumnos de primaria, secundaria y bachillerato. Tras realizar un grupo de discusión, se han llevado a cabo once entrevistas a profesores de secundaria conocedores de esta herramienta. Los resultados del análisis de estas entrevistas y del grupo de discusión ponen de manifiesto el interés mostrado por este recurso virtual, que es visto, a su vez, como un medio y como una oportunidad, tanto para emplear herramientas audiovisuales en línea en el aula que permiten el learning by doing, como para aportar una cultura financiera a los estudiantes que en la situación actual de crisis financiera se percibe como un activo más que necesario. Asimismo, se demuestra también su utilidad para los adultos. El presente trabajo aporta opiniones profesionales sobre la aplicabilidad práctica de una herramienta de formación en línea. Al tratarse de una plataforma de aprendizaje electrónico de libre acceso, se evitan restricciones de tipo económico o espacial, y todos los ciudadanos pueden acceder a ella libremente. Como conclusión, se constata la posibilidad real de utilizar el módulo de «Alfabetización financiera» de la plataforma Dolceta, especialmente, en un entorno educativo de primaria y secundaria, tanto en España como en el resto de estados de la Unión Europea

#CoronavirusCruise: Impact and implications of the COVID-19 outbreaks on the perception of cruise tourism

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Diamond Princess became the center of the largest outbreak outside the original epicenter in China. This outbreak which left 712 passengers infected and 14 dead, followed by subsequent outbreaks affecting over one-third of the active ships in the cruise industry's global fleet, quickly became a crisis that captured public attention and dominated mainstream news and social media. This study investigates the perception of cruising during these outbreaks by analyzing the tweets on cruising using Natural Language Processing (NLP). The findings show a prevalent negative sentiment in most of the analyzed tweets, while the criticisms directed at the cruise industry were based on perceptions and stereotypes of the industry before the pandemic. The study provides insight into the concerns raised in these conversations and highlights the need for new business models outside the pre-pandemic mass-market model and to genuinely make cruising more environmentally friendly.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The role of emigrants in the construction of a destination brand: a new research line

Purpose – The main objective of this work consists of proposing a new line of research which consists of exploring the role of emigrants in the construction of their country of origin’s brand. Design and methodology: To justify the need of this new research line we provide arguments by conducting a literature review on destination branding and topics related to migration in tourism. Approach – A proper destination branding may have a bearing on the image of a particular area, attracting visitors, investments, and a greater economic wealth for the region. The relevance of this topic for tourism management explains the interest of research in determining the elements of the brand of touristic destinations and its influence on the tourists’ behaviour. Originality – Scant attention has been paid by the literature on the influence of stakeholders on brand construction at a regional level, and specifically on the influence of emigrant population, that is those people who are living outside their original territories and whose identity might exert an influence on the construction of their country’s brand and attract potential tourists. Findings – This study proposes a conceptual model to understand the role of emigrant population in the construction of their places of origin’s destination brand. This model suggests that social identity processes may affect the way emigrants communicate to locals a brand about their places of origin, contributing therefore to the construction of the brand of their countries