Brian Grinder

An integrative approach to using student investment clubs and student investment funds in the finance curriculum

Abstract The educational advantages of student investment clubs and student investment funds have been well documented. This paper suggests ways to integrate them into the finance curriculum and examines the benefits of integrating both funds and clubs into an instructional framework that provides important out-of-class experience to potential finance students, allows for the practical application of finance theory, and gives alumni an opportunity to remain involved with their alma mater. A discussion of how research in student learning styles can help instructors maximize the benefits of club and fund activity is also included.

An overview of financial services resources on the internet

Abstract Individual financial decision making is a process requiring a great deal of information, most of which can be found on the Internet if one knows where to look. This paper is a guide to recent financial service developments on the Internet that allows academics, students, professionals, and consumers to find information, interact with others, and conduct financial transactions online. It also offers an extensive list of financial service Internet sites, and provides a glimpse into the future of financial services on the Internet.

Measuring student learning over time with clickers in an introductory operations management course

This article describes the use of classroom communications systems, otherwise known as clickers, for measuring student learning over time. In an introductory operations management course, they were used to track student learning and progress. Student learning was assessed based upon the three lower levels in Blooms taxonomy: knowledge, understanding and application. This assessment occurred during lectures, small-stakes quizzes and high-stakes tests. This article shows that assessment opportunities are made possible through the use of clickers. This provides a mechanism to measure learning and allows an instructor to adjust instruction and to diagnose individual students in a timely manner so that additional help can be provided to students in need. Since many of the factors involved in the learning process lie outside of the realm of clicker technology, readers are advised to be cautious about reaching conclusions too quickly with regard to student learning and clickers.

Simulations, assessment and student learning

This paper reports on the use of a simulation in an introductory operations management course. Much of the literature on simulations treats them as a teaching method. In this paper, the simulation is used for student learning assessment. It was found that student performance was not very good and that financial performance in the game was not related to performance on tests. As a result of these findings it is proposed that simulations assess a different type of student learning. This is called the ability to interpret in a largely unfamiliar context. An additional exploratory experiment with an extra simulation round was conducted. Evidence from this additional experiment indicates that simulations might be an excellent method to assess this new indicator.

The use(lessness) of online quizzes for achieving student learning

This paper describes experiences with online quizzes in an operations management course. Online quizzes were introduced to offset larger class sizes. During several quarters, experimentation with online quizzes took place including the number of attempts, the amount of time allowed and the topical coverage in the quizzes. Three research questions are explored: what type of online quiz taking behaviour do students have? Do online quizzes help students improve their grade, that is, Does improvement occur within a course? and, Does the use of online quizzes help a class overall? It was concluded that online quizzes do not significantly improve student learning.

Entrepreneurship and the early American clock industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of the early American clock industry as an entrepreneurial endeavor and to focus on the innovative marketing and financing practices that helped transform the industry during the first half of the nineteenth century.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the historical method to identify the critical factors that allowed the clock industry to expand. Primary sources were consulted whenever they were available, and a survey of the existing clock literature was conducted.Findings – The nineteenth century New England clock industry provides a rich field of exploration into the entrepreneurial practices of the early American Republic and provides us with many insights that are applicable to the modern entrepreneur. The clock makers and peddlers who moved clock making from a backwater cottage industry to a modern international industry are examples of entrepreneurship at its best. From a marketing perspective, the clockmakers made use of t...

Justice and Financial Market Allocation of the Social Costs of Business

Regulation is often applied to business behavior to ensure that the social costs of doing business are included in the cost and pricing structures of the firm. Because the consumer benefits from the transaction that generated the social costs, asking the consumer to bear the burden imposed by the transaction is fair. However, there may be a lack of Justice m the internal and external distribution of the social costs of doing business if consumers are the only party bearing that burden, or if the costs are being shifted to employees or taxpayers when a closer stakeholder is also benefiting from the transaction – the stockowner. A social justice perspective requires that those benefiting from a transaction share in the burdens of it. We propose that a Tobin-like tax on stock transactions might be a just means of achieving greater justice in the distribution of the social cost burden.