Margaret Faulkner

Exploring Ways that ePortfolios Can Support the Progressive Development of Graduate Qualities and Professional Competencies

Since the late-1990s, the University of South Australia has embedded seven Graduate Qualities across all programs. Subsequently, the higher education landscape has changed dramatically in terms of national policies and standards, as well as technologies available to support learning and teaching. Most higher education institutions now have their own list of qualities or attributes developed by graduates. Further changes in Australia include quality assurance accredited through a national body, such as the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, and the development of disciplinary Threshold Learning Outcomes under the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards project. Similar changes are underway internationally. A multi-disciplinary research project at University of South Australia explored how ePortfolios might enhance this learning environment with a focus on aligning standards, Graduate Qualities and professional requirements. This paper outlines approaches taken in Engineering and Law undergraduate programs using two different ePortfolio tools (PebblePad and Mahara), where we sought to discover if this would empower learners to articulate their achievements and to understand professional frameworks. Lessons learnt and evaluation data are presented, along with recommendations to support a progressive developmental approach across programs. Whilst the experiences relate to two disciplinary areas, the approach taken can be adapted for other programs. Many of the insights gained also apply to strategies that exclude ePortfolio tools.

The Roles of Extrinsic Factors in a Community of Inquiry Model of E-learning

Despite its proliferation in higher learning institutions, e-learning has been criticised as being nothing more than trivial online conversations, or a mere means of delivering class materials electronically. If e-learning is to address such criticisms and become an effective pedagogical platform, educators need to identify elements critical to the success of e-learning. A well-known framework for studying e-learning as a pedagogical platform is the community of inquiry (COI) model. In this study, the authors develop a conceptual COI model to propose that while satisfactory e-learning experience stems from the interactions among three presences – social, cognitive, and teaching – the relative influences of the presences on e-learning experience are moderated by five extrinsic factors: content richness, perceived ease of use of e-learning platform, type of curriculum, teaching orientation, and participant age. They argue that this extended and more comprehensive COI framework would help educators better understand e-learnings use as an effective pedagogical platform.

Are two brands better than one? Investigating the effects of co-branding in advertising on audience memory

Co-branded advertising, where advertisements feature two partnered brands from different categories, should ideally benefit both brands. We test this assertion by studying the effect of featuring a second brand in advertisements on ad and brand name memorability, and the role of category context on which brand is recalled. Our test covers online display advertisements for consumer-packaged brands paired with charity and retailer brands in three markets (USA, UK, and Australia). Independent sample comparisons across 54 brand pairs show that advertising two brands has a neutral effect on ad memorability and negative effect on brand memorability. Furthermore, the advertisement’s category context determines which of the brands is recalled. Our findings support a competitive interference theory of dual-brand processing, whereby the two brands compete for attention resources. The results have implications for the return on investment from advertising expenditure, which will vary substantively depending on whether the costs of advertising are shared or borne by one brand in the pair.

Brand awareness: revisiting an old metric for a new world

Purpose Brand awareness is a pivotal, but often neglected, aspect of consumer-based brand equity. This paper revisits brand awareness measures in the context of global brand management. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the method of Laurent et al. (1995), this cross-sectional longitudinal study examines changes in brand awareness over time, with sample sizes of approximately 300 whisky consumers per wave in three countries: United Kingdom, Taiwan and Greece. Findings There is consistency in the underlying structure of awareness scores across countries, and over time, extending the work of Laurent et al. (1995). Results show that a relevant operationalisation of brand awareness needs to account for the history of the brand. Furthermore, the nature of the variation of brand awareness over time interacts with a brand’s market share. Research limitations/implications When modelling the impact of brand awareness researchers need to consider two factors – the brand’s market share and whether a more stable or volatile measure is sought. This avoids mis-specifying the country-level contribution of brand awareness. Practical implications Global brand managers should be wary of adopting a “one size fits all” approach. The choice of brand awareness measure depends on the brand’s market share, and the desire for higher sensitivity or stability. Originality/value The paper provides one of the few multi-country investigations into brand awareness that can help inform global brand management.

Barriers to Increasing Donor Support Evidence on the Incidence and Nature of Brand Rejection

This study examines individuals’ refusal to support, or rejection, of charity brands. Drawing from an online survey of 490 Australian respondents, we find a low incidence of charity rejection. At brand level, the average rejection is 3%, with Greenpeace (19%) and World Vision (9%) showing the highest levels of rejection. The majority of respondents (71%) did not reject any of the 29 charity brands listed. The results show that for any specific charity, rejection is rare and that non-awareness levels are 14 times higher than rejection levels. This has important strategic implications for recruiting supporters, with non-awareness providing greater explanation of non-support than rejection. Charities should focus on raising knowledge and salience of the charity brand rather than trying to negate objections.

Supporters’ Perceptions of Benefits Delivered by Different Charity Activities

ABSTRACT Donating time and money are traditional ways individuals support charities. Other support activities include buying charity products, attending events, or sponsoring others. The proliferation of activities means that charity marketers often face difficult decisions when designing a portfolio of support-generating activities. This research draws on the social exchange theory to examine 11 charity-support activities from the supporter’s perspective. Drawing on Australian data from a survey of 248 supporters of a wide range of charities, we use correspondence analysis to map each activity against four benefit dimensions (material, social, expressive, and personal commitment). We quantify overall supporter perceptions of benefits delivered by engaging in each activity and use multinomial logistic regression to identify how past experience can shape perceptions of activities. We discuss academic and managerial implications, including whether or not specific attributes are more useful to recruit or to retain supporters.

Does an expanded brand user base of co-branded advertising help ad-memorability?

A well-established empirical generalization is that brand users are more likely than non-users to recall advertising for the brand they use. The pairing of a corporate and charity brand in advertising should create an expanded brand-user base, which should, in turn, lead to higher ad-memorability than either brand advertising alone. This study tests this hypothesis for consumer-packaged goods and charity brands in the United Kingdom and Australia. We find evidence that extends the generalization that ad-memorability is higher among brand users to charity supporters in non-profit contexts. We also find that when two brands are present, ad-memorability is highest among those who use the brand and support the partner charity. However, the uplift in ad-memorability among these dual-brand users is dampened by the lower ad-memorability experienced by those who use only one brand, due to a suspected information overload. The findings challenge accepted wisdom on the benefits of co-branded advertising and have implications for partner-selection for co-branded activities.

Predictable Patterns of Prescribing Innovation

Who are the innovative customers for new products? Despite considerable research in this area, a striking characteristic of innovators was identified over 35 years ago. In work since often overlooked, Taylor found innovators tended to be heavy buyers of the parent category. This controversial result has major implications for both theory and practice yet has not, to our knowledge, been replicated. We therefore examine the extent to which heavy buyers dominate the innovator segment, adopting a research design that overcomes some of the limitations of Taylor’s original study, and we also extend Taylor’s work by examining heavy buyers in general rather than in a ‘category specific way’. Using a unique database, we examine the behaviour of British General Practitioners in prescribing radically new drugs and me-too later entrants over an 18-year period. We find regular replicable patterns of innovation among heavy category buyers.

Uncovering generalized patterns of brand competition in China

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to analyze brand competition in China using the Duplication of Purchase (DoP) law, with important implications for understanding Chinese buyer behavior in comparison with Western buyers. Discovered in the Western markets, the DoP law holds across a variety of product categories. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple sets of new data are examined to extend past research in the application of the DoP law in Chinese buying behavior. This study draws on panel data and self-reported data, utilizing bootstrapping to identify partitions where excess sharing occurs. Findings – This paper finds the DoP law holds across six categories (two personal care, two impulse categories and two durables), as well as over multiple years. Brands in China share customers with other brands in line with the market share of the competitor brand. There were few partitions where brands shared significantly more customers than expected. Partitions occur due to the same umbrella brand or owne...