Mike Metcalfe

Identifying teaching methods that engage entrepreneurship students

Purpose – Entrepreneurship education particularly requires student engagement because of the complexity of the entrepreneurship process. The purpose of this paper is to describe how an established measure of engagement can be used to identify relevant teaching methods that could be used to engage any group of entrepreneurship students.Design/methodology/approach – The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) instrument was used to provide 47 well established engagement criteria. The results from 393 students (33 per cent response rate), and the identification by immersed experts of the criteria that were present in each of six teaching methods, made it possible to calculate a weighted score of engagement contribution for each teaching method.Findings – This method described in this paper identified, for undergraduate entrepreneurship students, the most engaging teaching methods as well as the least engaging. This approach found that from amongst the particular range of teaching methods in the cou...

Informing the knowledge workers

Being part of a “learning community” requires that knowledge workers keep themselves informed of developments in their area of expertise. However, as we all know, an information saturation problem exists, not least because of the Internet. Modes of informing are specific to each person’s concerns, as are the topics they want to be informed about. Libraries and information centers have sought to accommodate this need in the past by promoting Current Awareness Services (CAS) and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), either through print or electronic means. With the migration of these systems to the Internet, intranet, or corporate portal, it has become the vogue to customize or personalize these access points in accordance with user interests. On the horizon is the promise of intelligent software agents as an additional aid for filtering and retrieving information. This article will argue that librarians need to continue embracing the model principle of CAS, as a tool of relevance, and as a function for remaining visible to their client communities.

Multiple method forecasts for discontinuous innovations

Abstract This paper argues for the development of more explicit forecasting methodologies that use the pragmatics of combining methods and the philosophical base of multiple perspectives. The increasingly common “wicked” problem of forecasting demand for discontinuous innovations (DI) at the concept testing stage of new product development is used to ground the discussion. We look to the interpretivist group-based inquiry methodologies in the management and information systems literature, and coupled this with discussions with forecasting managers, to provide evidence to support the adoption of this approach. Relativism is briefly critiqued and the accuracy of the combining methods forecasting literature reviewed. It appears that the managers interviewed could benefit from an explicit understanding of the multiple perspective approach, as they already appeared to have appreciated the need for a broader based approach than traditional forecasting techniques. It is therefore hoped that as a result of this paper, more managers involved with the “wicked” problem of innovative product forecasting will recognise the need to adopt a more explicit multiple perspective inquiry methodology in their efforts to combine forecasting methods.

Sourcing forecast knowledge through argumentative inquiry

Abstract This paper describes a process for nominating and assessing potential actions in group meetings. It is probably useful in many other applications including as input to a forecast. The authors were concerned on how the ancient and well-tried technique of argumentative inquiry might be applied in such meetings. The traditional form of argumentation, the courtroom or debating society, was thought too confrontational, yet other attributes of argumentative inquiry were thought to be attractive. These include the use of dialectic perspectives coupled with competition. The application described illustrates the use of the argumentative process in the design and selection of radio programs for estimating demand for an ex-government-controlled radio network in Indonesia as it emerged into democracy. A series of group meetings applied an inverted form of facilitated argument whereby depersonalized statements were debated on. This paper argues that, correctly applied, the argumentative inquiry approach provides reliability, helps inform those participating in the exercises, and is sensitive to a variety of viewpoints.

The ‘Ear’ and ‘Eye’ Digital Divide

This paper is about using technology to help people who share knowledge orally. The objective is to appreciate the social and technical needs of this preference so as to narrow the divide developing between these people and those who earn their living from written knowledge sharing. Writing is not the preferred method of knowledge sharing for the majority of peoples on earth nor is it appropriate for the majority of problems. A mix of both literacy and orality is believed to be the ideal, so a failure to develop cheap and relevant synchronous and asynchronous oral knowledge sharing technology may down play the importance of orality in the social and economic development of both the developed and developing nations. This paper will argue that IS designers interested in global diversity, equity, innovation and economic development through communication technology need to place more emphasis on orality. The difference between oral and written knowledge sharing will be discussed to explain the need for both synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies. A small study comparing asynchronous oral and written communication is presented as is an attempt to design an Internet based oral conferencing system to link Aboriginal communities. It was found that there was a need for developing cheap community based conferencing facilities and to improve the asynchronous oral communication technologies.

Development and oral technologies

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Arguing for Information Systems Project Definition

This paper is about project definition. The authors are concerned that the inquiry method, argumentation, is not fully appreciated with respect to how it can be used to critique attempts at the definition ofprojects. Therefore, and being upfront about it, this paper will argue that argumentation is useful for critiquing project definitions. The evidence presented in support of this argument includes definitions and descriptions of the attributes of both project definition and argumentation and then tries to formalize the way to apply argumentation to project definition drawing on recent experience by the authors with having to negotiate 14 six-month information systems (IS) project definitions with novice consultants. Space constraints permit us to elaborate upon only one of these. The implications of accepting the argument presented is to give more thought to this structured discourse approach to critiquing IS project definitions.

Argumentative systems for IS design

The object under study in this paper is information systems design (ISD). The writer’s concern is how to institutionalise the powers of reasoned argument into the design process. Argumentation, well known to the decision‐making, communications, knowledge creation, problem solving, and research methods literature, is believed to need a more explicit presence in ISD. The evidence is provided to support this belief in the form of a suggested “court room” analogy, drawing on the management and decision‐making literature as well as the theory of knowledge philosophy. Argument has good support from philosophy, confronts the issue of uneven power relationships, is a social construction methodology, and provides structure and outcome to dialogue. Argument is not to be confused with quarrels nor pure logic. Reasoned argument (debate) places language and group interaction at the centre of knowledge acquisition, while still acknowledging the observer‐reasoning dialectic.

Developing an implementation capacity: justifications from prior research

Implementing innovative operational research solutions into organizations can be messy. Pragmatic inquiry suggests the first step in dissolving a mess is to determine the mindset, or set of concepts, that will be used by decision makers to inform their day to day choice of activities. Van de Ven and Poole reviewed much of the organizational change literature and identified four reasons why change occurs. They labelled them, life cycle, evolution, teleology and dialectic. It would seem logical to suggest that any attempt to make sense of the mess of implementation needs to span these four reasons. However, these reasons need to be operationalized into a mindset for implementers. To do this, the management implementation literature was reviewed under each of these reasons. The result is a justification of four concepts that can create a mindset likely to improve the implementation capacity of organizations. This mindset is that organizations make greater use of ‘champions’ ‘continuous improvement’ ‘job rotation’ and ‘debate’ over alternative activities. Exactly how so, is for individual organizations to interpret.

Critique Skills as the Core Competency of IS Academics

This paper is about information systems (IS) academics. It seeks to suggest a unique core competency they may wish to consider developing in order to differentiate themselves from practioners. So, this paper will explore the argument that the core competency of IS academics should be a unique insight into how to critique technology related problems. There are multiple disparate critique methods that IS educators might seek to develop and apply. Examples include systems thinking, multiple perspectives, dialectic analysis and critical social thinking.