Murray Taylor

Understanding the pace, scale and pattern of firm internationalization: An extension of the ‘born global’ concept

Since the growth of the ‘born global’ concept, much of the established literature has tended to overlook the development of its characteristics outside high technology sectors. To further enhance our understanding of this phenomenon, this article draws on the ‘born global’ literature to identify common internationalization behaviours with which rapidly internationalizing firms are involved. Six propositions are developed related to the key dimensions of pace, scale and pattern of firm internationalization. The results from a comprehensive case study of four non-high-tech Australian ‘born global’ firms suggest that entrepreneurial interpretation is a factor in determining the pace with which a firm internationalizes. Other key implications include the importance of product imitability in assessing the extent of a firm’s international operations, the significance of psychic distance in the assessment of prospective international markets, and that entry mode choice is influenced by the prevailing trends established in each firm’s industry and the need to maximize its internal resources.

Student Engagement for Student Success: Pre-commencement Strategies via KickStart

Australia’s large and diverse student cohort challenges our universities to provide innovative and integrated ways of supporting students at an appropriate scale. In response, we developed an initiative called KickStart to help students become more engaged with their unit (i.e. subject) content and feel better prepared and motivated at a critical stage of their studies. This paper investigates student uptake and perceptions of this online initiative, the delivery of which commenced 2 weeks before the start of the semester. A student survey (n = 1165) delivered evidence for a high student uptake. In addition, students reported that KickStart provided them with a useful start and helped them to understand learning outcomes. This initiative highlights the value of providing students with online resources and activities tailored to the unit content in the lead-up to the semester.

Digital storytelling and visual metaphor in lectures: a study of student engagement

ABSTRACT Digital storytelling is a multimodal instructional design framework that helps to explain complex concepts using narrative and metaphor. Drawing from conceptual metaphor theory, we explore the effect of digital storytelling on student engagement and understanding of unit material in two undergraduate units. Through a mixed methods approach, visual elements of storytelling and metaphors are found to increase student engagement. Greater increases in student engagement are found for accounting students than a comparison cohort of management students. The main contribution of this paper is in using conceptual metaphor theory to create a new understanding of student engagement regarding rich metaphors becoming cognitively aligned with accounting concepts. A storytelling approach further helps to improve student engagement by connecting multiple metaphors into a compelling overarching narrative. We present accounting education practitioners with specific recommendations for improving student engagement by introducing narrative and metaphoric elements into lectures.