Development and test of an international student performance taxonomy

Based on the cross-cultural adjustment, education, and job performance literatures, an international student performance taxonomy is proposed and tested with a sample of 272 business exchange students from nine Asian, European, and North American countries studying in Mexico. Results of confirmatory factor analyses provided tentative support for an eight-factor taxonomy comprised of performance dimensions labeled: engaging in academic and non-academic tasks, communicating with host nationals, writing and using the local language, helping and cooperating with other international students, demonstrating effort in an academic setting, maintaining personal discipline, developing social and personal relationships with host nationals, and adjusting to general conditions of living abroad. Issues concerning the practical implications of these findings as well as the generalizability of the confirmed performance taxonomy to other educational and work contexts are discussed.     

Business Planning for Higher Education Institutions

Business planning is now an essential discipline for universities, polytechnics and colleges. Those which do not already have a corporate strategy will find they have to develop one in order to succeed in the new funding competition. The skills and attitudes required for successful business planning will have to be acquired and exploited alongside traditional academic strengths. In this article two management consultants who know higher education well explain how institutions can develop and benefit from a structured approach to business planning.     

The dynamics of product differentiation in the British record industry

The paper conducts a statistical analysis of the dynamics of the sale of new music (product differentiation innovation) in the record industry. In pursuing this goal the paper generates new data and analyses a previously unutilized data set. The paper finds that there is a strong correlation between new music innovation in the audio singles and albums market. This is found to be mainly concurrent in the same quarter and to have a reasonably short product life. The paper discovers that these features also characterise the dynamics of record company performance. The research indicates that record companies are willing to sell singles at a loss due to advertising rather than learning externalities. At the industry level, the paper finds that new music innovation does not effect market size significantly and mainly causes business stealing effects between record companies, with exceptional cases of multiplier effects.     

Comparison of three methods of estimating energy expenditure: caltrac, heart rate, and video analysis

This study examined the accuracy of a new device (Caltrac) in estimating energy expenditure via acceleration measurements. Energy expenditure of 20 high school students during basketball class activity (average length = 37 min) was estimated using the Caltrac, heart rate recording, and video analysis. Heart rate recording and video analysis estimates of energy expenditure were determined from heart rate, caloric expenditure curves, and an activity rating scale, respectively. The following estimates of caloric expenditure (M +/- SD) were found: heart rate recording = 196 +/- 73 greater than Caltrac = 163 +/- 49 greater than film analysis = 123 +/- 30 kcal (p less than .05). Laboratory simulations of the basketball activity revealed that the Caltrac energy expenditure was not significantly different from the actual energy expenditure (p greater than .05). The heart rate recording and video analysis estimates of energy expenditure were significantly (p less than .05) higher and lower, respectively, than the actual energy expenditure. The Caltrac is a lightweight, low-cost device that provides a relatively accurate estimate of energy expenditure in free-ranging activities, such as basketball.