Cooperative R&D and firm performance

We analyse the impact of R&D cooperation on firm performance differentiating between four types of R&D partners (competitors, suppliers, customers, and universities and research institutes), and considering two performance measures: labour productivity and productivity in innovative (new to the market) sales. Using data on a large sample of Dutch innovating firms in two waves of the Community Innovation Survey (1996, 1998), we examine the impact of R&D cooperation in 1996 on subsequent productivity growth in 1996–1998. The results confirm a major heterogeneity in the rationales and goals of R&D cooperation. Competitor and supplier cooperation focus on incremental innovations, improving the productivity performance of firms. University cooperation and again competitor cooperation are instrumental in creating innovations generating sales of products that are novel to the market, improving the growth performance of firms. Furthermore, customers and universities are important sources of knowledge for firms pursuing radical innovations, which facilitate growth in innovative sales in the absence of formal R&D cooperation.     

The Concept of Information Overload: A Review of Literature from Organization Science, Accounting, Marketing, MIS, and Related Disciplines

Based on literature from the domains of organization science, marketing, accounting, and management information systems, this review article examines the theoretical basis of the information overload discourse and presents an overview of the main definitions, situations, causes, effects, and countermeasures. It analyzes the contributions from the last 30 years to consolidate the existing research in a conceptual framework and to identify future research directions.     

Instructional design of a distance education cultural awareness course to enhance currency and authenticity

This paper describes the development of a virtual learning environment using a blend of collaborative technologies and human resources to provide US preservice teachers with an authentic experience of another culture. A core design component is the use of ‘embedded instructors’ who are natives of and living in the target country (N. Ireland) while delivering the course in the USA. The wider issue of the potential depersonalisation of online learning is also addressed, and effective strategies for promoting the human dimension and sustaining learner engagement are described. In the context of globalisation, as well as of the constantly increasing provision of online courses, the course model could be of interest to both the academic and the corporate world.     

Intergenerational transmission of adaptive functioning: a test of the interactionist model of SES and human development

The interactionist model (IM) of human development (R. D. Conger & M. B. Donellan, 2007) proposes that the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and human development involves a dynamic interplay that includes both social causation (SES influences human development) and social selection (individual characteristics affect SES). Using a multigenerational data set involving 271 families, the current study finds empirical support for the IM. Adolescent personality characteristics indicative of social competence, goal-setting, hard work, and emotional stability predicted later SES, parenting, and family characteristics that were related to the positive development of a third-generation child. Processes of both social selection and social causation appear to account for the association between SES and dimensions of human development indicative of healthy functioning across multiple generations.     

Examining the accuracy of teachers' judgments of DIBELS performance

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the accuracy of teachers' judgments of students' early literacy skills and to determine if students' achievement levels influenced teachers' judgments. Typical and lower‐achieving kindergarten and first‐grade students' scores on the Nonsense Word Fluency and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency measures of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) were compared to the predicted performance by their teachers. Results showed a moderately strong correlation between teachers' judgments and students' performance across all of the students, which is consistent with past research. Teachers' judgments, however, consistently and significantly overestimated the actual performance of students, particularly those who were typically performing students. The findings of the investigation suggest that relying on teachers' judgments of students' early literacy skills alone may be insufficient to accurately identify students at risk for reading difficulties. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The influence of competences and support on school performance feedback use

Information‐rich environments are created to promote data use in schools for the purpose of self‐evaluation and quality assurance. However, providing feedback does not guarantee that schools will actually put it to use. One of the main stumbling blocks relates to the interpretation and diagnosis of the information. This study examines the relationship between data literacy competences, support given in interpreting the information, actual use of the feedback and potential school improvement effect. A randomised field experiment with 188 school principals from primary education was set up and a post‐test was used to investigate the effects of a support initiative. The results revealed that a minority of schools invested significantly in the interpretation and diagnosis of the school performance feedback (SPF), despite the fact that most of the respondents showed an interest in the SPF report. In addition, data competence support and the subsequent use of feedback were found to be limited.