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This case study aims to analyze and compare the learning achievements of two groups of university students taught by: traditional face-to-face learning (TDL) and blended e-learning (BEL). To the best of the authors’ knowledge no previous study of the use of BEL in the context of Thailand has addressed the same purpose as this study. It is expected that the findings from this study will suggest areas for additional research and will be of interest to researchers and professional educators, especially those involved in the development and use of BEL systems.

This case study compares two groups of undergraduate students who completed a course designed to develop skills in using productivity software at a university in Thailand. After establishing the groups, one group learned in a BEL environment and the other in a TDL environment. In particular, the online training and assessment software application SIMnet was used in the BEL environment. Comparisons between results using BEL and TDL are made for different assessment results. Additional analyses of results for the BEL group examined gender differences and correlations between the number of attempts made on assessments and the levels of achievement.

The findings indicated that for all of the assessments, the BEL group had a better performance than the TDL group. For the BEL group, additional analyses found no significant differences between the achievements of males and females and significant correlations between the numbers of attempts made on assessments and the results. Limitations of this case study are discussed, and the findings are expected to be of interest to researchers and professional educators, especially those involved in the development and use of BEL.

Learning content was restricted to the Excel spreadsheet in which different areas of content need to be studied. The software SIMnet was used by the BEL group, additional BEL software needs to be studied. The participants’ characteristics – age, gender, culture and computer competency – were narrow scoped in which the study could include more varieties and also a larger sample size. Further studies should be designed to include more comparisons such a comparison between TDL group males and females.

The findings from this limited case study suggest that a BEL learning environment is superior to a TDL environment. Also, a BEL environment is equally beneficial for male and female students. In particular, the BEL feature, which allows students to retake assessments, leads to improved learning performance equally for both males and females. In general, these findings support those reported in previous studies.

Crosby suggested that “quality is free”. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the argument that, although it is not free, it can reduce costs. The UK’s Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL) for people with disabilities is used to illustrate this. The evolution of quality management systems implemented by BEL is examined. These include Charter Mark, Service First, Investors in People, the Business Excellence Framework and the EFQM Excellence Model. A comparative analysis is undertaken between the findings of the authors and those of other academic writers. Conclusions are drawn as to the appropriateness of these quality initiatives in facilitating continuous improvement at minimal cost.

Business transformation processes, change management and business strategy.

The case can be used to study business transformation processes and would be relevant for courses on change management and business strategy. It shouldbe studied in the context of behavioral and organizational challenges in implementing an organization-wide change. The case is targeted at MBA students and/or executive participants with professional experience who would be able to link the learningto corporate experience. It can be used for courses on organizational change, business strategy, and change management.

The case, set in India in the year 2011, is positioned in the business consulting domain, and provides insight into managing change from the perspective of a consulting partner. The case discusses challenges and presents processes followed by Wipro Consulting Services (WCS) in conducting an integrated business transformation exercise at Brigade Enterprises Ltd (BEL), a leading firm in India's real estate sector. The BEL engagement had busted the myth that an integrated business transformation could not be conducted in an unorganized sector, and resulted in savings of overUSD 2 million for BEL. The case traces the journey of WCS into business transformation consulting, outlines the solution framework proposed by WCS, and discusses the decisive nature of the Brigade project for WCS' growth trajectory.

The case has been written with the following objectives, to: familiarize students with the processes and phases of a business transformation project; examine transformation barriers and challenges from a consultant perspective; and providestudents an appreciation of the complexities and challenges, decisional criteria and parameters of a large-scale, integrated business transformation exercise.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

Anchoring vignettes have become a popular method to adjust self-assessed data for systematic differences in reporting behaviour to aid comparability, for example, of cross-country analyses. The method relies on the two fundamental assumptions of response consistency and vignette equivalence. Evidence on the validity of these assumptions is equivocal. This chapter considers the utility of the vignette approach by considering how successful the method is in moving self-assessed reports of health mobility towards objective counterparts. We draw on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and undertake pairwise country comparisons of cumulative distributions of self-reports, their objective counterparts and vignette adjusted reports. Comparison of distributions is based on tests for stochastic dominance. Multiple cross-country comparisons are undertaken to assess the consistency of results across contexts and settings. Both non-parametric and parametric approaches to vignette adjustment are considered. In general, we find the anchoring vignette methodology poorly reconciles self-reported data with objective counterparts.

This case features Bel-Brand's efforts to position its flagship brand The Laughing Cow in the United States. The challenges in this case are twofold. First, choose a viable position for a brand after a period of high growth following the South Beach Craze. The difficulty here is that the initial driver of the brand's position, the South Beach Craze, an environmental factor, is dwindling and is not sustainable. Second, the brand was receiving pressure from global stakeholders to try to unify the positioning in the United States with the global brand positioning. These are both challenges that were faced by the marketing team and raised in the case.

This case can be used to teach the following topics: 1) Developing a sustainable positioning. This case gives students the valuable experience of making a positioning choice and supporting the rationale for the positioning chosen. Furthermore, it demonstrates how a brand maintained a position after the initial support/argument for that position has dwindled or disappeared. 2) Managing global versus local positioning. The case also showcases a real life example of where positioning in the United States was extremely misaligned from the global positioning of the brand, and how the brand responded to this. 3) Write a positioning statement. One important exercise that students could be asked to do is write a positioning statement and become more familiar with concepts such as point-of-parity (POP), point-of-difference (POD), and reason-to-believe (RTB).

The objective of this paper is to investigate the strategic changes from adopting Internet‐based Interorganizational Systems (IIOS) within the logistics industry.

This paper reviews literature of the evolution of IIOS from Interorganizational Systems (IOS); identifies challenges encountered by the logistics industry in a new digital economy; presents an IIOS model for the logistics industry; and examines a number of strategic changes of adopting IIOS from a case study.

The paper illustrates a number of strategic changes by adopting IIOS from a case study.

It supports the development of the IIOS model for the logistics industry; links this theoretical model into practice; and provides the direction for future research.

This paper is very useful for third‐party logistics providers as it helps them to understand how IIOS changes the structure of the logistics industry and alters the rules of competition.

This study provides a contribution in practice by linking a theoretical IIOS model for the logistics industry to a practical real case.

The paper examines the degree of interlocking directorships across the major Eurozone economies. It uses the major stock market indices in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium to identify the top of the corporate elite in each country. For the period of 2005–2008, it studies transnational links between European companies. The paper draws attention to a number of features of these interlocks. Firstly transnational interlocks remain relatively low but secondly they do vary considerably. An important issue here is the degree of bilateral integration which is occurring between some countries within the Eurozone, for example France and Belgium, and the degree to which other countries, most notably, Italy are increasingly disconnected, whilst the two most powerful economies, France and Germany, are very weakly connected. This variability reflects a series of structural divides between big business in the Eurozone that makes it difficult for this corporate elites to be cohesive at the European level.

This paper aims to provide an essential framework for establishing Shariah-compliant deposit insurance scheme, by reviewing the Shariah provisions concerning the available approaches for deposit guarantee, types of deposits in Islamic financial institutions and the permissible party to incur the cost of this guarantee.

This paper reviews the Fiqh rules and principles approved by the well-known Islamic Fiqh references, as well as the resolutions of International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) and Shariah standards issued by Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and presents these resolutions and judgments in a modern applicable way.

This paper recommends that the Islamic scheme for deposit insurance should be established based on Takaful insurance principle, and this scheme must adopt fund segregation principle to comply with Shariah provisions for guarantee permissibility.

The paper bridges the gap between theory and practice by highlighting how the proposed model can be initiated in practice, thus, it can influence public policy in countries with Islamic banking system.

This paper represents a significant contribution toward the establishment of a consensual Shariah-compliant Islamic deposit insurance model.

Examines the transformation in image, manufacturing, and profitability of a UK automotive supplier, through the adoption of an advanced manufacturing facility. Discusses the use of Japanese techniques, a CAD facility, simulation, and computer controlled machines. Surmises that while the company is proud of its achievement, it is still suffering from the burden of interest rates that suppliers in other countries are free of.

In this paper we report on a theoretical model of structured document indexing and retrieval based on the Dempster‐Shafer Theory of Evidence. This includes a description of our model of structured document retrieval, the representation of structured documents, the representation of individual components, how components are combined, details of the combination process, and how relevance is captured within the model. We also present a detailed account of an implementation of the model, and an evaluation scheme designed to test the effectiveness of our model. Finally we report on the details and results of a series of experiments performed to investigate the characteristics of the model.