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The purpose of this paper is to validate the course experience questionnaire (CEQ) for possible use in Dutch universities.

A 23 item CEQ was administered and the data analysed using confirmatory factor analysis.

Confirmatory factor analysis provided a good fit for the CEQ's five-factor structure, and the scales showed good reliabilities. Validation with external criterion and discriminant validation between faculties with different teaching environments demonstrated the CEQ's potential for use in Dutch universities.

A limitation of this study was the convenience sample and the number of students included (n=956).

The results of this validation exercise suggest that the use of the CEQ in Dutch universities could be useful. This could be of benefit for these universities in being able to initiate discussions with other universities, both in The Netherlands and beyond, about possible enhancement initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine women’s reactions to celebrity endorsers holding positive and negative public images and the consequences for purchase intentions of the endorsed product.

The paper draws on the social comparison literature and applies the theory of upward and downward comparisons to the celebrity endorsement context.

Study 1 shows that exposure to celebrities holding a positive public image decrease consumers’ temporal self-esteem, while celebrities holding a negative public image increase temporal self-esteem. Study 2 suggests that this change in self-esteem transfers to the product depending upon the type of social comparison focus (similarity vs dissimilarity) which people have. Study 3 shows that for consumers low in true self-esteem, i.e. self-esteem based upon a stable foundation, celebrities holding a positive public image decrease purchase intentions. For consumers high in true self-esteem, there was no difference between exposure to celebrities holding a positive and a negative public image for purchase intentions. Study 4 focused on replicating the results found in Studies 1-3 in the context of an achievement celebrity (as opposed to a regular celebrity). The findings in Study 4 provide further support for the results of Studies 1 and 3, and identify expert celebrities as a boundary condition for the effects found in Study 2.

The results provide evidence suggesting that celebrities holding a negative public image can be used as celebrity endorsers in product categories in which it can be considered helpful to protect women’s self-esteem, such as beauty products or self-expressive products.

This research contributes to the literature on celebrity endorsement by adding a boundary condition for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. According to the results, choosing a positive celebrity can, for some groups, have negative effects on purchase intensions and that a negative celebrity might be the safer choice.

In a fast evolving labour market, higher education graduates need to develop employability competences. Key in becoming employable is the ability to reflect on learning experiences, both within a curriculum as well as extra-curricular and work placements. This paper wants to conceptualise how an online learning platform might entail a reflective practice that systematically supports students in reflecting on their learning experiences.

When studying online learning platforms for developing students' employability competences, it became clear that the effectiveness of the platform depends on how the platform guides students' reflective practice. In turn, the authors studied which features (tools, services and resources) of the online learning platform are guiding the reflective practice.

This resulted in the introduction of an online learning platform, containing a comprehensive set of online learning tools and services, which supports students' reflective practice and, in turn, their employability competences. The online platform facilitates both feedback from curricular and work-related learning experiences and can be used as a start by students for showcasing their employability competences. The reflective practice consists of a recurrent, systematic process of reflection, containing various phases: become aware, analyse current state, draft and plan a solution, take action and, finally, reflect in and on action.

Future research revolves around studying the features of online learning platforms and their role in fostering students' reflection and employability competences.

The conceptual model provides concrete indicators on how to implement online learning platforms for supporting students' reflection and employability competences.

This is the first article that analyses an online learning platform that guides students' reflective practice and fosters their employability competences. The authors provide concrete suggestions on how to model the online platform, building further on reflective practice theory.

Teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) should improve teacher quality and teaching practices, though teachers vary in the extent to which they participate in CPD activities. Because beliefs influence working and learning, and teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching influence their instructional decisions, this study aims to explore the link between teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching and their participation in CPD.

This study features two belief dimensions (student and subject matter orientation) and three types of CPD activities (updating, reflective, and collaborative). Survey data from 260 Dutch secondary school teachers were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Student‐oriented beliefs relate positively to teachers’ participation in CPD: the more student‐oriented teachers are, the more they participate in CPD. No relationship emerges between subject matter–oriented beliefs and CPD.

To intensify teachers’ participation in CPD and thereby improve teacher quality and teaching practices, schools should emphasize a student orientation among their teachers.

The original empirical study examines the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching and their participation in CPD and thus furthers understanding of factors that influence teachers’ participation in CPD.

This paper studies the usability of LG financial statements as perceived by local councillors. By drawing on a comparative view of two countries with different periods of accrual accounting use in the public sector, the authors investigate how local councillors assess the usability of LG financial statements in order to question accounting reform success. Determinants that influence the usability assessment are explored.

Exploratory design: data were collected from questionnaires with 24 local councillors from five Finnish local governments (LGs) and 30 local councillors from six German LGs. An adjusted variant of the system usability scale was analysed with descriptive statistics and non-parametric group comparisons.

In both countries, the usability assessment of financial statements seems to be positive, indicating a successful reform process. In Finland, where the accrual government accounting reform has had a longer time to settle in, councillors seem to assess usability only partially better than German councillors. Several determinants of the usability assessment were detected, such as size and debt level of the LG as well as local councillors' gender, political orientation and education. Generally, councillors need more assistance and training in using financial statements.

The study is the first to conduct a quantitative assessment of the usability of LG financial statements as perceived by councillors. The system usability scale was adjusted to a public sector reporting context. The paper adopts a transnational comparative approach.

The last decades, neighborhood mediation programs have become an increasingly popular method to deal with conflicts between neighbors. In the current paper the aim is to propose and show that conflict asymmetry, the degree to which parties differ in perceptions of the level of conflict, may be important for the course and outcomes of neighborhood mediation.

Data for testing the hypotheses were based on coding all (261) files of neighbor conflicts reported to a Dutch neighborhood mediation program in the period from 2006 through 2008.

As expected, cases were more often about asymmetrical than symmetrical conflicts. Moreover, compared to symmetrical conflicts, asymmetrical conflicts less often led to a mediation session; the degree of escalation was lower; and, particularly in asymmetrical conflicts, a mere intake session already contributed to positive conflict outcomes.

Past research on the effectiveness of mediation programs mainly focused on cases in which a mediation session effectively took place. However, persuading parties to participate in a mediation session forms a major challenge for mediators. In fact, many cases that are signed‐up for mediation programs do not result in an actual mediation. The current study examines the entire mediation process – from intake to follow‐up.

This paper aims to focus on how innovative strategies take users into account. On the one hand, it will look at how the different stakeholders in the TV value network implement user behaviour. On the other hand, it will focus on how users perceive traditional advertising and new advertising formats (e.g. personalised advertising, interactive advertising).

The applied research method is a combination of expert interviews with different actors in the TV sector and qualitative user research on viewers’ expectations towards advertising and new advertising formats in a digital era.

This paper looks at customer ownership, (inter-media) audience fragmentation and audience autonomy as important concepts in understanding innovation and strategies within the Flemish commercial TV sector and how user behaviour is implemented.

More specifically, ad skipping (zipping) and second-screen applications are studied. To conclude, the findings of the research are linked to relevant policy questions and challenges for audience members and actors within the television industry.

In the context of early detection of frail older people, prior research found several risk factors of multidimensional frailty. The current study aims to validate these risk factors.

Two data sets, Belgian Ageing Studies and Detection, Support and Care for older people: Prevention and Empowerment (BAS and D-SCOPE), in three Belgian municipalities (Ghent, Knokke-Heist and Thienen) were used and compared. The BAS data set (N = 1496) is a representative sample of community-dwelling older adults (60+), while the recruitment of the D-SCOPE sample (validation sample, N = 869) is based on risk factors (e.g. age, marital status, moved in the past 10 years). Frailty was measured with the comprehensive frailty assessment instrument (CFAI). The validity was examined by means of prevalence rates, distribution and the odds rates within both data sets.

The validation sample had an increase in the percentage of elderly who were mildly and highly frail for physical frailty (men: +17.0 percent point, women: +20.7 percent point), for psychological frailty (men: +13.4 percent point, women: +13.7 percent point), for social frailty (men: +24.8 percent point, women: +4.8 percent point) and environmental frailty (men: +24.2 percent point, women: +6.8 percent point). The present results indicate that the risk of being mildly or highly frail was higher in the validation sample in comparison with the BAS data.

The present study proved the validity of aforementioned risk factors. Selecting older people based on these risk factors proved to be an effective strategy for detecting frail older people.

In this time of severe national budget deficit, all programs are reviewed for trimming/downsizing and effectiveness. Just as educational systems are evaluated for trimming, so are school and academic library services. This article will address why it is crucial to have close linkages between school and academic libraries through articulation programs to avoid duplication and waste of human resources, and explain how articulation can be initiated through precollege programs offered by colleges and universities. It will focus on why academic libraries participate in precollege access programs, highlight how collaboration between school and academic libraries helps the “town and gown” community relationship, and point out how precollege programs help minority students and university recruitment and retention efforts. As an example, it will describe the outreach program of the College Library at the University of Wisconsin‐Madi‐son. The article concludes by discussing the future goals of strengthening and broadening the participation of academic libraries in precollege access programs.