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This paper aims to examine whether multiple choice questions (MCQs) can be answered correctly without knowing the answer and whether constructed response questions (CRQs) offer more reliable assessment.

The paper presents a critical review of existing research on MCQs, then reports on an experimental study where two objective tests (using MCQs and CRQs) were set for an introductory undergraduate course. To maximise completion, tests were kept short; consequently, differences between individuals’ scores across both tests are examined rather than overall averages and pass rates.

Most students who excelled in the MCQ test did not do so in the CRQ test. Students could do well without necessarily understanding the principles being tested.

Conclusions are limited by the small number of questions in each test and by delivery of the tests at different times. This meant that statistical average data would be too coarse to use, and that some students took one test but not the other. Conclusions concerning CRQs are limited to disciplines where numerical answers or short and constrained text answers are appropriate.

MCQs, while useful in formative assessment, are best avoided for summative assessments. Where appropriate, CRQs should be used instead.

MCQs are commonplace as summative assessments in education and training. Increasing the use of CRQs in place of MCQs should increase the reliability of tests, including those administered in safety-critical areas.

While others have recommended that MCQs should not be used (Hinchliffe 2014, Srivastava et al., 2004) because they are vulnerable to guessing, this paper presents an experimental study designed to demonstrate whether this hypothesis is correct.

The proliferation of social networking sites (SNSs) has drawn attention to different parties in realising their goals. Advertisers utilise SNSs to promote new products and services; politics optimise SNSs to gather support from the public, while ordinary users use SNSs as a unique platform to practice self-disclosure, develop networks, and sustain relationships. This study explores how social anxiety affects self-disclosure on SNSs and well-being. It also examines the moderating effects of two contextual factors, namely, online disinhibition and psychological stress. Two hundred and thirty-four valid responses were collected via an online survey. A positive relationship between social anxiety and self-disclosure, and self-disclosure and well-being was found. Furthermore, a positive moderation effect among social anxiety, online disinhibition, and self-disclosure was revealed. This research contributes to the development of social networking literature. It also enhances the understanding of disclosure patterns on SNSs among socially anxious individuals, thereby providing important insights for practitioners, educators, and clinicians.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how young women and men perceive the Internet as a phenomenon and what role and meaning they ascribe to the Internet as an arena for defining themselves and for shaping their identity.

The empirical data consist of narratives written by Swedish adolescents. Using content analysis the analysis was carried out in three steps: (1) finding categories and themes, (2) calculation of statistical differences in category frequencies, (3) a theoretically informed interpretation of central themes, using Bourdieu’s concept of different forms of capital, and Giddens’ concept of “pure relations.”

The narratives exemplify how computer literacy and technological competence can be converted into social, cultural, and symbolic capital. Gender differences occur both in statistical differences between category frequencies in girls’ and boys’ narratives and in the interpretation of central themes. But there are also several examples that show more complex and contradictory tendencies, exceeding or transformative of gender differences and hierarchy.

This study considers adolescents’ own perspectives on an arena of great importance. The analyses have been performed both qualitatively and quantitatively, which gives a nuanced picture of young people’s self-defining experiences on the Internet.

Deregulation, advances in enabling technology, and aggressive competition from new suppliers, including banks, are causing more and more traditional insurance companies to revise the way in which product development is undertaken. A study of ten companies offering life insurance and ten companies offering general insurance in Britain shows that a few of them are now putting into place amended managerial systems. The marketing function is undergoing changes in responsibilities in all these companies. While most companies have key managers who have visions of how markets can be reshaped to give distinct competitive advantages, effecting such changes within existing operating constraints poses major challenges.

The objective of the paper is to report research carried out over two years aiming at developing a framework to support the management of manufacturing organizations for whom reducing throughput time is strategically important, either because they compete based on short lead times or because they choose to pursue other objectives such as cost reduction by means of reducing their manufacturing cycle times. A step‐by‐step method is proposed based on the analyses of a number of Brazilian “best practice” cases (all manufacturing companies and all part of large multi‐national corporations) and on the relevant literature.

The present study aims at developing an integrated model designed to predict and explain the various factors that influence customers' behavioral intentions to use or not to use one particular SST, i.e. ATM services.

A list of households in a particular Indian city was obtained from the municipal corporation. 268 respondents were contacted using systematic sampling technique. Structural equation modeling was used to demonstrate the stability of the proposed model and to test the hypotheses.

The study finds that bank customers are less innovative and less optimistic to try out new technologies. Usefulness of the technology helps in developing positive attitude towards the technology. Customers' intentions to use technology are significantly affected by their attitude towards the technology.

The present study confines to only two banks and that too limited to the branches of these banks operating in one city only.

Despite extensive use of ATMs, the absence of direct interaction with bank staff has increased customers' apprehensions about the perceived risk. To reduce the customers concern about perceived risk because of security and privacy concerns, the bank should improve the quality of interaction with the customers to alleviate these apprehensions.

Lack of personal interaction generates doubts and queries in the minds of the people, especially those unaware or less aware of these technology-based services. Such a situation is quite prevalent in the developing nations (like India), where still a large number of people are apprehensive about using the latest technologies.

Provides a review and ready reference to recent writings on new service development (NSD), especially for the financial services sector. Discusses the types of new service development, the purposes served by them and the processes. Refers to the key activities of NSD and measures its success. An annotated bibliography supplies a very useful guide to the new service development literature.

The purpose of this paper is to report on and discuss findings of a research study undertaken to investigate and establish empirically reasons why people use, or choose not to use, three types of technology‐enabled service: internet banking, telephone bill‐paying, and internet shopping services.

A behavioural model is developed and tested, and the results support what is modelled and hypothesised.

In sum, the findings show that willingness to use the internet and telephone for financial and shopping services is influenced by the individual sense of personal capacity or capability to engage with these service systems, the perceived risks and relative advantages associated with their use, and the extent to which contact with service personnel is preferred or deemed necessary. The paper also contains attitudinal and behavioural insights, and concludes by discussing managerial implications and opportunities for further research.

Limitations of the study are acknowledged, and opportunities for further research are highlighted.

The value of the paper lies in the light shed on usage behaviour and attitudes, and in the practical implications of these findings for service providers.

This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it means to “green the academy” in an era of permanent war, “green capitalism,” and the neoliberal university (Sullivan, 2010). As Victor Wallis makes clear, “no serious observer now denies the severity of the environmental crisis, but it is still not widely recognized as a capitalist crisis, that is, as a crisis arising from and perpetuated by the rule of capital, and hence incapable of resolution within the capitalist framework.”

Practical wisdom (PW; phronesis), as one of the human virtues, is experiencing a renewal in the contemporary management literature. The aim of this conceptual paper is first, to explore the core practices of managers and leaders in the literature and second, to demonstrate how PW can manifest itself in these practices.

The research follows the interpretivist research philosophy, inductive approach, qualitative method and the theory-building research strategy. The data collection method is a literature review. The practice ecosystem framework is applied to demonstrate the presence of PW in the core practices of managers and leaders.

The paper proposes a practice-based paradigm of management and leadership. From the literature study, envisioning, enabling, energizing, engaging and executing as five fundamental practices are identified.

The most significant literature was selected based on decisions of the author. Therefore, it might be that important sources were overlooked. The paper proposes future research questions, and it calls for an empirical validation of the proposed conceptual model in management and leadership practices context.

The practical implications for managers and leaders are in applying the framework developed in this paper as a tool or guidelines to cultivate PW in their practices. The paper offers implications for management education, traditional educational institutions and educational practitioners because they are the key influencers of wise thinking and actions of future managers and leaders.

The novelty of this paper is in making explicit how the eight features of PW can manifest themselves in the everyday actions of managers and leaders. Applying the practice ecosystem framework for this purpose is an original contribution.