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This paper aims to investigate whether the effects of children's current learning are related to their learning efficiency and behavior when they are exposed to two different gaming media.

In this paper the authors used a quasi-experimental design to determine whether game-based learning can be improved by using mobile devices equipped with augmented reality (AR).

The control group using the card game was careful to find the correct answer, with the intention of “obtaining the maximum score with the highest rate of correctness,” whereas the experimental group using the AR board game played aggressively by “obtaining the maximum score with the highest number.”

Although integrating an AR board game into the curriculum is an effective approach, the need to implement such a game in response to different learning attitudes and behaviors of students should be addressed.

Depending on the learning situation, different teaching methods and aids can be used to help students effectively learn. The recommendations based on this experiment can broaden the teaching field and allow for a wider range of experimental studies.

Learning behavior was observed, and user attention was interpreted using MindWave Mobile.

In recent years, several methodologies for measuring portfolio credit risk have been introduced that demonstrate the benefits of using internal models to measure credit risk in the loan book. These models measure economic credit capital and are specifically designed to capture portfolio effects and account for obligor default correlations. An example of an integrated market and credit risk model that overcomes this limitation is given in Iscoe et al. [1999], which is equally applicable to commercial and retail credit portfolios. However, the measurement of portfolio credit risk in retail loan portfolios has received much less attention than the commercial credit markets. This article proposes a methodology for measuring the credit risk of a retail portfolio, based on the general portfolio credit risk framework of Iscoe et al. The authors discuss the practical estimation and implementation of the model. They demonstrate its applicability with a case study based on the credit card portfolio of a North American financial institution. They also analyze the sensitivity of the results to various assumptions.

Earlier this year the first major revision of the European model for business excellence was released in draft form by the European Foundation for Quality Management, the body responsible for managing the model Introduced as an ‘improved’ model the new formula contains several important changes affecting the established structure and scoring approach. The implications for the growing number of organizations which use the model for self assessment and benchmarking are explored in the following pages.

The aims of the article are to not only review existing competency models and offer a comprehensive performance-linked competency model towards sustaining competitive advantage, but also validate the proposed model in an Indian textile organisation.

The article operationalises the term “competency” and intends to develop a comprehensive performance-linked competency model after analysing the existing models with respect to competitive advantage; and the model has been validated empirically in an Indian textile company using data envelopment analysis (DEA), cross-efficiency DEA, and rank order centroid (ROC) methods.

It reveals that the comprehensive performance-linked competency model focuses on competency identification, competency scoring and aligning competency with other strategic HR functions in a three-phase systematic method which will subsequently help the organisation to sustain in the competition. It has further been shown how using DEA, cross-efficiency DEA and ROC, an organisation can align individual performances and their competencies in terms of efficiency.

If the number of competencies get increased, DEA cannot be used.

This can be applied to industry for more efficient and effective performance measurement tool.

The paper enables organizations to systematically manage their employee competences to ensure high-performance level and competitive advantage.

This paper reviews the literature on hotel guest questionnaires, also commonly known in the industry as comment cards. Considered a hotel tradition, the ubiquitous questionnaire remains the primary method employed by mainstream hotels to elicit and record guest feedback despite shortcomings in data reliability and response rates. Hence questionnaires play a key facilitation role in the collection of guest feedback (guest–hotel dyad in hotel communication). The paper traces the history of questionnaire utilization in the hotel industry, and examines evolutionary changes in terms of form and function. A typology of questionnaire genre is constructed. Used either independently or in combination with other methods, the traditional paper guest questionnaire has been complemented or even superseded by e-based variants. Obsolescence threatens the paper questionnaire as technology uptake permeates the hotel industry. This paper considers a “service innovation” by using the questionnaire as a communication tool along the hotel–guest dyad. A back-to-basics approach potentially yields a valuable and cost-efficient guest service encounter opportunity whilst mitigating questionnaire data deficiencies.

Information Systems – IT Strategy Design and Implementation.

The case can be discussed in Marketing Management courses and IT Strategy classes in MBA, executives from NGOs who are participating in Management Development Programs, etc. It can also be used in entrepreneurship classes. The case serves as an illustration to entrepreneurship projects, and so this case can be discussed in training program for budding entrepreneurs intending to implement cloud in its IT infrastructure.

E-commerce is big nowadays in India. In e-commerce, particularly e-tail in India is witnessing a boom with players reporting achieving revenue targets earlier than anticipated. Though e-tail sites are now ubiquitous and dime a dozen with multiple offerings or specialized offerings, the e-grocery model is yet to take off on a large scale across India. E-grocery model has its unique challenges on both supply as well as distribution side unlike other e-tail business. As it deals with perishable items, it faces challenges in supply chain, procurement, inventory management, cold storage management, quality and logistics. To solve such problems, high degree of localization is needed for players in this business. It requires them to open up multiple warehouses at strategic locations in a city if they decide to have control over the goods they sell. Start-ups in this space face the problems in monitoring inventory levels across warehouses where they use disparate Point of Sales (POS) systems. There is a lack of synchronization among the POS applications across the warehouses for which they are able to take the benefit of economies of scale during procurement and distribution. Also, they face stock out and excess inventory across stock keeping units (SKUs). To solve this problem, a strategy is needed so that they can maintain data for all its warehouses through a single database and also by which they can scale up easily and at a lower investment without disturbing continuity in business.

Following are the learning outcomes: to learn about the business model and market ecosystem of an e-tailing business dealing in grocery items in a tier-II city in its introduction phase of organizational life cycle, to learn about various processes involved in online ordering of an item from an e-commerce website, to understand the various challenges faced by an organization dealing in e-tailing business in its introduction phase and to find out whether IT Strategy can be of help to overcome these challenges, to have an understanding of the Balance Score Card and Departmental Score Card, to understand how cloud can be of help to overcome the challenges and what are the possible cloud architectures to address such problems, to get an idea about how return on investment can be measured for finding feasibility of investment in cloud and to have the understanding of risk associated with implementing cloud and the cost of mitigating those risks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS:11 Strategy.

“MDCM, Inc. (B): Strategic IT Portfolio Management” examines the steps involved in developing a portfolio of IT projects aligned with a company's strategic objectives. Specifically, the case describes a situation where a firm has launched a transformation strategy but has yet to develop a complementary IT strategy. Students must select the optimal portfolio of projects aligned with the strategic objectives and define the global project execution strategy. The projects have both risks and dependencies. U.S.-based MDCM, Inc. specializes in medical device contract manufacturing and assembly. For the past five years, MDCM had grown by making more than twenty acquisitions of companies based outside the United States. This growth strategy enabled MDCM to better match its services to its customers, who had become larger and more global. In MDCM (A), the CIO of MDCM needed to determine the company's IT strategy and objectives. In doing so, he needed to ensure that they were properly aligned with the company's overall strategy and the new organization developed under an initiative called Horizon 2000. In a lecture prior to the cases, students should be introduced to the framework of IT portfolio management and how it can help focus IT efforts. In MDCM (B), the CIO has performed an audit of MDCM's IT and found twelve projects that are potential investment candidates for the next three years. The challenge for the IT Portfolio Management team is to identify the priority and appropriate sequence of investments to be made. The case assumes that students have knowledge of corporate IT. More specifically, the case is targeted for those who are or plan to become executives who would manage IT strategy and IT investment decisions either directly or in an oversight role. This case is the second in a series; the first is the case “MDCM, Inc. (A): IT Strategy Synchronization.”

For this case, students create a portfolio management process and apply it to the IT project portfolio of a global manufacturing company. Students will learn how to balance risk and return of projects and short-term vs. long-term wins. They also create an activity network diagram, stressing the importance of understanding global resource constraints and execution timing. Students also learn the nuances of portfolio selection, e.g., outsourcing decision making and build vs. buy for a global firm.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical analysis of an important early contribution to the history of marketing thought literature – the six-book series titled The Knack of Selling – which was published in 1913 and intended as an early training course for salesmanship.

This research utilized a close, systematic reading of The Knack of Selling series and places it in the professional and intellectual context of the early twentieth century. Books published about marketing are primary source materials for any study of the history of marketing thought. In this case, The Knack series constitutes significant primary source material for a study of early thinking about personal selling.

Echoing A.W. Shaw, Watson offers a more sophisticated interpretation of the “one best way” approach associated with Frederick Taylor. Watson’s advice did not entail the repetition of canned sales talks to each customer. His vision of practice was more complicated. Sales presentations were temporally and locationally relative. They were subject to ongoing evolution. As the marketplace changed, as customer needs and interests shifted, so did organizational and salesperson performances. To keep sales talks relevant to the consumer, personnel were encouraged to undertake rudimentary ethnographic research and interviews. Unusually, there is oscillation in the way power relations between marketer and customer were described. While relational themes are present, so are military metaphors.

This is the first systematic reading of The Knack of Selling that has been produced. It is an important contribution to the literature inasmuch as this book set is not in wide circulation. The material itself was significant as an input into scholarship subsequently hailed as seminal within sales management.

Outlines the key areas which manufacturing organisations should consider in order to improve the effectiveness of training programmes for production operators. The authors carried out a study of UK‐based manufacturing companies to identify current evaluation methods, and identify the predominant barriers to the implementation of effective training programmes. The research concluded that most of the companies believed that their training programmes did not realise the full potential in terms of higher productivity, better on‐the‐job performance, and improved quality. Causal factors were found to be inadequate training objectives and evaluation mechanisms, which stem from a number of barriers. Proposes a training programme measurement model, which has been adapted from existing concepts, and could be applied by manufacturing organisations as a framework for carrying out appropriate evaluation activities. Concludes with some recommendations for future policy, and areas of further research in the implementation of training programmes in manufacturing organisations.