Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
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Sustainability engagement or not? U.S. SMEs approach
Get PDFIn the extant literature on SMEs’ sustainability engagement, relatively little research has focused on the US compared to Europe. Our study is based on semi-structured interviews with a large number of manufacturing and services firms (75), from big and small cities in New York state, investigating the major drivers and barriers to SMEs’ sustainability and whether such initiatives paid off. Findings show owners/managers’ sense of moral obligation to reduce negative environmental impact as well as their levels of sustainability education and awareness have played major roles in driving sustainability. Gaining competitive advantage, need for regulatory compliance or financial incentives offered by governmental agencies were mentioned, but not deemed as key influencers. Major barriers included cost and limited resources, though more than two-thirds of the firms’ owners/mangers believed that sustainability engagement had paid off. These results aim to help policy makers learn about the impact of their decisions and adjust them to be more effective. SMEs’ owners/managers can also learn about common drivers and barriers in adopting sustainability and plan accordingly
Do entrepreneurs do good deeds to maximize wins or avoid losses? A regulatory focus perspective
Get PDFResearchers and practitioners generally agree that small businesses are important contributors to social responsibility within their communities and beyond. Despite the well-documented importance of small businesses in carrying out social responsibility, particularly locally, little is known about the motivation orientation underlying such behavior. Further, there is little agreement about what constitutes social responsibility in the small business context. Using regulatory focus theory as a theoretical lens, we examine how promotion focus versus prevention focus of the small business owner motivates social responsibility engagement targeted at society, employees, and customers. We find that regulatory focus of the small business owner does not play a role in motivating society-focused social responsibility engagement; however, prevention focus plays an important role in motivating engagement in employee- and customer-oriented social responsibility
A SPREADSHEET-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING MODEL TO TEACH THE SHUTDOWN DECISION
Get PDFTeaching economics in undergraduate classes, particularly at the introductory level, while keeping the students engaged and interested in the subject matter is a challenging task. “Chalk and talk” is still the dominant teaching method in undergraduate economics. However, in such traditional lecture settings, students often lose interest in the subject matter particularly when the emphasis is on graphical exposition. Active learning strategies where students are engaged in their own learning are regarded as more effective in generating and retaining student interest. In this paper, I demonstrate how to develop and use an active learning model using the visual interface of Excel that students themselves can control. The model in this paper shows how to teach acompetitive firm’s shutdown decision. The technique of developing such a spreadsheet-basedmodel is discussed in detail. Using this methodology, active learning models can be used to teach other topics in both microeconomicsand macroeconomics, such as tax incidence, deadweight loss or effectiveness of macroeconomic policies among others. Since both professors and students are familiar with Excel, these active learning models create a familiar teaching-learning environment
Education by the Numbers
Get PDFMost Americans embrace the philosophy for U.S. education and believe it is a necessity for life (Ozmon, 2012). Two initial questions become: “how many students participate and what is the budget”
STEAMING Ahead by Challenging Thinking
Get PDFTeaching in the U.S. is currently being driven by political bureaucracy. Under the design of “common core,” the political solution to achieving equality is a pre-packaged curriculum and standardized testing where all children are provided the exact same learning experiences with the same high-stakes assessments. The expectation for teaching, learning, and assessment is “sameness.” However, considering the whole child, developmental processes, and the characteristics of a diverse society, sameness should not be the priority of the educational system. This paper showcases a different approach taken in one elementary art classroom. Instead of using a pre-packaged curriculum, the teacher provided students with the opportunity to guide their own learning through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) activities
Introduction
Get PDFThis spring issue is fully committed to providing readers with an abundance of information relevant toward supporting children’s holistic learning and development. In particular, authors clearly identify a variety of strategies to support creating integrated, inclusive, and holistic learning experiences both in the home and at school.
More details of what to expect in this issue are in the PDF
When objects are talking: How tacit knowing becomes explicit knowledge
Get PDFThe objective of this paper is to build a model of how tacit knowing is externalised and becomes reflected external knowledge. Knowledge Management (Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Nonaka, Toyama, & Konno, 2000) is an important field in Business Administration. Based on the model provided by Nonaka and his colleagues (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka et al., 2000) researchers and practitioners have fallen into the pipe dream that employees’ tacit knowing can be coded and canned in computers (structural capital), eventually leading to the enterprise without humans. Earlier critics (Gourlay, 2002, 2006; Gourlay & Nurse, 2005, Grant, 2007; Philipson, 2016, 2019) of the knowledge management paradigm have shown that it does not understand Polanyi’s concept tacit knowing and that it is much more complicated to “externalize” such knowing than presumed by KM. The understanding in extant management literature of this process has been very problematic. Building on concepts in philosophy, psychology, pedagogics, organizational science, and engineering, a model is built and exemplified. This paper develops a theoretical framework for how tacit knowing can be externalized, what is required for such an externalization, and discusses the problems in such externalization, limiting it
Foster A Growth Mindset in Children Using Two Books: “Beautiful Oops” by Barney Saltzberg and “Stickley Makes a Mistake: A Frog’s Guide to Trying Again” by Brenda S. Miles
Get PDFThis article provides early childhood educators and parents information on the importance of teaching students about growth mindset. Assisting children at a young age about how their mistakes can help them grow is necessary so they can view setbacks as opportunities to accomplish goals. Through using read alouds, early educators to help young children make personal connections to the characters and the theme of the story. Through the read alouds connected to growth mindset, the educator can promote discussion, provide writing opportunities, and help students develop personal goals
Gratitude: A Lifestyle Worth Developing
Get PDFAccording to Webster (1999), gratitude is the state of being grateful, thankful, a readiness to show appreciation, and a disposition to return kindness. Practicing an attitude of gratitude is a habit vital, not only to an individual, but as well to families and society as a whole. As we observe our current state in society, some believe it appears attitudes of entitlement, resentment, and victimhood are evident. The purpose for this current discussion is to explore the reasons and the benefits for being grateful and furthermore, to consider ways to cultivate a habit of gratefulness in families and thus, influence our children
How EdTech Can Support Social and Emotional Learning at School and at Home
Get PDFThere is a need to move away from a narrow focus on just academic outcomes, to one that considers the long-term development and well-being of children, a whole child approach (Association of Supervisors and Curriculum Developers (ASCD), 2020). When we think about teaching the whole child, we should think about providing a healthy, safe, engaging, supportive, and challenging classroom experience (The Whole Child, 2015). As part of educating the whole child, we need to consider children’s social and emotional learning. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines social and emotional learning (SEL) as the process in which individuals “manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” and includes a framework with five core competencies (CASEL – What is SEL?, 2019, para. 1).