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Academic freedom is seen as the freedom of teachers, students, and academic institutions to pursue knowledge wherever it may lead, without undue or unreasonable interference (Nelson, 2010). This chapter looks at this concept of academic freedom and argues that the centralized system of education in Cameroon constitutes an abating factor for academic freedom. That is, emphasis is placed on the health of academic freedom noting that colonialism, politics, religion, undemocratic and corrupt government, as well as the control of social media and civil liberties play a significant part in stifling academic freedom. Information is drawn from the literature in the field, recent research, and current events in the country. This chapter describes the challenges and variables at work that have led to the decline of academic freedom in the country, revealing the fact that educators who carry out research, teach or communicate ideas or facts that are inconvenient to the parents, faith organizations, and the ruling political party find themselves likely to be fired from their jobs, targeted for public defamation, and even detained in maximum security jails. It further points out that academic freedom is important to the development of a country and a country which does not allow freedom risks promoting bad, irrational, and toxic ideas (Sayer, 2017). Since the right to academic freedom is under attack, there is a danger of stifling original, beneficial, and innovative ideas from researchers, and Cameroon misses out on the benefits of the academic freedom.
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Rakesh Belwal, Shweta Belwal, Azlinor Binti Sufian and Amal Al Badi
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that employs a multitude of strategies critical for success in the twenty-first century. It exposes students to…
Abstract
Purpose
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that employs a multitude of strategies critical for success in the twenty-first century. It exposes students to the real world, opens an extended inquiry process, and boosts their communication skills and interdisciplinary learning. However, the extant literature on PBL places more emphasis on learning through internal rather than external projects. Industrial collaboration projects build partnerships and provide opportunities to work on real problems, often seeking multidisciplinary approaches. This study explores and suggests the benefits that students derived from their participation in an external research and consultancy project at a University in Oman.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows a qualitative analysis approach founded on an exploratory research design. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten research assistants, two research coordinators, and two project leaders involved in the project. The data from the interview were subjected to the thematic inductive qualitative analysis using Atlas.ti 8 software.
Findings
The results of the study revealed that students derived some direct academic benefits, mainly in the area of conducting research. The major learning happened mostly in non-academic areas, for they learned many things necessary for success in real-life work situations. The students benefited largely on behavioural skills and abilities such as communication, self-confidence, English language skills, planning, thinking, and time management skills. Altogether, project-based learning offered them a different skillset beyond what they usually acquire in the conventional teaching and learning environment.
Practical implications
The outcomes of this research support the development of curriculum design and instructional pedagogy in higher education in a specific context, concluding that PBL has much to do with the practical aspects of learning and employability. The finding suggests that by engaging in PBL, students can develop certain skills that cannot be acquired in a conventional teaching environment. PBL enables self-learning and prepares students to deal with different situations and challenges on the ground while inculcating professionalism to act in real-life situations. This study advocates the introduction of some PBL based courses in the curriculum to nurture a balanced set of skills and abilities among business students.
Social implications
The research outcomes support Oman’s Vision 2040 and one of its strategies for capacity building that aims to adopt innovative methods for individual/collective development of students, as well as for their life-long learning.
Originality/value
Project-based learning described in this study provides a pedagogical way to connect university education to a real-life situation. These results offer promising prospects for infusing outdoor multidisciplinary projects in the course curriculum. This work bears significant value for educators in designing curriculum and facilitating projects, particularly in environments where students exhibit weaknesses or inhibitions to receive the knowledge, appropriately, from the conventional mode of teaching.
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Shamindra Nath Sanyal, Saroj Kumar Datta and Asok Kumar Banerjee
The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the factors that influence physicians’ behavior toward prescribing branded generic drugs in the said selective medical conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was carried out across six major cities in eastern India with 301 physicians. The current study introduced some significant elements into the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) with title the extended tam for product usage (TETPU) to analyze the prescribing factors that influence physicians in five common yet serious medical conditions in India. Out of nine factors considered here, seven were selected from the previous literature studies of different product segments and two were proposed by the authors. Demographic factor was proposed as the confounding variable.
Findings
The results indicated that apart from the factors “perceived no need” and “physicians’ perception and need achievement” rest of the factors showed satisfactory to excellent results.
Practical implications
The current study findings may enable the pharmaceutical managers to revise or modify their current marketing communication and other brand-building strategies so as to achieve a superior performance that offers them a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The paper fulfils a need for advancing the knowledge on the physician’s prescription influencing factors by introducing the newer aspects of the concept and offers a theoretical framework for the academia and practical framework for the managers who desire to implement the strategies to achieve competitive advantage.
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Łukasz Bryl, Justyna Fijałkowska and Dominika Hadro
This study aims to examine intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on Twitter by 60 of the world’s largest companies and explains the main themes communicated to stakeholders. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on Twitter by 60 of the world’s largest companies and explains the main themes communicated to stakeholders. The second objective is to determine which topics provoke most stakeholders’ reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors perform content analysis on more than 42,000 tweets to examine ICD practices along with the reactions of stakeholders in the form of retweets and “favorites” toward the information disclosed.
Findings
Intellectual capital (IC) is an important theme in corporate disclosure practices, as more than one-third of the published tweets refer to IC. The world’s largest companies focus on relational capital information, followed by human and structural capital. The main IC themes disclosed were management philosophy, corporate reputation and business partnering. Tweets related to IC are of greater interest to stakeholders than other tweets and provoke more reactions. There is no complete consistency between the topics most intensively disclosed by companies and those that elicit the most vivid responses from the addressees.
Practical implications
This study offers an understanding of the world’s largest companies’ practices that refer to ICD via social media and has implications for organizations in the creation and use of communication channels when developing a dialogue with stakeholders on topics regarding IC that may lead to better management of IC performance.
Originality/value
This paper is a response to the call for studies on ICD via social media, which is strongly highlighted in the recent literature concerning future research on IC and until now was almost absent in the field of business units. This research provides in-depth insights into the use of Twitter to disclose IC elements and indicates which fields and topics of this disclosure provoke stakeholders’ reactions, which is a novelty in ICD studies.
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Reveals that, despite the rapid growth of Malaysia and other South‐East Asian economies, very little is known about innovation in the region. Using Malaysia as an example, the…
Abstract
Reveals that, despite the rapid growth of Malaysia and other South‐East Asian economies, very little is known about innovation in the region. Using Malaysia as an example, the evidence shows that technological and organizational innovation at the local transnational corporation (TNC) plant level has played a major part in Malaysia’s export success. Based on recent field research, assesses the nature, focus and extent of innovation within the TNCs’ subsidiaries. Uses a simple model to situate subsidiary innovation within the context of global TNC strategies, and raises key questions concerning the European Union and, in particular, the UK, which now relies heavily on TNCs’ investments for its industrial future.
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