JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF
BUSINESS EDUCATION
VOL. 5                                             CONTENTS                                             Fall 2004
 

1  A Test of Three Teaching Methodologies by Terrance Grieb, TeWhan Han and Michele O'Neill

This study examines three teaching methodologies to test their comparative effectiveness in moving a class with a mixture of typical student learning styles from lower-order to higher-order learning outcomes. We specifically examine learning outcomes that can lead to useful business skills. Our results indicate that teaching styles differ significantly in their effectiveness for moving students from surface-learning to deep-learning approaches. Our results imply that the investment of time and other class resources can yield significant results in achieving this transformation; this is particularly relevant to integrated and other curricula that have significant time- and resource- allocation constraints.

15  Teaching Business Process Design and Improvement by Sameer Kumar and Marvin S. Sappanen

A graduate course in Process Design and Improvement in Fall 2000 and 2001 was offered to students in Business and Manufacturing Systems at a US university. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the current software and methods used to organize data and model manufacturing and industrial systems through virtual representation of real life business operations. The course was created to make the tools of computer modeling more accessible to non-specialists for a better understanding of complex processes. It is not unusual that most managers only know a small part of their overall system. These computer-based tools give them a way to see the big picture. A case study illustrates the application of these tools.

37  Incorporating Life Insurance into the Finance Curriculum: A Prospective Spreadsheet Approach by Steven T. Jones and David R. Lange

This paper presents an approach toward integrating life insurance principles into teaching time value of money concepts in a finance course, using a spreadsheet application. This approach gives students a practical example of the uses of time value of money principles. It also affords an opportunity for further exposing students to the use of spreadsheets in finance. Finally, it provides the instructor with an opportunity to introduce insurance principles into the standard finance curriculum, which is particularly important given the increasing ease with which a student can complete a finance major without receiving significant exposure to insurance concepts.

50  A Profile of the Millennial Generation: Implications for Teaching and Learning in the Business Classroom by Denise Daniels, Carolyn Strand Norman and Ian Stewart

The purpose of this paper is to present a profile of the next generation of college students, and suggest specific, intentional teaching methods that are designed to enhance student learning. That is, we describe deliberate, purposeful structuring of classroom exercises and discussions that focus on this generation of students so that they achieve the maximum benefit from instruction.We also cite several comprehensive resources for professors who wish to implement the teaching methods and strategies we suggest.

63  Investigating the Curricula Effects of Business Ethics for the Net-Generation College Students Regarding Music Piracy Behavior by Susan Lee Taylor and Robert M. Cosenza

Although ethics has long been a component of business, recent scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco have resulted in a renewed interest in ethics and ethical behavior. The impact of these scandals is evident on college/university campuses, where much debate and discussion has ensued regarding the role that ethics instruction should play in business education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ethical perceptions of Net- Generation college students. Specifically, business majors and music business majors from major Christian universities were surveyed to determine whether the taking of a business ethics course appears to impact their perceptions related to the ethical aspects of downloading, sharing, copying, and selling copyrighted music from Internet and non-Internet sources. As expected, the authors found ambivalence in the perceptions of the downloading, swapping, copying—profit behaviors of business majors. However, music business majors seem to be affected negatively by the ethical/legal experience. What we see is a defiance of the business that they intend to practice as they experience the ethical and legal dilemmas in the industry. Although, startling at first, this result is not surprising given the confused state of the music industry and the closeness of the sample to this chaotic decision behavior within the industry.

85  Motivation Theory Applicability: A Mental Model by Homer Warren and David Burns

Motivation theory is important to the study of consumer behavior. Teaching students to conceptualize the variety of motivation theories and how multiple motivations may be integrated into marketing strategy would contribute to their decision making skills. This paper proposes a model to facilitate the understanding of how motivation theories operate to affect the consumer’s behavior towards marketing mix strategies. Four major motivation paradigms are used to construct the model. An illustration of the model is presented and using Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, the operational and pedagogical strengths of the model are discussed.

97  Comprehensive Literature Review: Factors Influencing Choice of Accounting as a Major  by Kathleen Simons, Dana Lowe and David E. Stout

Previous empirical studies attempted to identify factors related to choosing accounting as a major. Declining enrollments in accounting programs and uncertainties regarding the 150-hour certification suggest the need to re-examine these previous studies. New research in the area may provide clues as to the cause(s) of the decline in accounting as a major and whether previously important factors continue to be predictors for selecting academic majors. This paper provides a comprehensive summary of the published research, principally from accounting, regarding the choice-of-major decision. The paper concludes with a presentation of suggested research opportunities.

 

Academy of Business Education