The transition from secondary education to the first year of higher education is a phase in which students are faced with many challenges. First-year students may lack the academic capital that is needed to understand explicit and implicit rules of higher education. We investigated students’ participation in a preacademic program and the development of their academic capital. In a mixed method study, we showed that first-year students who participated in a preacademic program perceived peer mentors and teachers to be relevant sources of information, learned how to overcome educational barriers, and became more acquainted with explicit and implicit college requirements.
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The transition from secondary education to the first year of higher education is a phase in which students are faced with many challenges. First-year students may lack the academic capital that is needed to understand explicit and implicit rules of higher education. We investigated students’ participation in a preacademic program and the development of their academic capital. In a mixed method study, we showed that first-year students who participated in a preacademic program perceived peer mentors and teachers to be relevant sources of information, learned how to overcome educational barriers, and became more acquainted with explicit and implicit college requirements.
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Purpose: This study aims to extend literature on academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial networking by examining how academics, in their role of entrepreneurial educators, network for the creation and execution of novel teaching practices in cooperation with external actors. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical investigation is based on qualitative inquiry, using a case study approach. Specifically, eight cases originating at three universities in Germany, The Netherlands and Mexico were examined. The cases which constituted innovative teaching practices were selected following a replication logic. Each involved extensive participation of societal actors in course development or delivery and aimed to stimulate students to work on real life challenges and disseminate novel knowledge back to the world of practice. All courses were either introduced or taught by educators who possessed different levels and types of academic and industrial or entrepreneurial experience. Findings: Based on eight cases the authors found that the networking behaviour of entrepreneurial educators is crucial for the generation of proximity with external actors and for the acquisition of key resources, such as an external actor to participate in teaching practice and for the generation of legitimacy for their innovations in teaching. The entrepreneurial and industrial experience of entrepreneurial educators emerges as an affordance to network with external actors, helping them to achieve a common understanding of the opportunity and to generate trust among them. Practical implications: This study equips managers of higher education institutions with critical insights into innovating the teaching mission of the university and developing closer and stronger relationships with external actors of the university. Originality/value: This study seeks to advance the literature on academic entrepreneurship by shifting the attention away from academic entrepreneurs as merely founders of spin-offs and collaborators with business on research and development towards entrepreneurial educators who see opportunities in establishing collaborations with external actors as part of their teaching activities. Further, it introduces the “social networking perspective” to this field. Vissa (2012) and Stam (2015) introduced this perspective as a logical extension to the study of the generation of social capital to reach entrepreneurial goals.
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In December of 2004 the Directorate General for Research and Technological Development (DG RTD) of the European Commission (EC) set up a High-Level Expert Group to propose a series of measures to stimulate the reporting of Intellectual Capital in research intensive Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Expert Group has focused on enterprises that either perform Research and Development (R&D), or use the results of R&D to innovate and has also considered the implications for the specialist R&D units of larger enterprises, dedicated Research & Technology Organizations and Universities. In this report the Expert Group presents its findings, leading to six recommendations to stimulate the reporting of Intellectual Capital in SMEs by raising awareness, improving reporting competencies, promoting the use of IC Reporting and facilitating standardization.
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Purpose – To analyse common metaphors used in the intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management literatures to conceptualise knowledge, in order to study the nature of the intellectual capital concept. Design/methodology/approach – A textual analysis methodology is used to analyse texts from The Knowledge-Creating Company by Nonaka and Takeuchi, Working Knowledge by Davenport and Prusak and “Brainpower” by Stewart, in order to identify underlying metaphors. Findings – Over 95 per cent of the statements about knowledge identified are based on some kind of metaphor. The two dominant metaphors that form the basis for the concept of intellectual capital are “knowledge as a resource” and “knowledge as capital”. Research limitations/implications – Metaphors highlight certain characteristics and ignore others, so the IC community should ask itself what characteristics of knowledge the “knowledge as a resource” and “knowledge as capital” metaphors ignore. Practical implications – Knowledge has no referent in the real world and requires metaphor to be defined, conceptualised, and acted upon. When using such metaphors we should become aware of their limitations as they steer us in certain directions and this may happen unconsciously. The paper concludes by asking whether we need new metaphors to better understand the mechanisms of the knowledge economy, hence allowing us to potentially change some of the more negative structural features of contemporary society. Originality/value – This paper is the first to highlight that intellectual capital is a metaphor and that the metaphorical nature of the concept has far reaching consequences.
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Metaphors are at the basis of our understanding of reality. Using the theory of metaphor developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999) this paper analyses common metaphors used in the intellectual capital and knowledge management literatures. An analysis of key works by Davenport & Prusak (2000), Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995), and Stewart (1991) suggests that at least 95 percent of all statements about either knowledge or intellectual capital are based on metaphors. The paper analyses the two metaphors that form the basis for the concept of intellectual capital: ‘Knowledge as a Resource’ and ‘Knowledge as Capital’, both of which derive their foundations from the industrial age. The paper goes into some of the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of intellectual capital. Common metaphors used in conceptualising abstract phenomena in traditional management practices unconsciously reinforce the established social order. The paper concludes by asking whether we need new metaphors to better understand the mechanisms of the knowledge economy, hence allowing us to potentially change some of the more negative structural features of contemporary society.
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In May 2007, our Centre for Research in Intellectual Capital hosted the International Congress on Intellectual Capital: The future of business navigation. The Congress – which took place in Haarlem, The Netherlands – was attended by more than 140 participants from 23 countries. Based on almost 70 papers, we designed a conference program that consisted of more than 90 sessions. This special issue is based on a selection of the best papers of our conference.
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Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study reflects on the development of professional capital through understanding collective cultural factors, namely, academic optimism and shared vision. Second, it aims at exploring teacher learning. Teacher learning resulting in changes to teacher knowledge, attitudes and practices is crucial for the necessary changes education is continually confronted with. This learning is too often studied as a result of individual traits or structural factors, such as motivation or time. The authors investigated how teacher learning is influenced by academic optimism and shared vision. Design/methodology/approach The authors administered an online web-based survey to 278 teachers in higher education, using the educational change to online learning due to the covid pandemic as a unique chance to study the role of collective cultural factors in teacher learning. Findings Results showed how teachers characterized their learning, academic optimism and shared vision during the educational change to online learning resulting from the covid pandemic. The authors found that teacher learning was greatly influenced by teachers' collective sense of efficacy, an aspect of their academic optimism. Teachers' strong belief in each other, that they as fellow professionals could handle the challenging changes that the covid pandemic required, strongly enhanced teacher learning during the covid pandemic. Teachers' feeling of a professional community helped teacher to make sense of, and push through, the undeniable chaos that was the covid pandemic. Originality/value Collective cultural factors are rarely studied in conjunction with educational change. Insights into how a collective culture of professionalism enhances or hinders teacher learning are important for theory, policy and practice as it helps understand how teacher teams can be supported to build their professional capital by learning from educational change.
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Purpose To analyze differences between Western and Eastern cultures in the way they conceptualize knowledge and discuss the implications of these differences for a global intellectual capital (IC) theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach A systematic metaphor analysis of the concept of knowledge and IC is used to identify common Western conceptualizations of knowledge in IC literature. A review of philosophical and religious literature was done to identify knowledge conceptualizations in the main streams of Asian philosophy. Findings Fundamental differences were found in the way knowledge is conceptualized. In Western IC literature common metaphors for knowledge include knowledge as a thing and knowledge as capital. In Asian thought, knowledge is seen as unfolding truth based upon a unity of universe and human self and of knowledge and action. Research limitations/implications The research was performed on a limited sample of literature. More research is needed to identify how knowledge is conceptualized in the practice of doing business in Asia and to test the effects of introducing IC theories to Asian businessmen and managers. Practical implications Western conceptualizations of knowledge, embedded in terms like intellectual capital and knowledge management, can not be transferred to Asian business without considering the local view on knowledge. Asian conceptualizations of knowledge should play an important role in the further development of a knowledge-based theory and practice of the firm. Originality/value The paper is the first to explore differences in knowledge conceptualizations by analyzing the underlying metaphors that are used in Western IC literature and Asian philosophy.
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Den Haag is een internationale stad waar buitenlandse werknemers zich graag vestigen. Den Haag is op het gebied van vrede, recht en veiligheid in de loop der tijd uitgegroeid tot een stad van mondiale betekenis (Eyffinger, 1999) (Wladimiroff, 2009). Deze ontwikkeling ging niet zonder slag of stoot. Aan de hand van literatuuronderzoek en circa twintig interviews met vertegenwoordigers van overheidsbeleid en internationale instellingen is hier een analyse gemaakt van de voorgeschiedenis van Den Haag als internationale stad en de effectiviteit van het beleid met betrekking tot internationale instellingen. Eén van de uitkomsten is dat internationale organisaties gebaat zijn bij een goede samenwerking tussen de gemeente en het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. Het proces van aantrekken en faciliteren van internationale (kennis) instellingen en (non-)gouvernementele organisaties kan beter gestroomlijnd worden. Voorts zouden mogelijk enkele nieuwe tribunalen in Den Haag kunnen worden gevestigd. ABSTRACT The Hague is more and more the legal capital of the world. The Hague municipality and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs successfully promoted the city as such and made it a real global center of justice, peace and security (Eyffinger, 1999) (Wladimiroff, 2009). The process of attracting and managing international organizations, centers of knowledge, governmental and non-governmental organizations, was not always easy. Internal and external factors determine the way the city still develops its status as 'legal capital of the world'. Based on literature and about twenty interviews with representatives of the local and national governments and employees of international organizations, this article concludes that progress can be made through more cooperation between the municipality and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Attracting new international organizations can be streamlined in a better way. Some new tribunals might be established in The Hague.
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