PHP India: the e-commerce dilemma

Learning outcomes Through the analysis of the case, the students will be able to: 1. appreciate the dynamics in a multi-channel environment especially in the relatively new ecommerce space in India; 2. understand the decision-making process and the impact on various stakeholders in adopting a new ecommerce sales channel; and 3. evaluate financial implications of channel profitability and its implication on the decision. Case overview/synopsis Philadelphia Home Products (PHP) India was facing a sales slowdown and was looking at a foray into the e-commerce channel, as an answer for business growth. The decision was not an easy one, as it had implications on existing channel partnerships and the organization. Channel choice decisions had acquired a new dimension with the proliferation of ecommerce platforms and changing online consumer buying habits. It was January 2015 and Nandini Devgan, CEO of PHP India was with her experienced team, who clearly had differing points of view. She needed to put the organization back on a growth trajectory, but how does she balance the various differing views put forth by her team? Was entering the ecommerce channel the best option? Complexity academic level This case is designed for use at the postgraduate level in courses, such as sales management, channel management, e-commerce and strategic marketing courses, as well as in executive management programs. The case is relevant from the context of channel management of a Consumer-Packaged Goods company in India, where e-commerce is nascent yet growing. It gives students a practical hands-on decision-making situation, where there are complexities of quantitative and qualitative nature. It triggers a discussion where the chief executive officer (CEO) and her team are facing growth and profitability issues, and have to take a decision on whether or not to adopt the e-commerce channel while managing the existing channels. Supplementary materials Teaching note is available for educators only. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.

Obstacles for Students With Disabilities in the Supervision Process at Postgraduate Level in South Africa

The chapter presents the obstacles in supervision for students with disabilities at post-graduate level in South African higher education. Data were collected through scanning South African and international literature available on Google scholar, ProQuest, in books, journal articles, and online resources. Decolonial theory informed understanding of why the obstacles are confronted by the particular students. The findings revealed limited supervision is the main obstacle. The argument for the chapter is that students with disabilities' obstacles in supervision are far deeper than those seen at surface level.

Community of Practice as a teaching approach in a postgraduate environment. An insider ethnography of a higher education institution in South Africa

This auto-ethnographic description of the experiences in the development of the teaching and learning approach, at the postgraduate level, introduces the impact of the community of practice in the development of the learning processes in South Africa, with an international view. The principles of community of practice are outlined and the theoretical grounding is provided in terms of the notion of assemblage theory, the definitions of fundamental and derivative epistemic authority, as well as the assemblage boundary and the personal intents of the community of practice members. The theoretical grounding is then applied through several iterations of the community of practice between 2006 and present. The adaptive nature of the community of practice as an assemblage and the function as a sociology-of-knowledge system are outlined.

Designing Applied Linguistics Course for a Postgraduate Class: A Case Study in Literature Major

The present research aims at designing an applied linguistics course for the students of literature at the post-graduate level. The inclines of English linguistics and literature are: One is related to the immaculate hypothetical evidence, while the other is related to culture, society, and art, and the various results it can envision, which brings it under a specific arrangement. In this study, the researcher refines different hypotheses and theories instead of the issue of further developing exercises and instruction modules. Content Analysis by Harold Lasswell has been used as a tool for data collection and the framework applied for this study is Syllabus Designing by David Nunan because to design a course, syllabus designers animate the feelings, needs, and musings of their students by engaging them in different activities. This can occur if instructors separately investigate standards and examinations with abilities. They, at that point, then made an English Literature class that would be met with a course in building hypotheses, methods, and theories about their experience and the discoveries of their associates (e.g., Nunan, Widdowson, Candlin, Carter, etc.) in attempting to concentrate in this new era. By then, they are associated and adjusted to the English (literature) courses of consenting to the writer's experience and consenting to the requests of certain researchers (e.g. Pennycook in Critical applied Linguistics). The purpose of the researcher is to give direction on how this is accomplished. The study is limited to the students of English Literature at the postgraduate level only. The result shows that a teacher who knows about the reasoning for the plan of the schedule can show what, why, when, where, and how much for the class to instruct much better and all the more proficiently. The research is intended to direct teachers to a basic appraisal of thoughts and the educated application regarding their study halls.

Rhetorical Analysis of Introduction Sections from Humanities and Sciences Research Theses Authored by Pakistani Scholars

This research aims to investigate the rhetorical structures of the introduction sections of Pakistani research theses at postgraduate level. The corpus of study contains 32 “Introduction” sections of Pakistani research theses from two faculties: Humanities and Sciences. The faculty of Sciences include theses from disciplines of Zoology, Chemistry, Botany and Biochemistry, whereas the faculty of Humanities include theses of Mass Communication, English, Gender Studies and Computer Studies. Both qualitative and quantitative methods including textual analysis and frequency percentages have been used for data analysis. The online software Compleat Lexical Tutor(Cobb.2015) was employed to extract the sentence units of the data. A hand tagged move analysis was conducted by following Swales’ Model (2004) as a reference framework. All the instances of moves and steps were calculated to explore the rhetorical variation across two faculties. Findings of the study disclosed that Pakistani authors follow their own pattern of Move 1 (Establishing the research territory) along with the variation in frequency of its constituent steps across two faculties. The demarcation between two faculties has revealed that, in the field of sciences, there is a stronger use of topic generalization than in humanities. Moreover, the inter-textual links to prior research in the field of sciences are provided more frequently than in the field of humanities. However, scholars from the faculty of Humanities represent their stance by claiming relevance of the field.

Postgraduate Supervision: A Heuristic Approach to Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning

Since postgraduate supervision remains a grey area for many academics following several hydra perspectives and interpretations, the paper examines how postgraduate supervision is an approach to learning, unlearning, and relearning. The study is entrenched within James and Baldwin’s framework on good practice in postgraduate supervision to discuss what the concept should entail from the viewpoint of the researcher, while there is also a constant recourse to relevant literature. The paper addresses the fuzzy nature of supervision through an autoethnographic research. It discusses how supervision at the postgraduate level should not merely involve guiding a student to graduation, but an avenue for the supervisor to also learn, unlearn, and relearn academic concepts, methods, and approaches. The study contends that postgraduate supervision should not only be a stage for building new knowledge through postgraduate students’ research, but it should also be a stage for knowledge improvement, knowledge advancement, knowledge re-evaluation, knowledge cross-pollination, and knowledge transfer. It is in so doing that the learning, unlearning, and relearning nature of postgraduate supervision can indeed come to fruition. Keywords: Autoethnography, Knowledge, Learning, Postgraduate, Supervision

Awareness of the risk factors of stroke among non-teaching staff of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria

Background The prevalence of stroke is increasing in Nigeria due to a lack of awareness of their predisposing factors. There is therefore a need for good knowledge and awareness of stroke risk factors in the general populations. Thus, this study assessed the level of awareness of stroke risk factors among non-teaching staff in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Nigeria. Results Most of the participants were female, 89 (69%), and had a post-graduate degree, 84 (65.1%). A total of 129 participants participated in this survey, and 91 (70.5%) were familiar with the term “stroke.” The commonest risk factors were high blood pressure (86%), stress (74.4%), and lack of exercise (63.6%). The study showed that the awareness of stroke risk factors among the participants was poor (40.3%). Conclusion Stroke awareness was poor among the participants with the highest risk of stroke despite their high literacy level. Female participants, with a postgraduate level qualification and working as senior non-teaching staff, had a better awareness of stroke risk factors than their male colleagues. This shows a need to increase stroke awareness campaigns in the community.

Carillion: building on shaky ground

Research methodology The case uses Carillion plc, a company which focussed on providing maintenance, facilities management and energy services to buildings and large property estates, in public and private sectors; infrastructure services for roads, railways and utility networks, with contracts including road and hospital construction and many strategic service contracts, e.g. free school meals. The case uses financial analysis techniques to explore whether the failure was foreseeable and questions the extent to which existing international financial reporting standards support or inhibit the decision usefulness they aspire to. The case uses only publicly available information. Complexity academic level This case can be used in undergraduate financial reporting and current issues in accounting courses/modules at the postgraduate level.

Developing a Mobile Application to Improve the Levels of Statistical Literacy among Graduate Students

In today’s world, educated individuals are expected to understand basic statistical concepts and interpret statistical messages. For this reason, despite the undeniable importance of statistical literacy in the educational process, studies on undergraduate and postgraduate students in practice reveal that students have difficulties in determining the data structure, choosing the appropriate test for the purpose, and interpreting the findings correctly. Similar studies indicate that steps should be taken in many ways to overcome such difficulties. When the respective literature is viewed, it is understood that the use of software packages in teaching has many disadvantages such as being complex, being expensive and not being compatible with mobile devices, therefore, tech-supported teaching materials suitable for the level of students, in other words, instructional software is needed. Hence, it was aimed in this study to design a mobile teaching software for the development of advanced statistical literacy skills, which are often needed in the scientific research process. For this purpose, the first type of development method, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was preferred in the research. At the end of the research process, a free mobile teaching software program was developed that can be used in the teaching of statistical concepts at the postgraduate level and can perform statistical analysis. The alternatives offered by the application developed as a result of the research in response to the needs in the literature were examined. Additionally, the application was published via Google Play Store and was made available for users for a period of one year to receive evaluations, and at the end of this period, it was downloaded by users from dozens of various countries. It has been observed that the application, which has been downloaded approximately 40 thousand times in the last six months and reached 16 thousand users, received 84.6% positive scores (4.23). It is estimated that the application, which was developed as a result of the process, will contribute to the literature in terms of statistical literacy.