Knowledge transfer
Knowledge Transfer recognises the two-way flow and uptake of ideas between the University of Melbourne and the broader community. As the role of universities changes, we must develop strong bilateral relationships with government, business and the community - and become increasingly visible, relevant and accessible to society’s changing needs.
Recent examples of Knowledge Transfer in the Department of Management and Marketing include:
M & M students with big ideas solve problems for Australian business
High achieving students in the Department of Management and Marketing have just completed a rare opportunity; consulting on real case work for an Australian business.
The Case-Based Challenge run in the ‘Principles of Marketing’ subject allowed students to put into real-life practice the concepts they had learnt in the lecture theatre, helping solve weekly issues for Family Mail House (FMH). FMH is one of the longest established mail houses in Victoria. The company has seen and adapted to a number of industry changes. Australia Post’s introduction of barcoded mail in 1999 was one of the greatest industry challenges to date. Impressively, FMH was the first mail house to lodge barcoded mail in Victoria. It is also one of Australia Post’s few select Bulk Mail Partners.
It’s the first time the challenge has been run, and while the program is not assessed, the most realistic and comprehensive responses at the end of the semester were chosen as winners. The identity of the participating company was unknown to the students until the prizes were presented. Students received prizes and the opportunity to complete further work experience with the company.
Dr Angela Paladino, who developed and oversaw the web-based challenge, says the experience was both unique and invaluable for the students.
“The CBC gave students the opportunity to apply what they learnt each week and address realistic challenges faced by the companies in the marketplace. It also provided students with comprehensive, regular feedback so they could improve their problem-solving skills.”
Joan Glenane, a director of Family Mail House, expressed her sincere thanks to the students who participated for their ideas. “Student responses were comprehensive, objective and insightful, providing the company with a fresh perspective”.
Dr Paladino says that the types and sizes of companies that will participate in the challenge will be deliberately varied from semester to semester, and she is currently looking for a large multinational conglomerate to participate in the next challenge. If you are interested in having the next generation of bright young marketing minds present fresh solutions to your company, please contact Dr Angela Paladino at a.paladino@unimelb.edu.au.
Women’s Legal Services Victoria Case Study Bank
Dr Prakash Singh of the Department of Management and Marketing and Dr Martin Davies from the Teaching and Learning Unit ran the first of several Case Study Workshop for the lawyers of the Women's Legal Service Victoria (WLSV) in September.
The workshop was the official beginning of the development of a vital case study bank for the WLSV. The WLSV is a non-profit, voluntary organisation that provides legal assistance to women who face issues such as domestic violence. The case study bank is crucial for the work that the service does - lobbying governments, providing training, making media comments and advising clients.
After aiding the WLSV to obtain a grant from the Victorian Legal Service Board, Dr Singh and Dr Davies are now providing the technical assistance with the delivery of the project by providing training to employees of the WLSV to develop case study writing capability.
Once this is done, Dr Singh and Dr Davies will design and implement a storage and retrieval system whereby cases can be easily accessed. Currently, the focus is on simple written case studies, but may expand to include rich media case studies.
If this initiative is successful for WLSV, there is a strong possibility that the model will be emulated by many of the other 50 legal services in the state, and the 200-plus services in the rest of the country.
Publish or Perish
Professor Anne-Wil Harzing has a long-standing research interest in the measurement of research quality.
Since 2000 she has provided a journal ranking list on her website (www.harzing.com/jql.htm) that registers between 3,000-5,000 page hits each month and is used by many universities in their research evaluation process. The Journal Quality List is now in its 28th edition and has so far received 18 citations in ISI-indexed journals.
In October 2006 this was complemented by Publish or Perish. Harzing's Publish or Perish is a software program that retrieves and analyses academic citations. It uses Google Scholar to obtain the raw citations, then analyses these and presents a wide range of citation metrics. Since it was introduced late October 2006, the relevant web page (www.harzing.com/pop.htm) has received more than 250,000 page hits, with 15,000 – 20,000 hits per month. The program is used by academics all over the world to prepare for job and tenure applications, research evaluations and literature reviews. The program is also being used internationally by funding organisations, consultancy firms and research institutes at major industrial corporations. Many international funding organisations in the US and Europe now specify using Publish or Perish for grant applications.
Publish or Perish has been mentioned in hundreds of different blogs and library information pages as well as the online edition of the Hindu newspaper (India’s national newspaper). It is also frequently discussed on the forum pages of the Chronicle Higher Education, the main source for Higher Education news in the USA
Anne-Wil has received hundreds of personal thank-you messages. Some representative emails are listed below.
I just wanted to congratulate you on the publish and Perish software. I am a long time user of your website for the Journal Quality Ranking and was pleasantly surprised to find the new software. I have downloaded and tried it and it is an extremely useful tool. Hussain G. Rammal, The University of Adelaide, hussain.rammal@adelaide.edu.au
What a FANTASTIC tool. Thanks for sharing it. I forwarded your msg to my Dean suggesting that your program be used to gather data to be used for promotion decisions (to full professor). This would not be the only indicator of impact/quality, but certainly an important one. Herman Aguinis, University of Colorado at Denver, Herman.Aguinis@cudenver.edu
Thanks Anne-Wil - this is a great tool and is being used extensively by some of us here at UWA. Great work. Robyn Owens Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research Training), rowens@admin.uwa.edu.au
Anne-Wil, I just want to thank you for the brilliant job you have done on this. It will be a huge help for a lot of people going up for promotion and a lot of promotion and tenure committees. Jean Bartunek, Boston College bartunek@bc.edu
Congratulations on your continued innovation in the world of academic metrics! You make a difference! Michael Arthur, Suffolk University, marthur@suffolk.edu
I would like to thank you for the remarkable work you have done with publish or perish. I have introduced all the members of our laboratory to it and we all run your program. Christine Kosmopoulos, Centre national de la recherche scientifique christine.kosmopoulos@parisgeo.cnrs.fr