2007 - A Comparison of the Learning and Knowledge Management Strategies Nike & Adidas use to Facilitate Innovation in Relation to their Market Share

Learning and knowledge management play an important role in facilitating innovations within organisations.  This paper explores to what extent they factor within Nike and Adidas in the Southeast Asian footwear market.  The two organisations’ learning and knowledge management processes are compared to discover who achieves better innovations.  Furthermore, secondary research is used to link these findings to their percentage of market share.  The research is compiled using questionnaires and supported with follow-up interviews, conducted with a manger from Nike and Adidas.  The results show that Nike was equal to, or better than Adidas at every aspect that was tested.  The conclusion explains the links between the learning, knowledge management and innovations and shows how they interact within the organisations. Explanation is given as to how Nike performed better at learning, knowledge management and innovation than Adidas and also found to have the larger market share. These results are explained further by developing a model showing how these processes relate to the overall market share of the organisations.

2007 - Student perception and attitudes towards privacy issues concerning Facebook

A questionnaire was posted online and responded to by 430 eligible individuals. The results from this questionnaire were used to draw conclusions as to the use of Facebook, its users understanding of the risks relating to that use and the degree to which users were concerned about different risks.

Broadly speaking it was found that many students put themselves at risk through their activity on, and use of, Facebook. No single significant cause could be identified however a number of factors were identified as causing poor security behaviour. These most notably included, but were not limited to, a lack of concern about privacy related threats, a lack of knowledge of the threats and a poor understanding of the Facebook privacy features.
 

2007 - An empirical assessment of what turns a person into an Advocate of Loughborough University?

Emotions make up 50% of a Customer’s Experience. Why is it then that current Student Satisfaction measures concentrate solely on the physical factors? This focus of this study is to explore the emotions that are evoked by the University and felt by its prospective and current students.

100 prospective and 100 current students, weighted across years one to three, will be asked to participate in the study by answering a questionnaire tailored to the stage of their relationship with Loughborough University. Brand Expectation, Satisfaction, Advocacy, Reputation and Emotions evoked were all identified as key areas for concentrating the questions. Much interesting data was collected, showing the contrasts between prospective and current students. The methods of analysis used, including the Emotional Profile, Net Promoter Score and Root Cause Analysis make this data very valuable. One of the most important discoveries was the high levels of Destroying Emotions, which have a negative effect on the Students Experience and willingness to advocate the University. More positively 83.34% of students have their expectations exceeded. Conclusions have been reached as to the main problems, ways to correct them and recommendations for the future.

2007 - Consumers’ Attitudes towards Direct Marketing Sent by Organisations Using Email and the Business Opportunities arising from them

For this project, research has focused on consumers’ attitudes towards direct marketing using the medium of email. Investigation has centred on behaviours and feelings towards current direct email marketing communications and techniques surrounding email as a marketing communication tool.

The study has been carried out through the distribution of a consumer survey and individual telephone interviews. Particular attention has been paid towards personalisation of emails, consumers’ personal data and consumers’ stances on divulging details to organisations. The findings of the study take into account benefits that can be experienced by both consumers and businesses through advancing and appropriate direct marketing via email.
 

2007 - Reducing Email Overload: Foldering to create inbox efficiency

Email communications has been a necessity in the working life of most for a long time, however the issues linked with this are still unsolved, mainly the problems of email overload. Through the use of questionnaires from participants in a working environment and a student environment, it was possible to establish the differences in efficiency between those foldering and those choosing not to, aiding in determining the best solution. Preferences of students also allowed for prediction of future trends.

Concluding that foldering is indeed a good way to keep organised even with the search software improvements making it unnecessary for retrieval purposes, the advantages in organisation and still out weight any disadvantages. Therefore foldering is indeed the way to keep an efficient inbox. However findings suggest that current usage is limited to foldering as a tool for organising storage of ‘done’ emails as apposed to organising new mails.

2007 - WHY ARE SOME STUDENTS MORE MOTIVATED TO SEEK INFORMATION THAN OTHERS?

Research into the information behaviours of individuals suggest different factors which create an impact on the information seeking behaviours. This project focuses mainly on the information seeking behaviour of students of Loughborough University in order to discover the causes for the variation in students information seeking styles. The study reviews the areas of motivation, need and personality in understanding how each factor impacts on information seeking behaviour and how they are linked in creating behavioural differences. A survey was carried out on students at the library, union and Edward Herbert Building in order to gain an understanding of students perspectives while they are actively searching for information and while they are not. The conclusion drawn from the results suggest that differences in motivation for most students is due to the interaction between various internal and external factors whose strengths and weaknesses could either be reduced or increased by the personality of the student. Also it was discovered that although a factor such as a student’s emotional state could be a motivation for information seeking, it could also have an impact on other factors that affect information seeking behaviour.
 

2007 - Students Use of Web 2.0

This report aims to look into students current and future use of the emerging web technology that is Web 2.0. It focuses on university students and their awareness and current use of Web 2.0 technologies, it also aims to research and discuss possible future uses. The report includes a literature review, a questionnaire and it's responses and then a results section outlining what was found. The report goes on to discuss the main problems faced when trying to implement Web 2.0 technologies into today's education system such as trust and ethical implications. This report provides an indicative summary of results and some general ideas for future use whilst also highlighting the many pitfalls that could be faced.