This study examines the evolution of budgeting practices in the extremely difficult Spanish economic environment. In order to analyse if companies are still maintaining their budgeting process and if, right now, they are facing more difficulties in forecasting accurate indicators, two similar web surveys were addressed over two periods of time, firstly in 2008 at the beginning of the financial crisis, and secondly in 2013 after five years of a downward trend. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate how companies brought more flexibility to their budgeting process in order to cope with environmental uncertainty. The survey indicates that 97% of respondents are still using a traditional budgeting process being this result similar to the one found in 2008. However, 2013 showed that the reliance on forecasted information is being increasingly questioned. Furthermore the study revealed that the respondents are bringing more flexibility to their processes, being able to modify the objectives once the budget is approved and to obtain new resources outside the budgeting process. This paper contributes to revealing information about difficulties in setting reliable objectives in a turbulent environment and provides data about the evolution of budgeting practices over five years during an austere economic crisis.

Purpose In recent decades, educators have pushed to implementing active learning techniques that can advance students’ competences. Universities are increasingly required to develop knowledge measured in terms of grades (hard skills) and inter-personal, social, and communication abilities (soft skills). Nevertheless, within the field of active learning, educators often focus on how these techniques can improve students’ hard skills and their satisfaction. Few have analysed whether and how these techniques might improve students’ soft skills. Moreover, among these few studies, the majority has analysed hard and soft skills separately, measuring whether different active learning techniques may or may not improve them. Virtually no one has studied whether students’ hard and soft skills can converge or diverge in an active learning format. This study allows us to understand the relations between these two sets of variables, for example, whether an improvement (or deterioration) in the hard skills corresponds to an improvement (or deterioration) in the soft skills, and vice versa. Method In our experiment, we analyse the impact of a specific active learning format, such as the Flipped Classroom (FC), on both students’ hard and soft skills, by comparing it with a traditional class integrated with other active learning techniques, such as presentations, debates, and teamwork activities. First, we use Pearson correlations to measure the relation between students’ hard skills, understood in terms of grades, and a set of soft skills, such as critical thinking, self-efficacy, teamwork, and perception of learning. Second, we use canonical correlations to analyse whether hard and soft skills converge or diverge in an FC format, in comparison with a traditional teaching format integrated with the other active learning techniques. Results and conclusions Our main finding is that the FC per se neither improves nor worsens students’ performance in terms of hard and soft skills.

The goal of this study is to evaluate the application of the flipped classroom (FC) format in the international studies curriculum. Previous research has examined the impact of the FC on students’ performance, operationalized by test scores, and demonstrated the utility of this technique in the learning process. Our research goes beyond student performance to evaluate the impact of the FC on student class attendance and the development of a set of soft skills, such as teamwork, critical thinking, self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and perception of learning. In our experiment, we compare an FC with a non-flipped class that combines traditional lecturing with other active learning techniques, such as presentations, teamwork activities, and problem-based debates. The study finds that the FC did not have a substantial impact on either students’ performance, attendance, or soft skills. The differences between the two groups were too small to corroborate any tendency in favor of one or the other format. For the most part, students performed in a similar way. This can suggest that the benefits of an FC format might be less when compared with other active learning techniques.

The flipped-classroom method is acquiring importance as a pedagogical technique to improve the learning performance of students. So far, most studies have examined the possible applications of the flipped-classroom method in the natural sciences realm, with most analyses certifying its positive impact. Its has been applied much less frequently in the social sciences realm, particularly in political science. Our project aims to generate data about active learning in political science by conducting an experiment in a class entitled "Regional Studies: Latin America." Using quantitative analysis, we study academic performance in a flipped class, and through qualitative analysis, we explore student perceptions about the flipped classroom and other active-learning techniques.

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