Abstract:Facebook use among students is almost ubiquitous; however, its use for formal academic purposes remains contested. Through an online survey, monitoring student use of module Facebook pages and focus groups, this study explores students' current academic uses of Facebook and their views on using Facebook within university modules. Students reported using Facebook for academic purposes, notably peer-peer communication around group work and assessment; a use not always conceptualised by students as learning. Focus groups revealed that students are not ready or equipped for the collaborative style of learning envisaged by the tutor and see Facebook as their personal domain, within which they will discuss academic topics where they see a strong relevance and purpose, notably in connection with assessment. Students use Facebook for their own mutually-defined purposes and a change in student mind-and skillsets is required to appropriate the collaborative learning benefits of Facebook in formal educational contexts. Keywords:Social networking; teaching; higher education; Facebook; collaboration Word count: 6319Exploring the views of students on the use of Facebook in university teaching and learning IntroductionThe infiltration of social media into our everyday lives has transformed the way in which people communicate, do business and is even beginning to change the way in which higher education institutions teach their students. The new generation of students have been termed 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001), having grown up with an array of new technologies and as such they expect the use of multiple information media (Aragon, 2007). However, such a view has been more recently criticised for taking an overly-optimistic view of students' technological capabilities (Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005) and generalising across what remains a diverse group of individuals with differing levels of technological interest and experience (Bennett, Maton and Kervin, 2008). As such, this paper contributes to the on-going debate by further exploring both students' use of and views on social networking sites in an educational context. Previous studies also suggest the pervasiveness of Facebook use among student populations (Hoyer et al, 2010;Smith and Caruso, 2010;Connell, 2009) and while there has been some exploration of the use of social networking sites in an academic context (Estus, 2010;Madge et al, 2009;Selwyn, 2009), given their prevalence in wider society, there is still much to explore in relation to the use of social networking sites such as Facebook in a higher education academic context. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the views of students at a UK university, regarding the use of Facebook for teaching and learning purposes. Isolated studies have examined students' use of Facebook in the UK (Madge et al, 2009); however much of the research has been based around students in the USA (Gray, Annabell and Kennedy, 2010;Pempek, Yermolayeva and Calvert, 2009). Therefore, there is a need to explore in mor...

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Purpose – The purpose of this study is to assess, in two different live sponsorship environments, the contribution of sponsorship to consumer-based brand equity. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a quantitative survey methodology, employing self-administered questionnaires at two UK sporting events (athletics and cricket). To isolate the impact of sponsorship, questionnaires were also distributed to comparison sample groups not exposed to the sponsorship activities. The elements of consumer-based brand equity are operationalized in line with Aaker's (1996) brand equity measurement tool. Findings – Sponsorship can be an appropriate vehicle through which to build consumer-based brand equity; however brand-building success is not guaranteed and is subject to a range of factors impacting upon particular sponsorships, including strength of the sponsor-event link, leverage activities and clutter. The most successful sponsorship displayed marked contributions to building brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty. However, the presence of sponsorship clutter in particular was found to impact negatively upon the perception of quality transferred to a brand through sponsorship. Research limitations/implications – The use of live event settings limits the ability to tightly control all variables; therefore replication of this study using experimental methodologies is recommended. Nonetheless, findings indicate managers should consider the above mentioned contextual factors when selecting sponsorships in order to maximize sponsorship success. Originality/value – This study explores the contribution of sports sponsorship to consumer-based brand equity in live sponsorship settings, addressing concerns over the generalizability of previous experimental studies. Equally, this study compares the brand equity-building effectiveness of sponsorship for two sponsors, which differ on a range of contextual factors that impact upon sponsorship success.

This paper explores the emergence of sponsorship-linked events as a strategy to leverage relational outcomes through sponsorship investment. The growing use of sponsorship-linked events reinforces the need to understand the potential of such leverage strategies, thus the findings contribute to the body of literature on effective sponsorship practices. Findings from semi-structured interviews with Sponsorship and Marketing Managers suggest a shifting orientation among sponsors towards the pursuit of relational objectives. The privileged access to consumers afforded through sponsorship allows sponsors to manufacture opportunities to create intimacy with customers through sponsorshiplinked events in relaxed, comfortable environments; thus sponsorship-linked events are positioned as a rich environment to add value to consumer-brand interactions and achieve relational objectives.Hosting specifically designed events affords sponsors an increased modicum of control over consumer-brand experiences in sponsorship environments characterised by a lack of control over sponsored property actions. However, this control may be eroded by social media technologies, which facilitate consumer-consumer communication around sponsorship-linked events. Social media, however, is proposed as a useful tool to elicit consumer feedback, addressing the misalignment between current sponsorship evaluation practices and emergent relational objectives revealed in the empirical findings. Therefore, successfully activating the sponsorship-linked marketing space demands an integrated and strategic approach.

Using the theoretical framework of consumer-based brand equity, this paper reports findings from a cross-sectional survey, measuring the comparative brand-building effectiveness of sponsorship for new and established brands. Results suggest that sponsorship is capable only of building awareness for new brands, while for an established brand, sponsorship exposure is found to impact positively on brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty. The need for an underlying level of brand knowledge for image transfer to occur is proposed, suggesting that the brand-building role of sponsorship is one of reinforcement, rather than creation. The findings have practical implications relating to sponsorship selection.