Cet article présente une méthode qui permet aux enseignant(e)s de se faire une idée de l’expérience que les élèves ont des médias numériques et de leur maîtrise du numérique. Elle demande peu de préparation et n’exige pas de connaissances préalables de la part des enseignant(e)s. Cet exercice permet de détendre l’atmosphère en classe et de déterminer dans quelle mesure les élèves réfléchissent déjà à l’usage qu’ils/elles font des médias numériques.

Combiner l’apprentissage mobile, régional et extrascolaire avec les avantages du recours aux médias numériques : la plateforme Actionbound permet de créer des parcours d’apprentissage numérique par les apprenant(e)s, pour les apprenant(e)s.

Les outils numériques offrent un large éventail de possibilités pour favoriser la participation démocratique dans les écoles et la société, pour participer aux processus d’élaboration des politiques et pour organiser le travail des comités scolaires, les processus de développement et les projets. Afin de permettre aux élèves d’employer les outils de façon efficace, leur utilisation à l’école et dans l’enseignement doit être testée et faire l’objet d’une réflexion.

La numérisation a des répercussions non négligeables sur tous les aspects de la vie. La mise en réseau technique et la conversion de données analogiques en données numériques sont à l’origine d’énormes quantités de données. Il est possible d’identifier des régularités dans leur mise en rapport et leur traitement, et de générer des applications dont les conséquences sociales, éthiques, politiques, juridiques, professionnelles et économiques sont encore difficiles à évaluer.

With two-thirds to three-quarters of all companies, family firms are the most common firm type worldwide and employ around 60 percent of all employees, making them of considerable importance for almost all economies. Despite this high practical relevance, academic research took notice of family firms as intriguing research subjects comparatively late. However, the field of family business research has grown eminently over the past two decades and has established itself as a mature research field with a broad thematic scope. In addition to questions relating to corporate governance, family firm succession and the consideration of entrepreneurial families themselves, researchers mainly focused on the impact of family involvement in firms on their financial performance and firm strategy. This dissertation examines the financial performance and capital structure of family firms in various meta-analytical studies. Meta-analysis is a suitable method for summarizing existing empirical findings of a research field as well as identifying relevant moderators of a relationship of interest. First, the dissertation examines the question whether family firms show better financial performance than non-family firms. A replication and extension of the study by O’Boyle et al. (2012) based on 1,095 primary studies reveals a slightly better performance of family firms compared to non-family firms. Investigating the moderating impact of methodological choices in primary studies, the results show that outperformance holds mainly for large and publicly listed firms and with regard to accounting-based performance measures. Concerning country culture, family firms show better performance in individualistic countries and countries with a low power distance. Furthermore, this dissertation investigates the sensitivity of family firm performance with regard to business cycle fluctuations. Family firms show a pro-cyclical performance pattern, i.e. their relative financial performance compared to non-family firms is better in economically good times. This effect is particularly pronounced in Anglo-American countries and emerging markets. In the next step, a meta-analytic structural equation model (MASEM) is used to examine the market valuation of public family firms. In this model, profitability and firm strategic choices are used as mediators. On the one hand, family firm status itself does not have an impact on firms‘ market value. On the other hand, this study finds a positive indirect effect via higher profitability levels and a negative indirect effect via lower R&D intensity. A split consideration of family ownership and management shows that these two effects are mainly driven by family ownership, while family management results in less diversification and internationalization. Finally, the dissertation examines the capital structure of public family firms. Univariate meta-analyses indicate on average lower leverage ratios in family firms compared to non-family firms. However, there is significant heterogeneity in mean effect sizes across the 45 countries included in the study. The results of a meta-regression reveal that family firms use leverage strategically to secure their controlling position in the firm. While strong creditor protection leads to lower leverage ratios in family firms, strong shareholder protection has the opposite effect.