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Firms use Relative Performance Information (RPI) to improve employee performance; however, differences in employees’ remote work environments call into question whether RPI improves performance in remote work arrangements. By manipulating RPI provision across sections, the authors examine whether RPI improves performance in remote work arrangements using a field experiment in introductory accounting courses taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors found that RPI improves performance in a remote work setting, as students receiving RPI achieved higher exam scores and increased their exam scores to a greater extent than students who did not receive RPI. The authors also found that lower performers improved performance more than higher performers in response to RPI, and the effect of RPI was more pronounced in those closest to meaningful thresholds. These results inform practice on the expected benefits of implementing RPI in a remote work setting.

Banks play a vital role in the economy. Investigating their competitive environment is crucial to ensuring economic stability and development. The FinTech disruption has risks and opportunities for incumbent banks, and it can be valuable to investigate its effects on banking performance. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess whether investment in FinTech is associated with better performance of Indian banks during 2012–2018.

To do this, a sample of Indian banks was investigated between 2012 and 2018 using k-means and hierarchical cluster analysis, ANOVA, and pairwise comparison tests.

Results of the analysis strongly suggest that investment in FinTech is associated with better banking performance. Higher FinTech investments, represented by mobile transaction volume, are associated with higher efficiency scores and accounting-based performance. In particular, banks that invest in FinTech and have relatively low non-performing loans have a 7.7% higher Return on Employment (ROE) than banks with exceptionally low FinTech use and no significant investment in smart branches.

Therefore, it can be recommended that Indian banks adopt a forward-looking strategic approach when making investment decisions regarding new technologies. Failing to adapt to the FinTech disruption may result in poor value creation prospects in the long run.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that analyses. We are not aware of any similar study on whether investment in FinTech is associated with better performance of the Indian banks during 2012–2018.

Purpose: The prominence of quality education for building sustainable development is undeniable and is distinctly pointed out in 1 of the 14 sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the same context, this study intends to investigate the role of university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, student satisfaction, and perceived employability in enhancing sustainability in higher education.

Need of the Study: To evaluate how student satisfaction mediates the relationship between university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, and perceived employability with sustainable university institutes.

Methodology: An adapted questionnaire was used in this study to capture the perception of 458 management graduates selected through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse the data with the help of Smart PLS software.

Findings: The results of this study show that student satisfaction is the strongest predictor of sustainable university institutes. University commitment was found to lead to student satisfaction significantly. Furthermore, student satisfaction wasn’t found to play the role of mediator in the proposed model.

Practical Implications: This study aims to fulfil theoretical, research, and management implications for students, higher education institutes (HEIs), and policymakers. HEIs are recommended to instil university commitment, perceived organisational prestige and student satisfaction via various practices and amendments in their curriculum. Students are recommended to enhance their perceived employability to achieve career sustainability.

The author develops a bilateral Nash bargaining model under value uncertainty and private/asymmetric information, combining ideas from axiomatic and strategic bargaining theory. The solution to the model leads organically to a two-tier stochastic frontier (2TSF) setup with intra-error dependence. The author presents two different statistical specifications to estimate the model, one that accounts for regressor endogeneity using copulas, the other able to identify separately the bargaining power from the private information effects at the individual level. An empirical application using a matched employer–employee data set (MEEDS) from Zambia and a second using another one from Ghana showcase the applied potential of the approach.

In this chapter, the authors examined expatriates that self-initiate their international work for personal reasons and the factors that affect their departure from an organization. The authors conducted a systematic review of self-initiated expatriation (SIE) and its definitions in order to propose an integrated definition of SIE and model its nomological network. In addition, the authors construct a roadmap for future research directions in the SIE domain. Finally, using a qualitative research design, the authors studied the organizational practices designed to reduce SIE turnover in an exemplary multinational organization. Overall, our contributions are enhanced clarity of the SIE construct and the theorized practice of SIE retention.

The theme of collegiality and more broadly of changes in the governance of universities has attracted growing interest within the sociology of higher education. As institutions, contemporary universities are inhabited by competing logics often defined in terms of market pressures and are shaped by the higher education policies of governments. Collegiality is an ideal-type form of university governance based on expertise and scientific excellence. Our study looks at manifestations of collegiality in two publicly funded universities in Canada. Collegiality is explored through the structural attributes of governance arrangements and academic culture in action as a form of self-governance. Case studies rely on two data sources: (1) policy documents and secondary data on various aspects of university development, and (2) semi-structured interviews with key players in the governance of these organisations, including unions. Two main findings with implications for the enactment of collegiality as a governance mode in universities are discussed. The first is that governance structures are slowly transitioning into more hybrid and corporate forms, where academics remain influential but share and negotiate influence with a broader set of stakeholders. The second is the appearance of forces that promote a delocalisation of collegiality, where academics invest in external scientific networks to assert collegiality and self-governance and may disinvest in their own institution, thus contributing to the redefinition of academic citizenship. Status differentiation among academic colleagues is associated with the externalisation of collegiality. Mechanisms to associate collegiality with changes in universities and their environment need to be further explored.

This study assesses distress in the lives of farming population in Ghana's northern interior. Whereas recent studies addressing mental health in Africa produce evidentially sound analyses of the correlated role of food and water insecurity, this study engages with how and why worries over educational costs feature so prominently in a measure of psychosocial well-being. While it is significant that education identifiably figures in escalating the experience with distress, my contention is that what is more important is putting that escalation into the context of why. I use Narotzky and Besnier's framework for understanding the economy as the interactions between crisis, value, and hope to situate a mixed methods study concerned with how distress is proximately shaped by the interactive socioeconomic features of daily life (paying school fees, buying food, cultivating maize, etc.) but ultimately shaped by structural features of the political economy that direct people's objectives amid chronic crisis. My proposition is that because education is where value resides, it is a primary vehicle by which people are acting in crisis in a hopeful manner. In this way, this study leverages the tools of economic anthropology within debates about how to best assess the ways in which health and illness are shaped by socioeconomic realms.

This chapter examines the concepts of race and racism, critically reviewing their historical and contemporary applications in everyday life as well as in academic and policy debates. Racism has been extensively researched, with various theories and conceptualisations developed across social science. However, there is a great deal of disagreement regarding its nature, contemporary significance and empirical validation. This chapter examines these and attempts to synthesise some of the common definitions of racism provided in the literature. It explores related concepts and underlying themes pertaining to expressions of race and racism. Furthermore, it unpacks current knowledge about racial issues and discusses recent advances in the conceptual understanding of various forms of racism. It also elucidates the social, political and analytical applications of racism as a concept and the significance of racism in contemporary societies. The chapter concludes by highlighting how racism is a dynamic phenomenon, continuously evolving with the social, political and technological transformations in contemporary societies.

This study delves into the factors that influence the practice of female genital mutilation in West Africa, as well as the health implications. An online cross-sectional study was conducted with the use of electronic questionnaire. The study was targeted at adult females who were between the age of 18 and 50 years old. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the electronic questionnaire was administered on social media platforms (Facebook and WhatsApp) only through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A sample size of 3,119 adult females participated in the study. Spearman rank correlation (r) was employed to test the hypotheses. Responses were gathered from adult females whom originates from nine West African countries which are Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Liberia, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia and Guinea. The study found a strong and positive relationship between culture and the practice of female genital mutilation in West Africa, and there was a weak and positive relationship between religion and education, and the practice of female genital mutilation in West Africa. Despite the health risks, it was revealed that female genital mutilation remained uninterrupted in West Africa. The findings of this study imply that the culture of the people, religious belief system and education are critical factors in efforts to be considered when discouraging the practice of female genital mutilation. Therefore, for healthy living, the practice of female genital mutilation should be discouraged in the study area. Based on the study outcome, recommendations were suggested.