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This paper demystifies the fluid workforce phenomenon increasingly discussed in the circles of organizational innovators and explores the characteristic aspects of the fluid workforce in the healthcare sector.

We analyze the concept and provide a generic review of definitions of a fluid workforce in relation to other similar concepts established in the academic and practitioner literature, contextualize the fluid workforce phenomenon in healthcare and distinguish relevant drivers and categories of fluid workers in this sector. We also discuss the implications of a fluid workforce for healthcare organizations, drawing on the health labor market and human resource management (HRM) practices frameworks.

The fluid workforce in healthcare is not new. Today’s main novelties are related to the wide diversity of types of fluid workforce that have emerged, the expanding scale of diffusion of the fluid workforce and the emergence of digital technologies to support HRM decisions. While a fluid workforce may provide solutions to address mismatches in the supply and demand of health workers, it can also worsen working conditions, increase dual practice and have implications for existing HRM practices.

We disentangle a novel term for the public sector, healthcare and HRM literature. We discern similarities and distinctions, presenting a framework for managing and analyzing this workforce at organizational and labor market levels in the healthcare sector. Acknowledging the challenges in estimating the existing fluid workforce labor market size, we offer practical methodologies to empirically estimate its prevalence within the healthcare industry and build an agenda for future research.

The information systems (IS) literature has indicated the importance of data analytics capabilities (DAC) in improving business performance in organizations. The literature has also highlighted the roles of organizations’ data-related resources in developing their DAC and enhancing their business performance. However, little research has taken resource quality into account when studying DAC for business performance enhancement. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of resource quality on DAC development for business performance enhancement.

We studied DAC development using the resource-based view and the IS success model based on empirical data collected via 19 semi-structured interviews.

Our findings show that data-related resource (including data, data systems, and data services) quality is vital to the development of DAC and the enhancement of organizations’ business performance. The study uncovers the factors that make up each quality dimension, which is required for developing DAC for business performance enhancement.

Using the resource quality view, this study contributes to the literature by exploring the role of data-related resource quality in DAC development and business performance enhancement.

The paper aims to address the gap in literature on effective disaster governance in Southeast Asia, with a focus on COVID-19 management in Malaysia. It explores the intersection of localized hazard understandings, disaster governance and policy implications, emphasizing systemic vulnerability, resilience enhancement and improving risk communication and resource management. The goal is to offer insights and frameworks for policymakers, researchers and practitioners to navigate disaster governance complexities in Southeast Asia, marked by unique challenges and vulnerabilities.

The study employs an analytical descriptive methodology, involving a comprehensive literature review of academic articles, official reports and case studies related to disaster governance in Malaysia. It focuses on evaluating Malaysia's disaster governance's adaptability, inclusivity and coordination, considering policy implementation, stakeholder engagement and resource allocation. This approach facilitates a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of Malaysia's strategies in integrating environmental and health disaster management systems.

The findings reveal that Malaysia's disaster governance, particularly during COVID-19, has been challenged by the need for rapid adaptation and coordination. While early lockdowns and a robust vaccination program were effective, they also highlighted issues in healthcare system capacity and socioeconomic impacts. The study emphasizes the importance of integrated, resilient disaster management strategies that consider public health, environmental risks and socio-economic factors. It underscores the need for improved stakeholder collaboration, infrastructure resilience and climate change mitigation in disaster governance.

The research is limited by a lack of specific data on Malaysia's unique socio-cultural, economic and political dynamics in disaster response. This gap hinders the development of nuanced, context-specific policies and practices for effective disaster governance, emphasizing the need for more region-focused studies.

The study highlights the need for Malaysia to develop more resilient, integrated disaster governance frameworks, emphasizing local community empowerment, sustainable infrastructure and climate change mitigation. It calls for enhanced regional cooperation in Southeast Asia for effective disaster preparedness and response.

The research suggests that disaster governance should prioritize social resilience and inclusivity, addressing the varying impacts on different societal segments. Emphasis on mental health, community engagement and equitable resource distribution is vital for comprehensive disaster management and societal well-being in Southeast Asia.

This paper uniquely contributes to the understanding of disaster governance in Southeast Asia by combining empirical research and systematic reviews focused on Malaysia. It offers a novel perspective on integrating environmental and health disaster management, highlighting systemic vulnerabilities and resilience strategies. The study's value lies in its emphasis on the region's unique challenges, providing valuable insights for policymakers, researchers and practitioners in developing effective, context-specific disaster governance frameworks in Southeast Asia.

Given the growing significance of contemporary socio-economic and infrastructural conversations of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), this research seeks to provide a general overview of the academic landscape concerning PPP.

To offer a nuanced perspective, the study adopts the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) methodology to meticulously analyse 3,057 journal articles, mapping out the thematic contours within the PPP domain.

The analysis highlights PPP's pivotal role in harmonising public policy goals with private sector agility, notably in areas like disaster-ready sustainable infrastructure and addressing rapid urbanisation challenges. The emphasis within the literature on financial, risk, and performance aspects accentuates the complexities inherent in financing PPP and the critical need for practical evaluation tools. An emerging focus on healthcare within PPP indicates potential for more insightful research, especially amid ongoing global health crises.

This study pioneers the application of LDA for an all-encompassing examination of PPP-related academic works, presenting unique theoretical and practical insights into the diverse facets of PPP.

Just-in-Time (JIT) arrival in the context of port calls can be used to reduce fuel and emissions to achieve environmental targets. The purpose of this paper is to study the implementation process of the Pre-booking Berth Allocation Policy (PBP) and analyze the effectiveness of this policy for the implementation of JIT in port calls.

The study deploys a single case study approach to empirically analyze port authority’s transition from a first-come-first-served (FCFS) arrival policy to the PBP. Observations, interviews and documents were used to collect data during 2020–2022. The analysis deployed the capability, opportunity, motivation and behavior model.

The transition from FCFS to PBP requires an inter-organizational approach, engaging external actors to manage diverse needs and preferences. This fosters effective transition and addresses conflicting interests. The PBP enables JIT arrival, enhancing operational and environmental performance, but faces barriers such as resource dependency and lack of trust. Information sharing capability among the actors, supported by Port Community Systems and adjusted operating rules, is crucial. Moreover, the PBP facilitates integration between sea and hinterland transportation, improving planning and efficiency across maritime transportation chains.

The single case study limits the generalizability of the findings.

Implementing the PBP is complex and demands careful planning from managers. Involving port call actors in the transition is helpful for port managers because they provide valuable feedback and highlight overlooked issues.

Five propositions are suggested to highlight the role of inter-organizational collaboration, information sharing and overcoming barriers such as resource dependency to successfully realize the benefits of JIT in maritime transportation chains.

This study explores the interplay between levels of cultures and aspects of quality management (QM), aiming to develop a conceptual framework and introduce propositions regarding managing quality in a multinational company (MNC).

A conceptual framework delineating the relationship between the levels of cultures in MNCs and various aspects of QM is proposed. Thereafter, based on a theory elaboration approach, a case study in Swedish facilities of MNCs is used to further illustrate the link between constructs of the framework, contributing to the identification of challenges and possibilities in managing quality in MNCs.

The research identifies key propositions regarding the intricate relationship between levels of cultures and their influences on aspects of QM in MNC. Proposition 1 emphasises the impact of national cultural differences on perceptions of QM principles. Proposition 2 reveals that diverse QM perceptions affect global consistency in QM practices. However, proposition 3 suggests that emphasising technical aspects in common QM practices fosters shared perceptions and a cohesive organisational culture, leading to Proposition 4, that a QM-centric organisational culture mediates national cultural differences, facilitating the management of quality globally.

This research relies on a case study from a Swedish perspective. There is a need for quantitative or mixed method approaches to validate the proposed framework.

This research yields practical insights into cross-cultural QM challenges and possibilities in MNCs.

By integrating national and organisational culture into the QM framework, this research offers a conceptual model and propositions as a foundation for future cross-cultural QM research in MNCs.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been increasingly investing in their economic and social development in recent years, yet the effectiveness of their spending remains unknown although they have been taking reforms to advance their spending efficiency practices.

The study applies a quantitative approach to analyze panel data using a multiple regression model based on the World Economic Forum (WEF) reports of the global competitiveness index (GCI) from 2009 until 2018.

The results show that policies' strength has a positive and significant influence, while national infrastructure and workforce empowerment have a negative and significant influence over the extent of spending efficiency implementation in the GCC countries.

GCI disclosure assessment criteria changed in 2019 and then stopped in 2020 due to COVID-19. A different version of GCI was published in 2020, which focuses on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and no other issues have been published since then. This represented a barrier to recent data collection.

Practical contribution is the value added by this study to a minimal literature on spending efficiency in the GCC countries. This study’s theoretical contribution to knowledge is the integration of the new institutional sociology (NIS) perspective of institutional theory and the resource slack theory to investigate a set of factors rarely explored in relation to their impact on governmental spending efficiency.

This study provides the following recommendations for policymakers: The GCC government should direct government training bodies and universities (in business majors) to include mandatory spending efficiency subjects to enhance current knowledge. Also, the governmental-related bodies of spending efficiency should make agreements with universities and research centers to improve the diverse R&D aspects of government spending efficiency. Another important recommendation is to enforce the adoption of the GRC concept regarding spending efficiency practices for governmental employees to guide them towards implementing spending efficiency practices.

This study's theoretical contribution to knowledge is the integration of the new institutional sociology (NIS) perspective of institutional theory and the resource slack theory to investigate a set of factors rarely explored in relation to their impact on governmental spending efficiency. Also, the practical contribution is the value added by this study to a minimal literature on spending efficiency in the GCC countries. The research has established empirical evidence to support the findings above.

This project inquires whether transitioning to adopting sustainable practices involves emphasizing the significance of education and skill development that aligns with employees' knowledge. Additionally, this project explores whether soft skills can act as a means for effective communication, collaboration and ethical decision-making when addressing the intricate and socially interconnected nature of sustainability challenges. Thus, this research explores employee sustainability knowledge and soft skills to gain a more nuanced understanding to provide evidence-based recommendations to enhance organizational sustainability initiatives.

This study used a form of chain-referral sampling with two populations. A two-step cluster analysis with a log-likelihood distance measure and Schwarz’s Bayesian criterion was employed to identify communities of employees with different levels of sustainable practices and soft skills knowledge. A corresponding analysis was conducted to better understand different communities in terms of industry and managerial experience. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using a covariance-based measurement model to establish measurement validity and reliability and to impute latent variables (i.e. constructs) scores.

Aligning human resource (HR) strategies with these identified knowledge communities enables organizations to strategically enhance comprehensive training programs promoting sustainable practices and soft skills. Tailored training and workforce development programs for each community are recommended, with the proposal of active training methods like Lego Serious Play to dynamically engage employees. As organizations increasingly invest in training, this research offers valuable insights for educators and industry professionals to better cultivate and apply soft skills to develop employee sustainability practices and enhance employee development.

Although this study’s findings are not generalizable to the population, they are useful when considering critical sustainability knowledge and soft skills necessary for employees in the hospitality industry. The convenience sample of this study could have been more robust, with participants with greater tenure in the industry or a better understanding of sustainable practices and soft skill competencies. This research used a Qualtrics survey to gather subject responses. This may have caused biases in responding to the survey, such as a central tendency, immediacy, the rater’s knowledge about each criterion or boredom with the survey length.

The practical implications drawn from this study’s findings offer actionable insights for organizations seeking to enhance sustainability practices within their workforce. As one navigates the diverse landscape of employee categories, including sustainable champions, emerging learners and skillful initiators, it becomes evident that a one-size-fits-all approach to training and workforce education is not conducive to cultivating a sustainable culture. In this section, some possible practical strategies tailored to each employee category are suggested, ensuring that organizations can effectively harness the unique strengths and development needs within their workforce.

Using a social cognitive theoretical lens (Bandura, 1977), sustainable catalysts' elevated knowledge levels make them influential contributors to the organization’s sustainability goals, while their adeptness in soft skills positions them as effective communicators, collaborators and leaders in fostering a culture of sustainability. Figure 1b displays this idea. As such, sustainable catalysts were present four times in the effectiveness of the top five soft skills, meaning these sustainable catalysts should be the area of primary focus as they can assist organizations by educating other employees due to their enhanced soft skills and level of sustainability knowledge.

Rooted in social cognitive theory, this study investigated how HR practices can effectively shape sustainability-related workforce development in the workplace. The results identified distinct knowledge communities – sustainable catalysts, skillful initiators, emerging learners and sustainable champions – aligned with quadrants of sustainable practice effectiveness. Aligning HR strategies with these identified knowledge communities enables organizations to strategically enhance comprehensive training programs promoting sustainable practices and soft skills.

The purpose of the quantitative correlational research study was to determine the relationship, if any, between the predictor variable, cosmeceutical business service quality, and the outcome variable, cosmeceutical client satisfaction, in the southeast region of the United States of America. Cosmeceuticals were cosmetics and medications administered by estheticians.

Literature on business service quality and client satisfaction theories was synthesized after extensive review. Quantitative research data were collected and statistically analyzed on the following subscales of consumer satisfaction: general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal manner, communication, financial aspects, time spent with professionals and accessibility/convenience. The hypotheses addressed the research question (RQ) of whether cosmeceutical business service quality affects client satisfaction. The Cosmeceutical Client Satisfaction Questionnaire 18 (CCSQ-18), a web-based research instrument, had strong reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.84. The target population (N = 50) included randomly selected female cosmeceutical consumers in the southeast region of the United States of America. The researcher did not digress from the detailed research protocol, instrumentation, data collection or data analyses. Through the Likelihood Ratio (LR) chi-squared statistic (18) = 65.35 and its associated probability, Prob > chi-squared = 0.000, the researcher determined the predictor variable cohesively has a statistically significant effect on the outcome variable.

Research results concluded that a significant relationship exists between cosmeceutical business service quality and cosmeceutical client satisfaction in the southeast region of the United States of America.

The findings detailed in the results complimented the argument that, generally, business service quality is important to consider, because good business is based on client satisfaction.

Inclusive growth in the education sector is still a major challenge in some countries because of limited access to technologies and internet connectivity, among other reasons. However, as a technology, augmented reality (AR) is expected to be widely used in the field of education in the future. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the use of AR for inclusive growth in education as well as identify the challenges, particularly in countries like India and Tanzania.

This paper applies a systematic literature review by analysing and synthesising relevant documents, mainly journal articles, books and conference papers. Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation were used for the analysis. Content analysis was used to evaluate the contents of the reviewed literature.

For the use of AR, it is important to have adequate digital infrastructure, access to universal internet or broadband facilities and the digital empowerment of citizens. Major challenges to inclusive growth in education include the lack of trained teacher educators and students’ preference for practical or project-based curriculum.

Practitioners in both countries may consider the use of AR for inclusive growth in education.

This paper specifically examines the use of AR in higher education and the related challenges based on a review of two countries, namely India and Tanzania.