Search results

As the global community increasingly directs its attention towards sustainable urban development, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into circular economy (CE) management within smart cities has become a potent strategy. This study aims to examine the potential influence of AI-based technologies on optimizing resources and minimizing waste, which constitute critical components of the principles underpinning the CE. The focus is mainly on applying these technologies within smart city environments. Artificial Intelligence can significantly enhance the processes of gathering, analyzing and decision-making by integrating internet of things (IoT) sensors, data analytics, machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics. This chapter explores the potential of AI in predicting trends, optimizing circular supply chains, improving waste management and recycling practices, facilitating sustainable product design, fostering citizen engagement and aiding policy development. The current research presents a comprehensive examination of the interrelated connection between the principles of CE and the advanced technology of AI. Doing so contributes significantly to our holistic comprehension of how these advancements might collectively influence the development of a more sustainable and resilient future for urban populations.

This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal psychosis and emotional and behavioural problems, among in-school Nigerian adolescents.

A total of 351 junior secondary students (n = 173 males, 178 females; age range: 9–17 years) were recruited from five randomly selected public secondary schools in Nigeria. Students completed a variety of self-report measures, including a socio-demographic questionnaire, the prodromal questionnaire – brief version, the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) and the multidimensional peer victimization scale. They were also interviewed using the PTSD module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Kid Version.

Although bullying victimization was not found to predict the presence of PTSD, it predicted the risk of developing prodromal psychosis. All SDQ subscales also held significant positive associations with bullying victimization. This indicates that higher levels of victimization are associated with increased behavioural and emotional difficulties among adolescents.

The study findings add support to whole system approaches involving relevant stakeholders in health, education, social and criminal justice sectors via protective policies to address the problems of bullying in schools.

The study contributes to evidence demonstrating a need for improved understanding regarding the role of exposure to bullying victimization in predicting various forms of psychopathology. Furthermore, there is specifically a need for research with this focus in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Nigerian education system.

Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend sociological knowledge about how movements (sometimes) diffuse and amplify insurgent actions, that is, how movements move. We extend movement diffusion theory by drawing a conceptual analogue with military theory and practice applied to the case of the organized and highly disciplined nonviolent Nashville civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We emphasize emplacement in a base-mission extension model whereby a movement base is built in a community establishing a social movement school for inculcating discipline and performative training in cadre who engage in insurgent operations extended from that base to outlying events and campaigns. Our data are drawn from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted with participants of the Nashville civil rights movement. The analytic strategy employs a variant of the “extended case method,” where extension is constituted by movement agents following paths from base to outlying campaigns or events. Evidence shows that the Nashville movement established an exemplary local movement base that led to important changes in that city but also spawned traveling movement cadre who moved movement actions in an extensive series of pathways linking the Nashville base to events and campaigns across the southern theater of the civil rights movement. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of politically-connected boards (PCBs) on over-(under-)investment in labor. We also examine the impacts of the supervisory board (SB)’s optimal tenure on the association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

We constructed the proxy for PCBs using a dummy variable set to 1 (one) if a firm has politically-connected boards and zero (0) otherwise. For the robustness check, we used the number of politically-connected members on the boards as the proxy for PCBs.

We find that the presence of PCBs reduces over-investment in labor. Consistent with our prediction, we found no significant association between PCBs and under-investment in labor. We also find that the SB with optimal tenure strengthens the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor. In our channel analysis, we find that the presence of PCB mitigates over-investment in labor through a higher dividend payout ratio.

Due to the unavailability of data in firms’ annual reports regarding the number of poorly-skilled and highly skilled employees, we were not able to examine the effect of low-skilled and high-skilled employees on over-investment in labor. Also, we were not able to examine over-(under-)investment in labor by drawing a distinction between general (generalist) and firm-specific human capital (specialist) as suggested by Sevcenko, Wu, and Kacperczyk (2022). Generally, it is more difficult for managers to hire highly-skilled employees, specialists in particular, thereby driving the choice of either over- or under-investing in the labor forces. In addition, in the firms’ annual reports, there is no information regarding temporary employees. Therefore, if and when such data become available, this would provide another avenue for future research.

Our study offers several practical implications and insights to stakeholders (e.g. insiders or management, shareholders, investors, analysts and creditors) in the following ways. First, our study highlights significant differences between capital investment and labor investment. For instance, labor investment is considered an expense rather than an asset (Wyatt, 2008) because, although such investment is human capital and is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet (Boon et al., 2017). In addition, labor investment is characterized by: its flexibility which enables firms to make frequent adjustments (Hamermesh, 1995; Dixit & Pindyck, 2012; Aksin et al., 2015), its non-homogeneity since every employee is unique (Luo et al., 2020), its direct impact on morale and productivity of a firm (Azadegan et al., 2013; Mishina et al., 2004; Tatikonda et al., 2013), and its financial outlay which affects the ongoing cash flows of a firm (Sualihu et al., 2021; Khedmati et al., 2020; Merz & Yashiv, 2007). Second, our findings reveal that the presence of PCBs could help to reduce over-investment in labor. However, if managers of a firm choose to under-invest in labor in order to obtain better profit in the short-term through cost saving, they should be aware of the potential consequences of facing a financial loss when a new business opportunity suddenly arises which requires a larger labor force. Third, our findings help stakeholders to re-focus on the labor investment. This is crucial due to the fact that labor investment is often neglected by those stakeholders because the expenditure of labor investment is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet as an asset. Instead, it is written off as an expense in the firm’s income statement. Fourth, our findings also provide insightful information to stakeholders, suggesting that an SB with optimal tenure is more committed to a firm, and this factor plays an important role in strengthening the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

First, our findings provide a valuable understanding of the effects of PCBs on over-(under-)investment in labor. Stakeholders could use information disclosed in the financial statements of a publicly-listed firm to determine the extent of the firm’s investment in labor and PCBs, and compare this information with similar firms in the same industry sector. Second, our findings give a better understanding of the association between investment in labor and political connections , which are human and social capital that could determine the long-term survival and success of a firm. Third, for shareholders, the appointment of board members with political connections is an important strategic decision to build political capital, which is likely to have a long-term impact on the financial performance of a firm; therefore, it requires thoughtful consultation with firm insiders.

Our findings highlight the role of PCBs in reducing over-investment in labor. These findings are significant because both investment in labor and political connections as human and social capital can play an important role in determining the long-term survival and success of a firm.

This paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.

This paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.

Whereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.

This paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.

This study aims to address the following research questions: (1) What are the theoretical frameworks and areas of study that influence the development of service ecosystems? and (2) To what extent does a service ecosystem align with the theoretical concepts presented in other research contexts within the study areas, thereby transforming the fundamental structure of the core concept?

We conducted a bibliometric systematic literature review, analyzing 280 papers from a sample of 52 journals listed in the Association of Business Schools (ABS). The review covered the period between 2004 and 2022, and we utilized co-citation analysis, multi-dimensional scaling analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) on a total of 2,614 citations.

This study employs co-citation analysis to identify the conceptual structure of the service ecosystem based on highly cited papers. Additionally, we utilize multidimensional scaling (MDS) to uncover key approaches driving service ecosystem research. Through HCA and network analysis, we examine the research scope and its development, emphasizing theory-driven approaches. By combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, we explore the interrelationships between scope, domain and evolution. This comprehensive analysis allows us to delve deeply into the study of service ecosystems. To broaden the research scope, we propose a conceptual framework for comparing the main components of a service ecosystem. The current paper clarifies the service ecosystem's intellectual structure, including service performance, humanistic approach, sustainable innovations and service reflexivity and reformation and proposes a prospective research framework for specialists and researchers by introducing a metaverse service ecosystem.

For the first time, the findings of this study shed light on processes that facilitate the flow of technologies, business models and markets through social structures, ultimately contributing to social change. In service-based systems, the development and application of a more humanistic approach within and surrounding social service ecosystems are crucial as they evolve. Therefore, adopting a dynamic and multifaceted approach offers valuable insights into the drivers of value creation.

Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to increase mentalizing capacity. The purpose of this meta-ethnography was to synthesize the available qualitative literature on MBT to allow for a more thorough understanding of the lived experience of those who have undergone this therapy.

A systematic search of seven databases was carried out. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme was used to appraise the papers suitable for inclusion. The data were synthesized using a meta-ethnographic approach in which the second-order constructs from each paper were translated and reinterpreted creating a line of argument synthesis.

A total of 11 studies were included in the meta-ethnography. Three overarching themes were identified within the included papers which outlined that participant experience of MBT consisted of three different developmental stages. Navigating the therapeutic process describes the participant’s experience of the therapeutic process of MBT. The processes of change in MBT outlined participant reports of mechanisms of change experienced in MBT. Mentalizing self and others described the experience of generalizing new knowledge and skills to the world outside of therapy and unveiled the impact that engaging in MBT had on participants.

This meta-ethnography offers new insights into how clients experience MBT as a therapeutic process and offers suggestions for implementation in clinical practice as well as areas of focus for research of this therapeutic approach.

This research paper aims to integrate the employee-related factors that empirical literature considers antecedents of performance (skills, work motivation, personal characteristics) into a multiple linear regression model, and to test such a model in order to measure the level of each individual factor on the performance.

Quantitative, multisource research approach. After testing the validity of the model with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, this research applies the multiple linear regression model Work performance = a(Skills) + b(Work Motivation) + c(Personal Characteristics) + e(constant) to two different samples of workers: chemical technicians (N = 63) and salespeople (N = 61).

This study confirms the factorial structure of the antecedents of work performance, showing that skills, motivation, and personal characteristics are three general employee-related factors underlying work performance. The statistical analysis highlights a variance in performance between 40 and 65% explained by employee-related factors, hence leaving 35–60% as due to factors outside the model (firm/environment-related and/or job-related factors, or other skills and personal characteristics not considered in the model). The study also highlights that employee-related factors sometimes affect performance differently than job designers' expectations, and sometimes even negatively.

The equation was tested on two case studies, so further explorations are needed. Furthermore, the approach adopted is inductive thus describing performance as it is, not as it should be. Therefore, it explains the best actual performance of workers, not the ideal performance.

The equation tested here represents a simple and valid tool to guide many Human Resource Management practices, such as; selection, training, development, and career orientation.

Findings provide a valid indication for designing and managing human resource management systems more even-handedly, from an organizational and employee point of view. In doing so, it drives organizations towards a better Person/Job fit.

The study represents one of the first attempts to take into consideration multiple factors simultaneously in explaining work performance.