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This first chapter is the introduction to the book. The purpose of this book is to address and better understand why China tightly embraces modern sport in contemporary times. Some view this as an indicator of glocalisation and a result of Western industrial civilization putting pressure on China to showcase their strengths as a nation. Some important considerations to explore are China's mediated ability to play and compete with the west. Sport is also seen as a channel of observing global political and economic challenges, especially those in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intense tensions between communities, which certainly inspires further academic development. Given China's recently remarkable achievements in sport, it is high time to show the world more inside stories of sport development across the nation. The contributors of this collection bring foundational Chinese context to each chapter as they examine changing sport cultures at different scales.

In contrast to other Chinese sports, which attract enormous commercial interests and relates to a kind of political kudos and ideological significance, Chinese baseball represents a singular case for the author to investigate the way in which China responds to sport globalisation due to its peripheral position in, and limited resource from, the domestic sport system and powerful stakeholders from the global society. The study examines the development of Chinese baseball and its interplay with the global sport giants and international events (i.e. the Olympic Games and the Major League Baseball [MLB]). Given the influence of sport globalisation, the author also identifies the consistent dominance of Chinese sport authorities and the spectrum of local stakeholders' reaction towards globalisation. The chapter ends with a discussion of the relationship between marginal position of Chinese baseball in the local sport system and the rationale of its response to sport globalisation.

This paper investigates the interactional relationships between sustainable human resource management (SHRM) and organizational performance (OP). Sustainable HRM is an approach that links HRM and sustainability. These studies focused on integrating HR with sustainable developments, such as economic and social aspects, in favour of focusing on the environmental aspect. Organizational change is an ongoing process that has to be managed effectively to keep the change in place for a long time.

A framework was offered to estimate the cause-and-effect relation of the SHRM and OP factors. Data is gathered from professionals from various pharmaceutical industries. This study applied two methods, Fuzzy AHP and DEMATEL Type II. These techniques are used to understand the cause-and-effect factors and their interactions.

It was observed from the findings that the factor of SHRM, such as Social Justice (F2), Green Job Design (F5), Green Training (F6) and Implementation of Green Policy (F8), was the most critical for the pharmaceutical sector that effects Financial performance (F13), Customer Satisfaction (F15) and Market performance (F14). Pharmaceutical firms ought to coordinate public health advocacy efforts, engage in healthcare initiatives and provide financial support for environmentally friendly efforts that improve social and economic conditions.

For this sustainability, managers concentrate on creating an environment that is healthy and acceptable, and they work hard to mitigate the impact of natural factors and repair damage done to the environment; it is essential to move towards sustainable development to resolve environmental problems. Improving HR efficiency is among essential HRM responsibilities, as they expand the knowledge base of the workforce, enhance human capital, and eventually create valuable intangible assets and promote and encourage sustainable pharmaceutical products for some years.

This research paper has presented exclusive worth to the SHRM and organizational performance literature as it employs fuzzy FAHP and DEMATEL type 2. There is less research on SHRM in the pharmaceutical sector with these factors. In addition, FAHP and TYPE 2 DEMATEL are used in very few researches on SHRM approaches.

This chapter explores how the development of football fandom for the Chinese national team and local football clubs is strongly associated with societal changes. Although the performances of Chinese football teams, especially the national team, have failed to impress the world, football remains the most popular because of millions of supporters with loyalty and passion. Most studies related to fans mainly focus on the economic and political implications of spectatorship along with the rise of China. Nevertheless, few articles are available to answer the fundamental questions, such as ‘When did these supporters come out?’ and ‘What were the factors of the development of fandom?’. By going through archival records and published documents over the last decades, this chapter offers a comprehensive and historical analysis of the development of football fandom in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and deals with these unanswered questions. As such, this chapter does not intend to be the most authoritative one but is one of the rare sources to lay down the foundation for research on Chinese football fandom. Furthermore, this chapter also proves that studies on football fandom can be a useful window for observing Chinese society.

Co-working spaces bundle all real estate services into a package and leverage shared economy trend to create new opportunities for growth. This sector is anticipated to expand significantly due to changes in mobility and office design driven by the development of remote or hybrid work settings. The current study attempts to identify key motivating factors for users in emerging economies in choosing co-working spaces.

Using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology and the self-determination theory framework, a total of 4 criteria-level factors, along with 13 sub-criteria level factors were identified as key motivators for adapting to co-working spaces.

The study highlights a few factors and their relative importance, which could help firms/organizations to start or offer co-working spaces within emerging economies.

The study contributes to literature by advancing the understanding of key motivators for users of co-working spaces within the ambits of emerging economies. In the process, the authors enlist a few factors vis-à-vis their relative importance, which could help firms/organizations to start or offer co-working spaces within emerging markets.

Digitalization and multi-channel strategy have appeared as recurrent themes in retailing for years, yet some major international as well as domestic mass retailers have chosen to retain a single, physical channel focus for customer transactions. These retailers, despite the digital mindset preoccupying the retailing sector, have chosen to rely fully, or predominantly, on their stores to generate revenues. A number of questions arise from this approach. This paper aims to understand the rationale for marketing and strategic practices which appear to go against the dominant, strongly digitally oriented, discourses and practices in the field of retailing. Why do some retailers choose not to add a digital transactional channel? Are there defensible reasons for this choice? Can such a strategy successfully create value?

This research is based on a qualitative, multiple case study of the strategies adopted by Primark (fashion) and Aldi (food), two major retailers that retain a largely single-channel transaction focus, in France and the UK.

This research suggests that some retailers may still be able to succeed by maintaining a single-transactional physical channel to avoid a cost trap which extensive moves towards digitalization of transactions might mean for them. In such circumstances, refusing to adopt a digital value proposition may be a means of preserving the success of their original business model.

Despite the weight of academic and practitioner discourses on the urge to undertake digital transformation, this work provides a comprehensive illustration of the rationale for sticking to a single physical channel to preserve the profitability of a traditional store-based business model.

The effect of digital transition on knowledge management (KM) processes is becoming relevant for companies operating in different industries and the body of literature examining this impact is rapidly growing. This paper aims to critically analyse the literature on the impact of digital transition on KM by rethinking the SECI model proposed by Nonaka and proposing the WISED model for the digital knowledge-creating company.

The systematisation of existing studies on the topic and the analysis of the evolution of knowledge creation process in the era of digital transition was carried out through a bibliometric approach.

According to the traditional epistemological and ontological dimensions and considering the innovative KM processes identified by this study (i.e. webification, informalisation, systematisation, explicitation and digitalisation), the results highlight how the proposed WISED model can be adopted by organizations to manage knowledge through the use of digital technologies.

Digital transition seems to open up new horizons that can expand the potential use of the WISED model for organisations and society.

There is a paucity of empirical research on poetry pedagogy within inclusive higher/post-secondary education programmes for students with intellectual disabilities. This chapter goes some way to address this omission by presenting an investigation of poetry pedagogy as informed by university students of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. By asking the question: How can university students with intellectual disabilities be supported to respond to poetry? two themes were identified in the findings: ‘Curriculum content’ identified the importance of providing background information on the poet and selecting poems that directly relate to their life experience. The second theme ‘Pedagogical approaches’ examined how the utilisation of a variety of teaching and learning strategies, informed by a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach, can be successfully used to develop Arts, Science and Inclusive Applied Practice (ASIAP) students' interpretations of poems.

The term sustainable tourism has been in existence for many years, yet the concept is still lacking universal agreement in terms of definition, a situation reflected in the difficulties encountered in producing, particularly implementing and related policies. The broad range of issues involved with sustainable development makes integrated policy and governance difficult even in the more specific fields such as sustainable tourism. This chapter begins by reviewing the basic elements of sustainable tourism, its links with the parent subject of sustainable development, and the issues involved in applying the ‘triple bottom line’ concept to tourism. It then examines the relationship between policy formulation and application in the context of governance, and the links between governance and power at different levels. While one of the achievements of sustainable tourism has been its widespread acceptance and official adoption of the concept in many countries, regions and communities, this acceptance has not been translated very often into effective action, owing partly to the lack of integration between stakeholders and partly to the multiple viewpoints making up the tourism landscape which rarely achieve unanimity of policy issues. The chapter includes a discussion of case studies at different scales to illustrate the positive and negative results of the implementation of such policies and concludes with a general summation.