Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the health and well-being of Thai immigrant women in transnational marriages.

Interviews with 13 Thai women living in Norway who have (had) a Norwegian spouse/partner were conducted and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Initial culture shock and a mixture of employment issues, transnational ties, marital relationships and social networks intertwined to influence women’s health and well-being over time. Sending financial remittances to family in Thailand could be challenging due to struggles to obtain suitable employment, working in low-paid physical jobs and spouses’ lack of understanding of this cultural practice. Over time, these intertwined factors led to chronic stress and deteriorating health for some. Thai networks and friendships were important for emotional and practical support.

More organised assistance may be beneficial to facilitate integration, reduce social isolation and improve employment opportunities.

Research on Thai women has so far focused on their position as immigrant wives and the vulnerabilities to exploitation and abuse they face. Focusing on only discourses around marital relationships may be limiting when trying to understand factors that influence the health and well-being of Thai immigrant women.

This case study examines unique overdose risks and prevention strategies for women who have used heroin during pregnancy in New York City. The overdose crisis has resulted in increased efforts to implement drug user health services; yet, pregnant and parenting women who use drugs continue to be left behind. Three women who currently use heroin and had experienced at least one pregnancy during their heroin use history were interviewed using semi-structured qualitative interviews. Their experiences documented in this case study illustrate several gender-specific considerations when responding to the overdose crisis in New York City. Overwhelmingly, barriers to healthcare and overdose prevention were correlated with perceived stigma and the fear of or actual loss of child custody. Compassionate, gender-responsive interventions remain largely absent in policy and practice, especially for pregnant women. The shared experiences highlighted in this case study should be used to develop improved drug user health policies and practices as well as increase overall advocacy efforts for women of reproductive age who use drugs.

We discuss how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play a leading role and take more responsibility towards reducing inequalities by developing a global sustainability regime. We especially focus on how this may contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Our purpose is to identify and discuss the components and activities that are needed to develop such a strategy and implement it in markets with different structural and institutional conditions. We will especially discuss interactions between the head office and the local subsidiaries/organizations as well as interactions with different salient groups of stakeholders. We focus on three highly significant groups: business, social and political actors. We identify four key components of a global sustainability approach – namely, (i) make it relevant within the organization, (ii) establish a legitimate sustainable network position, (iii) present incentives and gains that stimulate action and (iv) establish long-term salient structures. These components and the associated activities have not been discussed in a coherent manner although some aspects have been put forward in earlier studies. We present a comprehensive framework that suggests what role MNEs can play and what challenges they face while doing so. The chapter is based on more than 10 years’ experience of studying MNEs’ activities in developing as well as developed markets, including how they work with sustainability. The study is based on data from four Swedish MNEs and three major research projects.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.

This study adopted a qualitative approach using a multicase design in which 28 informal entrepreneurs situated in Kampala district, Uganda, were engaged. An interview guide, recorders and note books were used in data collection.

The results indicate that the traits of informal and semiformal entrepreneurs are distinct. Informal entrepreneurs have been noted to be more courageous and resilient, while their semiformal counterparts have greater passion for their businesses. It is thus observed that the formalization prospects are higher for the semiformal entrepreneurs than for their informal counterparts. Entrepreneurs that would be willing to formalize their businesses are discouraged by distance, technology and the cost of involving middlemen. Whereas the resilient entrepreneurs are noted to work through these challenges, the passive ones in both the informal and semiformal categories will not formalize their businesses by giving such excuses.

This study contributes to the extant literature on informal entrepreneurship by providing initial empirical evidence on how the personal traits of the entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions specifically.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a new and more elaborate view of the relationship between information and knowledge in accountability settings.

The study investigates how knowledge is accomplished when accountability is demanded. The “knowing-in-practice” perspective (Lave, 1988; Orlikowski, 2002; Pentland, 1992) is introduced to theorise knowledge as the ability to purposefully go on with practice and information as a resource that may contribute to this knowledge. Empirically, the study investigates Nordic investors’ engagement with companies addressing environmental, social, and governance issues.

The findings illustrate how information may contribute to knowledge in an accountability setting. Whether or not the information contributes to knowledge in the accountability setting depends on the information’s origin, convergence with other accounts, and use in contradicting and disproving executives’ information. The analysis also shows how knowledge in accountability settings may be achieved without information – for example, by enacting theories.

The study suggests that research should more carefully distinguish between knowledge and information. According to the perspective used here, knowledge is the ability to purposefully go on with practice. Information is one of many resources that can contribute to knowledge.

This study provides insight into the relationship between accounting systems and the practice of demanding accountability. Such understanding is valuable when designing accounts-based governance and civil regulation, such as for addressing sustainability issues, as in this study.

The study challenges the view of knowledge as a representation or factual commodity, and provides a new and more elaborate view of the relationship between information and knowledge in accountability settings by introducing the knowing-in-practice perspective to the accounting literature.

This research aims to understand how satisfied students were with their online learning experience and how actively engaged they were in their studies.

To study the breadth and depth of students' experiences and fully address the research aims, the researchers utilized a mixed method. Through a survey questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended questions, student responses were gathered. On a five-point Likert scale, the closed-ended questions were co-constructed. The research participants included students attending Pakistan's private university in Karachi. Participants from all programs were the authors' focus (i.e. undergraduate and graduate). A total of 552 students completed the survey questionnaire.

The study reveals students' level of satisfaction with their online encounters. Contextual restrictions, such as power outages, bad internet, a lack of a private place and administrative problems, make it difficult to access and connect during learning sessions. Additionally, the student's perception of online learning as being more secure and safe in terms of their physical safety was an intriguing finding. They also see the integration of online and in-person learning as advantageous because it might reduce travel expenses and time while also giving them access to independent study resources. Given its many benefits, this research supports the use of online learning in higher education. Online education promotes a healthy mix of teacher- and student-centered instruction.

Moreover, the findings indicate that effective non-verbal communication occurs when students interact with a teacher and colleague face-to-face. In a face-to-face teaching situation, good body language may inspire, engage and motivate students. Better learning outcomes result from being able to interpret people's body language, whether it be eye contact or posture, and alter the topic and approach. Keeping in view the recent nature of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, no research has been carried out on this topic to date or on such a wide-scale transition to online learning, specifically in the context of higher education in Pakistan (Dincer, 2018). This research is unique in its kind as it focuses on the impact of online learning on the affective domain as well.

Given the contextual concerns, teachers must find alternative educational insights that will enable students to reduce listening demands, improve self-learning and promote engagement.

Therefore, in the authors' context, it is a unique finding that students felt socially isolated. While numerous studies have examined anxiety, still there is still a dearth of literature regarding stress factors (Dincer, 2018). The current study provided substantial information on the impact of online learning on students' stress levels, and the consequence is that they were strained out because they felt socially isolated. Additionally, these findings are in alignment with the qualitative data showing a problem of student isolation and a lack of engagement. Since the face-to-face mode had provided them with the time and space, they were able to engage in educational socialization outside the boundaries of the classroom, such as casual conversations during breaks, gatherings at coffee shops and working on group projects at the library.

This research was conducted in the context of Pakistan.

This paper aims to examine the recommendation system of the video-sharing website YouTube to study how control of users is effected on online platforms.

This paper conceptualises algorithmic systems as protocols – technological and social infrastructures that both facilitate and govern interactions between autonomous actors (Galloway and Thacker, 2004, 2007). It adopts a netnographic approach (Kozinets, 2002) to study not only the formal, technological systems of the platform but also the systems as they were made sense of, understood and enacted upon by actors. It relies both on information as revealed by the organisation itself, as well as discussions between lay users in online forums and press coverage.

The results of this study indicate that the ways in which platforms selectively facilitate interactions between users constitute a form of control. While maintaining the appearance of an open and neutral marketplace, interactions on the platform are in fact highly structured. The system relies on the surveillance of user interactions to rapidly identify and propagate marketable contents, so as to maximise user “engagement” and ad revenue. The systems place few demands or restrictions on individual users, instead control is effected in a probabilistic fashion, over the population of users as a whole, so as to, in aggregate, accomplish organisational goal.

This paper contributes to the literature on accounting and control practices in online spaces, by extending the notion of control beyond overt rankings and evaluations, to the underlying technical and social infrastructures that facilitate and shape interactions.

Background: Amid increasing leadership failures in the global business context, the mining industry is one of the industries with many adverse incidents, affecting employee safety, the environment, and surrounding communities. Emerging economies tend to have unique socio-economic challenges and greater relative economic dependence on mining, presenting unique challenges to leaders. The purpose of this research was to study the realities of responsible leadership in the mining industry in an emerging economy.

Methods: A qualitative research study, consisting of semi-structured interviews was conducted. Nine senior mine managers were selected to represent perspectives from different operations and mining houses. Data was gathered from August to October 2020 in South Africa, an emerging economy with significant mining operations. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted through the use of software, rendering five themes, with 12 sub-themes.

Results: The research found that requirements on mining leaders in emerging economies demand consistent balancing of a complex set of competing risks, whilst attending to paradoxical requirements among operations, and internal and external stakeholders. Leaders face several competing requirements from stakeholders, the environment, mining practices, and time frames. Responsible leaders must navigate a paradoxical maze of needs and time horizons, with several conflicting forces and dilemmas, and dichotomous relationships. Responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy is a proverbial minefield of paradoxes and dilemmas between responsible intentions and practical realities. These paradoxes and dilemmas are specifically acute in the context of emerging economies due to the dire socio-economic situations. A total of 10 competencies emerged as essential responsible leadership requirements in this context.

Conclusions: The study provides an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy. This understanding will contribute to capacitating leaders in the mining industries of emerging economies to act responsibly.