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This chapter, drawing on my personal experience as the project manager for a large-scale survey – the European Survey on Language Competences – reflects on the aspects that influence my own research most strongly, namely the limitations of the methodology used in such surveys to produce data that can feed into policy formation and positively impact what goes on inside classrooms around the world. Future trends and directions for research in comparative education are then explored, where I suggest practical case studies focusing on comparative pedagogy within a policy learning approach as a possible way forward in providing a rich and robust supplementary source of evidence for policymakers.

In 2003, there was a concern among policymakers that spin-outs were being given undue prominence in consideration of the research commercialisation performance of UK Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) (Lambert, 2003). The aim of this research was to investigate what issues lay behind the data reported on spin-out activity by UK HEIs in the period 1998–2002.

This paper aims to explore how existing collaborative governance arrangements in the context of corporate responsibility (e.g. the Global Reporting Initiative and Social Accountability 8000) need to collaborate more directly in order to enhance their impact. The objective of this paper is twofold: primarily, to explore existing and potential linkages between multi‐stakeholder standards; but, at the same time, to explore the potential for standard convergence.

The paper follows a conceptual approach that is supported by a variety of case examples. First, the nature and benefits as well as shortcomings of multi‐stakeholder standards are explored. Second, a categorization scheme for the availability of such standards is developed. Third, linkages between the different standard categories are explored and discussed. Last but not least, the paper outlines practical implications.

A variety of linkages between existing multi‐stakeholder standards exist. These linkages need to be strengthened, as the market for corporate responsibility is unlikely to support a great variety of partly competing and overlapping initiatives.

The paper offers a structured discussion of potential linkages between multi‐stakeholder standards and thus complements the literature where such initiatives are discussed (usually without much mention of linkages). Practitioners will find the discussion useful to explore how their participation in a variety of initiatives can be better coordinated.

A broad range of policy evaluations below is begun in Chapter 2 by Kate Johnston, Colette Henry and Simon Gillespie in their evaluation entitled ‘Encouraging Research and Development in Ireland's Biotechnology Enterprises’. This investigation critically evaluates Irish government policy towards biotechnology development over a preceding 10-year period. In Chapter 3, Anthony Ward, Sarah Cooper, Frank Cave and William Lucas examine ‘The Effect of Industrial Experience on Entrepreneurial Intent and Self-Efficacy in UK Engineering Undergraduates’ in a large-scale study that generally produces satisfactory results in terms of raising the profile of entrepreneurship among undergraduates. Deirdre Hunt, in Chapter 4, again focuses on the evolution of strategy in Ireland, this time towards the more general topic of new firm formation with a personal contribution entitled ‘Now You See Them — Now You Don’t: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-Ups’.

The offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway provides services to people with histories of offending and traits of personality disorder (PD) who are at high risk of violent re-offending. The residential provisions have been developed as psychologically informed planned environments (PIPE), in which socially creative activities form an integral part. Ryan et al. (2018) suggest that social and creative activities offer individuals experiences to increase their understanding of themselves and others. The purpose of this study is to complete a service evaluation exploring how people who live on an OPD PIPE in a woman’s prison make sense of their experiences of a drumming, singing and ceremony group, which was offered to them as part of their provision PIPE.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six service users (between 19 and 42 years old).

Thematic analysis identified three themes: emotional regulation, belonging and connectedness and humanising spaces.

This study used a small sample (n = 6), and all participants were accessing the same OPD provision PIPE. Further, participation was voluntary, and results found may relate to possible biases in a self-selecting sample. The interviewer knew the participants through their clinical work, and despite being informed that participation in this research project would have no bearing on their treatment pathway, some may have participated as a way to demonstrate their compliance with the overall programme. A further limitation relates to the group being evaluated on its own without a comparison group.

This study has important implications for treatment delivery in prisons, as it demonstrates the therapeutic merit of social creative activities for one of the most complex, high-risk and challenging offender groups. The findings show that the specific combination of the physical act of drumming and the social act of drumming together may create an environment that allows people to heal and overcome both physical and emotional disconnections that have been caused by their trauma.

This study’s findings provide further understanding of the experience of people who have survived trauma.

Findings suggest that the group provides therapeutic value, offering an alternative to traditional therapy and targets specific difficulties particularly associated with emotionally unstable and antisocial PDs. We suggest that socially creative activities form an important part of the rehabilitation process of complex, high-risk groups. Future research would benefit from focusing on the extent to which experiential learning through socially creative group participation can impact on lasting behavioural change.

The purpose of this study is to review the literature on corporate governance (CG); environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and corporate social responsibility (CSR) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and addresses three research questions: What are the characteristics of the literature on CG and COVID-19? What are the themes in CG in the COVID-19 era? and What are key areas of future research on CG and COVID-19?

The authors attempted a systematic literature review of 62 studies published in 2020. The authors used four criteria to identify characteristics of the literature on CG and COVID-19 and three criteria to identify key themes in the literature addressing CG and the pandemic. The authors analyzed answers to the above research questions and proposals from studies reviewed to guide future research.

CG in the context of COVID-19 has been studied mostly in developed countries and within a theoretical framework. As accounting data are insufficient, more research is required in all countries (developed, emerging and other). Further, there are no conclusive results regarding the relevance of ESG and CSR to financial performance. Future research should use additional methodologies and data sources to fully explain the impact of COVID-19 on CG.

Practitioners and policymakers could benefit from the study, as the authors present key challenges to CG for the present and the future.

This study is the first to provide a systematic literature review on CG during the COVID-19 pandemic and presents current trends, challenges and avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the party most preferred to take the risks associated with the target cost contracts and guaranteed maximum price contracts (TCC/GMP) in the Hong Kong context.

An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted with the relevant industrial practitioners to solicit their preferences of risk allocation in TCC/GMP construction projects in Hong Kong.

The survey findings indicated that risks on tender documentation and project design are better borne by clients, while construction related risks are perceived to be taken by contractors. The research findings are consistent with other similar studies on risk allocation in construction projects in general.

This paper has developed a preferred risk allocation scheme for the delivery of future TCC/GMP projects, taking Hong Kong as an example. It can serve as a useful guide for decision makers to determine an optimal risk allocation at the planning stage of a TCC/GMP scheme.

The paper can benefit both academic researchers and industrial practitioners in generating an equitable risk sharing mechanism for TCC/GMP projects. It provides sufficient empirical evidence, added to the growing body of knowledge and lays a solid foundation for further research such as an international comparison of various risk allocation schemes associated with this kind of contractual arrangement.

Stopping and questioning citizens is an important policing tactic. Prior research explores citizens’ perceptions of stop and question policing, or “SQP”, by municipal police, yet campus police also use this tactic. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and why college students believe campus police should have the right to engage in SQP.

Data come from 73 in-depth interviews with students attending a university in metropolitan Atlanta, GA. The sample was obtained through convenience and purposive sampling methods. Data were analyzed using the ethnographic perspective.

Most participants said campus police should practice SQP for three reasons: it is their job; SQP is an effective crime fighting tactic; and SQP is useful given the features and functions of college campuses. Among participants who said campus police should not practice SQP, they were concerned that officers would use it in unwarranted situations.

Findings suggest that the police might be able to reduce resistance to SQP by clearly explaining to suspects why they are being stopped and also clarifying to the public the legal thresholds for stopping and questioning citizens.

This is the first study to consider perceptions of SQP by campus police. The findings also shed light on how campus and municipal police are (dis)similar in perceptions of their SQP practices.

Having more than 1,000 sites on the World Heritage List raises questions regarding what world heritage means. The re-evaluation of heritage sites within the USA will be conducted as a case study, where similar issues of historical designation has taken place. Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990, when the nomination process was less rigorous. These re-evaluations do not necessarily remove the property from heritage designation, but the process has been valuable from a qualitative standpoint because a better understanding of significance has been achieved. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990 in the USA, when the nomination process was less rigorous. Should a similar approach or policy be made to the properties placed on the World Heritage List during the first decades, since the expectations for demonstrating outstanding universal value have since increased? The result could be that we end up with a more robust World Heritage List that provides a better definition of what the common heritage of humanity is.

The way we approach and conceptualize World Heritage needs to evolve accordingly, considering how much it has evolved since the Convention in 1972. The experiences of re-evaluating historic places in the USA since the 1990s has much to offer.

Only the perspective of the USA is given, as a case study. Contributions from practitioners in other countries experienced in heritage site re-evaluation best practices would be meaningful.

Re-evaluating World Heritage Sites is something to consider as a management prospect for places on or under consideration for the World Heritage List since it could bring a more comprehensive understanding of outstanding universal value. This type of re-evaluation may help in addressing the meaning of place(s), contextualization of multiple locations of common heritage, and the political elitism of the World Heritage List, where some countries are over represented due to sites listed through a less-experienced process from earlier decades.

Revisiting the World Heritage List in respect to policy and the meaning of world heritage may be in order. For example, should every nation be entitled to list at least one property to the list regardless of its heritage value?

Since the 1970s, coinciding with the establishment of the World Heritage List through the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the USA has dealt with dynamic and complex logistical problems regarding the recognition and interpretation of its cultural heritage.