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Fitness games, as a medium that combines playfulness and usefulness for exercise, face challenges in sustaining long-term user engagement. Currently, there is limited research exploring factors influencing users' continued intention to use from the perspective of user experience. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the priority of various user experience attributes of fitness games in promoting users' sustained engagement and to construct a user behavior model, offering theoretical guidance for designers and businesses.

This study distributed 441 survey questionnaires and, based on the fundamental characteristics of external games, established a model for users' continued intention to use external games. It explores the impact of various gaming elements on users' continued intention to use fitness games and the relationships between these elements.

The study indicates that usefulness, functional quality, and ease of use directly influence players' intention to continue playing external games. Social interactions, technical quality, and playfulness do not have an impact on the continued intention to use.

This research breaks away from the bias of previous studies overly focusing on playfulness in games. It fills the research gap regarding the continued intention to use fitness games and provides insights into the design and operation of fitness games.

The study sets out to demonstrate how a lifecycle perspective on complex, public-sector procurement projects can be used for making qualitative assessments of procurement policy and practice and reveal those procurement capabilities that are most impactful for operating effectively.

Agency theory, institutional theory and the lifecycle analysis technique are combined to abductively develop a framework to identify, analyse and compare complex procurement policies and practices in public sector organisations. Defence is the focal case and is compared with cases in the Nuclear, Local Government and Health sectors.

The study provides a framework for undertaking a lifecycle analysis to understand the challenges and capabilities of complex, public-sector buyers. Eighteen hierarchically-arranged themes are identified and used in conjunction with agency theory and institutional theory to explain complex procurement policy and practice variation in some of the UK’s highest-profile public buyers. The study findings provide a classification of complex buyers and offer valuable guidance for practitioners and researchers navigating complex procurement contexts.

The lifecycle approach proposed is a new research tool providing a bespoke application of theory by considering each lifecycle phase as an individual but related element that is governed by unique institutional pressures and principal-agent relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to set forth a conceptual model describing the actors and roles in ecosystems created to enable productive black entrepreneurship in the USA.

This paper provides a systematic literature review of entrepreneurship ecosystems. It further leverages such literature review by using an autoethnographic approach recommended by Guyotte and Kochacka (2016), drawing on the authors’ practical experience in studying, owning, educating or consulting employer businesses owned by persons of color in the USA and abroad.

Each actor in the ecosystem has practical wisdom and assets that can be shared and leveraged through interacting with the other actors either as role model institutions or capacity development institutions, thus mitigating social inequalities and boosting economic progress by extending entrepreneurial opportunities beyond those that are greatly resourced.

Our literature review is based on selected samples of relevant articles on entrepreneurship ecosystem research and ethnic minority entrepreneurship, and thus, is not exhaustive. The selection was partly influenced by the authors’ opinion of whether a given study was relevant or not to a black entrepreneurship ecosystem. There is the possibility that some relevant studies were excluded. Thus, other actors are encouraged to revise or adapt this model to inform their distinct roles and goals.

The proposed model can help actors involved in the operation or support of a black-owned business make optimal business decisions, enabling each actor to be instrumental in another’s understanding of how to facilitate the success of black American entrepreneurs and business owners and thus, deploy marketing campaigns to boost the visibility and role of each actor. These campaigns play a role in their entrepreneurial marketing efforts.

Responding to Gines and Sampson’s (2020) call, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explicitly provide a comprehensive black entrepreneurship ecosystem model that identifies the actors, roles and activities that can help black Americans address social inequalities that limit their ability to become a successful employer business. The proposed model may aid in deepening the theoretical discussion on entrepreneurial ecosystems and be of inspiration for the future works of scholars and practitioners interested in the entrepreneurship and marketing interface.

Humanity and all life depend on the natural environment of Planet Earth, and that environment is in acute crisis across land, sea and air. One of a set of commentaries on how service can address the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), the authors focus on environmental goals SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 15 (life on land). This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework that incorporates the natural environment into transformative services.

The authors trace the evolution of service thinking about the natural environment, from a stewardship perspective of the environment as a set of resources to be managed, through an acknowledgement of nonhuman organisms as actors that can participate in service exchange, towards an emergent concept of ecosystems as integrating human social actors and other biological actors who engage fully in value co-creation.

The authors derive a framework integrating human and other life forms as co-creating actors, drawing on shared natural resources to achieve mutualism, where each actor can have a net benefit from the relationship. Future research questions are posited that may help services research address SDGs 13–15.

The framework integrates ideas from environmental ecosystem literature to inform the nature of ecosystems. By integrating environmental actors and ecological insights into the understanding of service ecosystems, service scholars are well placed to make unique contributions to the global challenge of creating a sustainable future.

Studies showed that digital technology applications in the construction industry are low, especially in many developing nations. Construction incentivisation (CI) is one of the long-standing principles adopted to enhance project performance. There is a paucity of studies concerning CI to improve digital technology applications. Thus, this research investigated the relevance and perceived hindrances that may hinder the implementation of CI from promoting digital technologies and proffer ways to improve digital technology applications in the construction sector.

In Nigeria’s context, this research is exploratory. Twenty-four semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria, with knowledgeable participants that indicated interest and were interviewed. The engaged interviewees were drawn from government agencies, academicians in construction consultancy, Internet and communication technology experts, construction contracting firms and construction consulting firms. The collected data were coded and analysed through a thematic method.

Digitalisation of the industry via CI may face some hindrances. The perceived issues that may hinder CI implementation were classified into most severe, severe and fairly severe in Nigeria’s construction industry context. Findings proffer feasible policy solutions that can mitigate these issues and improve digital technology applications in the industry via the CI.

This study covered the relevance and perceived issues that may hinder the implementation of the CI to improve digital technology applications in the industry. Also, the study proffers policy solutions to enhance digital technology applications in the industry via the CI concept.

Findings from this research will support and offer a valuable understanding of the relevance of the “incentivisation concept” to improve digital technology applications in the Nigerian-built environment. Other developing countries with low applications of digital technology in construction may consider the suggested policy solutions from this research. Also, this study will stir policymakers and construction practitioners to support policies tailored towards improving digital technology applications in construction.

This research contributes by exploring the effectiveness of the CI concept and informing construction practitioners and policymakers on how to improve digital technology applications in the Nigerian construction industry.

The importance of humans to the successful delivery of construction projects has led to the emergence of research attention on construction workforce management. As such, this chapter uncovers emotional intelligence (EI) and the external environment as critical aspects of workforce management practices that have not gained substantial attention in past workforce management studies. While some theories and models (existing outside the construction domain) have considered the external environment, none of these models is specific to the construction industry. Furthermore, EI has received less attention within existing workforce management models. Through a review of related studies and theories, this chapter noted that the EI of construction workers and their senior management is crucial to the performance of these workers and the ultimate performance of their organisations. In the same vein, since construction organisations do not operate in silos, the external environment significantly influences the operations of organisations in the construction industry. The environment exact pressures that can influence workforce management practices and technological innovations construction organisations adopt.

This study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London, in its early years 1662–1703, to determine whether or not the institution was politically aligned.

There is almost no information addressing the political alignment of the Royal Society or its Presidents available in the institution’s archives, or in the writings of historians specialising in its administration. Even reliable biographical sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provide very limited information. However, as 10 Presidents were elected Member of Parliament (MP), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social and Local History provides a wealth of accurate, in-depth data, revealing the alignment of both.

All Presidents held senior government offices, the first was a Royalist aristocrat; of the remaining 10, 8 were Royalist or Tory MPs, 2 of whom were falsely imprisoned by the House of Commons, 2 were Whig MPs, while 4 were elevated to the Lords. The institution was Royalist aligned 1662–1680, Tory aligned 1680–1695 and Whig aligned 1695–1703, which reflects changes in Parliament and State.

This study establishes that the early Royal Society was not an apolitical institution and that the political alignment of Presidents and institution continued in later eras. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the election or appointment of an organisation’s most senior officer can be used to signal its political alignment with government and other organisations to serve various ends.

Avoided emissions refer to greenhouse gas emission reductions that are a result of using a product or are emission removals due to a decision or an action. Although there is no uniform standard for calculating avoided emissions, market actors have started referring to avoided emissions as “Scope 4” emissions. By default, making a claim about Scope 4 emissions gives an appearance that this Scope of emissions is a natural extension of the existing and accepted Scope-based emissions accounting framework. The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of this assumed legitimacy.

Via a desktop review and interviews, we analyse extant Scope 4 company reporting, associated accounting methodologies and the practical implications of Scope 4 claims.

Upon examination of Scope 4 emissions and their relationship with Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions, we highlight a dynamic and interdependent relationship between quantification, commensuration and standardization in emissions accounting. We find that extant Scope 4 assessments do not fit the established framework for Scope-based emissions accounting. In line with literature on the territorializing nature of accounting, we call for caution about Scope 4 claims that are a distraction from the critical work of reducing absolute emissions.

We examine the implications of assumed alignment and borrowed legitimacy of Scope 4 with Scope-based accounting because Scope 4 is not an actual Scope, but a claim to a Scope. This is as an act of accounting territorialization.

Policing requires atypical work hours. The present study examined associations between shiftwork and pregnancy loss among female police officers.

Participants were 91 female officers with a prior history of at least one pregnancy. Shiftwork information was assessed using daily electronic payroll work records. Any prior pregnancy loss (due to miscarriage) was self-reported. Logistic regression estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for main associations.

On average, the officers were 42 years old, had 14 years of service, and 56% reported a prior pregnancy loss. Officers who worked dominantly on the afternoon or night shift during their career had 96% greater odds of pregnancy loss compared to those on day shift (OR = 1.96, 95% CI:0.71–5.42), but the result was not statistically significant. A 25% increase in percent of hours worked on night shift was associated with 87% increased odds of pregnancy loss (OR = 1.87, 95% CI:1.01–3.47). Associations were adjusted for demographic and lifestyle factors. Objective assessment of shiftwork via electronic records strengthened the study. Limitations include small sample size, cross-sectional design and lack of details on pregnancy loss or the timing of pregnancy loss with regard to shiftwork.

The present study is preliminary and cross-sectional.

With considerable further inquiry and findings into this topic, results may have an impact on police policy affecting shift work and pregnant police officers.

Implication on the health and welfare of police officers.

To our knowledge, there are no empirical studies which associate shiftwork and pregnancy loss among police officers. This preliminary study suggested an association between shiftwork and increased odds of pregnancy loss and points out the need for further study.