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Purpose. This chapter discusses the challenges and different strategies to increase skill development for the future workforce.

Methodology. Multiple sources on the topic were studied and reviewed in this chapter. The idea of skill and its development is discussed in the literature review.

Findings. Different nations’ governments have promoted human capital development by providing up-skilling and retraining programs to balance supply and demand. Skills gaps need to be brought to the attention of stakeholders, such as governments, businesses, and the educational system. Teachers, employers, and other stakeholders need to develop strategies and action plans to ensure that the skills gaps are appropriately identified and adequately addressed. These initiatives must be developed with input from various stakeholders.

Practical Implications. The research results would inform the curriculum, incorporating skill development processes tailored to various scenarios. These findings would aid business organisations in crafting skill development programs that address identified skill gaps. Challenges in skill development would be taken into account during course development, and relevant teaching–learning materials would be created. Key stakeholders, such as accrediting organisations, employers, and students, should exert more influence on academic institutions to prioritise societal demands for economic development.

Originality/Value. The uniqueness and significance of this chapter lie in its concise summary of the strategies to tackle the hurdles in skill development.

User acceptance is a necessary precondition to implementing self-driving buses as a solution to public transport challenges. Focusing on potential users in a real-life setting, this paper aims to analyze the factors that affect their willingness to use public autonomous shuttles (PASs) as well as their word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions.

Grounded on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), the study was carried out on a sample of 318 potential users in a real-life setting. The hypothesized relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The study reveals that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and trust are significant predictors of PAS usage intention, which is, in turn, related to WOM communication. Additionally, the factors that impact the intention to use a PAS are found to exert an indirect effect on WOM, mediated by usage intention.

This study includes practical insights for transport decision-makers on PAS service design, marketing campaigns and WOM monitoring.

While extant research focuses on passengers who have tried autonomous shuttles in experimental settings, this article adopts the perspective of potential users who have no previous experience with these vehicles and identifies the link between usage intention and WOM communication in a real-life traffic environment.

若要引入自動駕駛巴士來解決公共交通的問題和挑戰,一個必不可少的先決條件是得到用戶的認可。本研究透過重點分析活在真實生活環境中的潛在用戶,來探討影響他們使用公共自動交通工具的意願和口碑動機的各個因素。

本研究以延伸整合型科技接受模式為基礎,對一個涵蓋處身於真實生活環境中318名潛在用戶的樣本進行分析和探討。研究人員以偏最小平方法的結構方程模型 (PLS-SEM), 去測試各個被假設的關聯。

研究結果顯示,績效期望、有利條件、享樂動機和信任均明顯能夠預測人們使用公共自動交通工具的意願,而人們使用公共自動交通工具的意願又反過來與口碑溝通有所相關。另外,研究人員發現,影響人們使用公共自動交通工具意願的各個因素,對口碑會產生間接的影響,而使用意願是會起著調節作用的。

現存的學術研究均聚焦分析那些曾於實驗設置下坐過自動交通工具的人士,而本研究卻採用從未坐過自動交通工具人士的角度來進行分析與探討,並且找出了於實際的交通環境裡、使用意願與口碑溝通之間的關聯。

本研究提供的啟示,對有關公共自動交通工具服務設計、市場營銷活動和口碑監督工作的運輸決策者來說頗具實務意義。

Various philosophers and thinkers have discussed the importance of thinking and philosophising about the concept of ‘place’. A necessary structure of human experience, place is vital to the very foundation of human experience. More than the geography or arrangement of places, place is a concept that moulds human experience and contributes to understanding oneself and the world. Place has also been used to explain political motivations and issues such as citizenship, diaspora and migration. Despite its importance, place has not been problematised enough and has been neglected in studies of intersectionality. For instance, the role and influence of place in a person's diversity wheel and the interlocking web of oppressive structures have been reduced to either racial, class or gender categories. As a result, current critical theories fall short in drawing up the effects of place on intersectionality. This chapter, therefore, proposes the need to develop a critical place theory. It highlights the role that place-aspects play in the oppression and marginalisation of individuals. Moreover, it also examines the relatively new concept of placism as an analytical framework that can be used to explain varying oppressive placial structures.

This study aims to investigate the growing use of financial metrics (such as return on investment [ROI]) to measure performance and evaluate human capital (HC) investments.

The research employed an embedded case study approach, examining how one ROI approach was applied to evaluating HC investments, across three sectors (corporate, public health and international development).

Three major findings emerged in this study: First, interpretations of ROI can lead to ambiguity during implementation. ROI is interpreted trichotomously – metaphorically, as a desire for value; literally, as a metric; and procedurally, as a method for planning and evaluating HC investments. Second, understanding, measuring and tracking the domains of people performance (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) is vital to evaluating the impact of HC investments because this is where the change in behavior occurs. Third, although the logic model measures the change in process following an intervention (input-activity-output-outcome-impact), other approaches measure the change in behavior of people in the intervention (people performance).

These findings provide clarity for practitioners about challenges when applying ROI.

This is the first study to explore how the ROI financial metric is applied in a new domain by first examining its interpretation. It elucidates the use of ROI in practice, as well as the different purposes of key ROI approaches.

Amidst the ongoing digital transformation in the maritime industry, this study aims to interrogate the application of electronic certification (e-certification) to seafarers globally.

Data and methodological triangulation were used in the study. This included a scoping review to analyze the components of effective e-certificates; document analysis to evaluate the nature and functions of the international legal framework of seafarers’ e-certification and thematic and statistical analyses of responses from survey questionnaires and interviews to examine the merits, demerits and challenges to global implementation of seafarers’ e-certification. A modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was used to determine the stakeholders’ usage behavior regarding seafarers’ e-certification.

The results revealed several merits associated with the implementation of seafarers’ e-certificates, outweighing the presence of certain drawbacks. It also identified various challenges to global application along with potential solutions. Despite the strong industry support for the entire replacement of seafarers’ traditional printed certificates with e-certificates, the study concludes that the coexistence of both formats will persist until crucial challenges are effectively addressed. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, as amended, along with the relevant International Maritime Organization (IMO) guidelines, functions as the international legal framework for the effective global application of electronic certification for seafarers.

The study addresses a significant aspect of the contemporary digital transformation of seafarers’ certification under the STCW Convention, 1978, as amended.

Introduction: The effectiveness of management faculty members depends on several factors, including self-efficacy. Albert Bandura coined the term ‘self-efficacy’, defined as ‘the capacity to do things as per one’s ability’ – the self-belief that one ‘can-do’ something.

Purpose: The study aims to discuss the effects of high and low degrees of self-efficacy. Faculty members with high-order competencies achieve higher positions, whereas those with low self-efficacy will generally have less self-belief in achieving success, translating into not progressing either at all or as quickly. There exists a need to study the levels of self-efficacy among faculty members to determine issues that create skill gaps and lead to both high and low efficacy. For better general performance, all faculty members should have high degrees of self-efficacy as it leads to high enthusiasm, increased commitment, and a capacity to dilute and address a range of challenges.

Methodology: This chapter falls under the category of a review paper. As different papers/studies have been reviewed and compared in this study, it does not need to conform to any particular methodology.

Findings: Various findings and practical implications shall be discussed in this chapter regarding self-efficacy among management faculty members. To improve youth’s future abilities by 2030, teachers ought to have higher levels of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is imperative in accomplishing objectives, achieving results, and accomplishing educational difficulties in instructing understudies (Tumkaya, 2020).

This study identifies and characterizes configurations of generic business models for logistics service providers (LSPs) in the context of industrial additive manufacturing (AM). A literature-based framework of the AM service supply chain (SC) is developed to embed the generic configurations in their SC context.

Following an exploratory research design, 17 interviews were conducted with LSPs, LSPs' potential partners and customers for industrial AM services.

Six generic configurations are identified, the LSP as a Manufacturer, Landlord, Logistician, Connector, Agent and Consultant. The authors outline how these configurations differ in the required locations, partners and targeted customer segments.

The current discussion of reshoring and shorter, decentralized AM SCs confronts LSPs with novel challenges. This study offers guidance for managers of LSPs for designing business models for industrial AM and raises awareness for LSPs' resource and SC implications.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on AM business models for LSPs with in-depth empirical insights. Based on the six identified configurations, this study sets the ground for theorizing about the business models, in particular, the value creation, value proposition and mechanisms for value capture of the business models. In addition, this study suggests how the generic configurations fit the features of specific types of LSPs.