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This chapter delineates the conditions, challenges and opportunities for the sustainability of small entrepreneurial firms involved in local food tourism. It raises awareness on how these businesses can enhance their competitiveness in this market. It puts forward an analytical framework that is based on the economic, social, environmental and cultural sustainability of small local food tourism entrepreneurs in Swedish, Italian and Spanish contexts. This research implies that the financial sustainability of these small enterprises is contributing to local economic growth and employment in their country. From the social sustainability aspect these tourism businesses are intrinsically linked to local communities. Their responsible practices are meant to safeguard the environmental sustainability as well as the preservation of their local culture and heritage. At the same time, they enable them to add value to their destination’s cultural sustainability.

Education researchers have been urged to utilize causal inference methods to estimate the policy effect more rigorously. While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for assessing causality, RCTs are infeasible in some educational settings, particularly when ethical concerns or high cost are involved. Quasi-experimental research designs are the best alternative approach to study educational topics not amenable to RCTs, as they mimic experimental conditions and use statistical techniques to reduce bias from variables omitted in the empirical models. In this chapter, we introduce and discuss the core concepts, applicability, and limitations of three quasi-experimental methods in higher education research (i.e., difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity). By introducing each of these techniques, we aim to expand the higher education researcher's toolbox and encourage the use of these quasi-experimental methods to evaluate educational interventions.

After summarizing what has been learned so far, the purpose of this review is to suggest several promising avenues for future research on work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE).

This is a literature review. After reviewing the existing research and searching for gaps in the literature, new areas of research will be proposed to fill these gaps.

While much has been learned about the antecedents and consequences of work–family enrichment in both directions, WFE and FWE, much remains to be learned.

Three important outcomes – job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior – need to be studied regarding WFE and FWE. Although supervisor support has been studied, the field needs to incorporate leadership theories and models to understand this phenomenon. Additional predictors of work outcomes – including emotional intelligence, leadership, emotional labor, social support, gender, and cross-cultural variables – need to be examined. Experience sampling methods and advanced research methodologies should also be used.

Although prior research has demonstrated the important effects of WFE and FWE, the practical effects on organizations in terms of job performance still need to be investigated.

The literature review conclusively demonstrates that WFE and FWE are both related to job satisfaction and family satisfaction.

This is the first review to summarize the existing meta-analytical research in this area and to propose the particular avenues of research advocated in this article.

This study aims to analyze the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management after the issuance of the Palestinian Code on Corporate Governance in Palestine.

This study uses a panel data of 31 Palestinian listed companies from 2010 to 2016. It also uses structural equation modeling (SEM) model.

The results of the SEM model show a significant positive relationship of the existence of risk management and the tenure-chief executive officer (CEO) with financial performance. However, CEO duality has a significant negative relationship with financial performance. The results also show a significant positive relationship of CEO duality and board size with financial performance through the existence of risk management.

This study adds to the existing literature by analyzing the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management in Palestine, one of the youngest stock exchanges in the region, which assists in testing the validity of agency theory in a young and small emerging Islamic market context.

The results of this paper are significant for shareholders and managers of companies to make proper choices to secure the interests of stakeholders and increase the flow of capital and foreign investment.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is one of the first papers to investigate the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management in Palestine.

A number of hospitality businesses are understaffed and are experiencing severe labor shortages, in various contexts. In many cases, hotels and restaurants are finding it difficult to retain and recruit motivated employees. In this light, this research uses key constructs related to the self-determination theory and integrates them with a responsible human resources management (HRM) measure, to investigate the antecedents of organizational commitment. The underlying objective of this study is to shed light on employee psychology and on responsible organizational behaviors in the hospitality industry.

Primary data were captured through an online questionnaire distributed via popular LinkedIn groups that represent hospitality employees. A composite-based structural equations modeling approach was used to confirm the reliability and validity of the chosen factors and to shed light on the causal paths of this contribution’s proposed model.

The results indicate that there are highly significant direct and indirect effects in this study, particularly between extrinsic motivations – organizational commitment and between responsible HRM – organizational commitment. These relationships are mediated by intrinsic motivations.

This contribution advances a robust responsible organizational behavior model comprising responsible HRM, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic motivation and organizational commitment.

This research implies that practitioners ought to incentivize and reward hardworking employees, in a commensurate manner, to offer them great working environments as well as appropriate conditions of employment, to enhance their loyalty, minimize turnover rates and to attract promising talent.

This empirical study incorporates a responsible HRM construct with extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. It confirms that they are significant antecedents of organizational commitment. Unlike previous research, this contribution focuses on employee psychology as well as on strategic organizational behaviors during a time when tourism businesses are experiencing an increase in demand for their services, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It raises awareness on the industry’s perennial challenges in attracting and retaining employees.

许多酒店业都面临劳动力短缺。一些酒店和餐馆人手不足。在许多情况下, 他们发现很难留住和招聘有积极性的员工。有鉴于此, 本研究使用与自决理论 (SDT) 相关的关键结构, 并将它们与负责任的人力资源管理 (HRM) 措施相结合, 以调查员工的组织承诺。

主要数据是通过代表酒店员工的热门 LinkedIn 群组分发的在线问卷获取的。利用基于复合材料的结构方程建模方法来确认所选因素的可靠性和有效性, 并阐明该模型的因果路径。

结果表明, 本研究中存在非常显着的直接和间接影响, 特别是在外在动机 - 组织承诺和负责任的 HRM - 组织承诺之间。这些关系由内在动机调节。

这项研究表明, 从业者应该以相称的方式激励和奖励勤奋的员工, 为他们提供良好的工作环境和适当的就业条件, 培养人力资源的忠诚度, 尽量减少他们的离职率, 并吸引有前途的人才。

这一贡献推进了一个强大的负责任的组织行为 (ROB) 模型, 包括负责任的人力资源管理、外在奖励、内在动机和组织承诺。

据作者所知, 没有其他研究将负责任的 HRM 结构与外在和内在动机结合起来, 并将它们视为组织承诺的重要前因。与之前的研究不同, 这篇文章的重点是在冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 大流行之后旅游企业对其服务的需求增加期间的员工心理以及组织行为。它提高了人们对该行业在吸引和留住员工方面长期存在的挑战的认识。

Una gran parte de las empresas hosteleras carecen de personal suficiente y experimentan una grave escasez de mano de obra, en diversos contextos. En muchos casos, los hoteles y restaurantes tienen dificultades para retener y contratar a empleados motivados. En vista de ello, esta investigación utiliza constructos clave relacionados con la teoría de la autodeterminación (TAD) y los integra con una medida de gestión responsable de los recursos humanos (GRH), para investigar el compromiso de la organización de los empleados de hostelería.

Los datos primarios se obtuvieron mediante un cuestionario en línea distribuido a través de grupos populares de LinkedIn que representan a empleados de hostelería. Se utilizó un enfoque de modelización de ecuaciones estructurales basado en compuestos para confirmar la fiabilidad y validez de los factores elegidos y arrojar luz sobre las vías causales del modelo propuesto en esta contribución.

Los resultados indican que en este estudio existen efectos directos e indirectos altamente significativos, en particular entre las motivaciones extrínsecas - el compromiso de la organización y entre la GRH responsable – el compromiso organizacional. Estas relaciones están mediadas por las motivaciones intrínsecas.

Esta contribución avanza un modelo robusto de Comportamiento Organizacional Responsable (ROB) que comprende la GRH responsable, las recompensas extrínsecas, la motivación intrínseca y el compromiso de la organización.

Esta investigación implica que los profesionales deben incentivar y recompensar a los empleados más trabajadores, de forma proporcionada, para ofrecerles entornos de trabajo idóneos, así como condiciones de empleo adecuadas, con el fin de aumentar su lealtad, minimizar las tasas de rotación y atraer a talentos prometedores.

Este estudio empírico incorpora un constructo de GRH responsable con motivaciones extrínsecas e intrínsecas. Confirma que son antecedentes significativos del compromiso de la organización. A diferencia de investigaciones anteriores, esta contribución se centra en la psicología de los empleados, así como en los comportamientos organizativos estratégicos en un momento en el que las empresas turísticas están experimentando un aumento de la demanda de sus servicios, tras la pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19). Asimismo, sensibiliza sobre los retos perennes de la industria a la hora de atraer y retener a los empleados.

The purpose of this article is to provide information about interactions between pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph (PPFM) organisms and plants, their molecular mechanisms of methylotrophic metabolism, application of PPFMs in agriculture, biotechnology and bioremediation and also to explore lacuna in PPFMs research and direction for future research.

Research findings on PPFM organisms as potent plant growth promoting organisms are discussed in the light of reports published by various workers. Unexplored field of PPFM research are detected and their application as a new group of biofertilizer that also help host plants to overcome draught stress in poorly irrigated crop field is suggested.

PPFMs are used as plant growth promoters for improved crop yield, seed germination capacity, resistance against pathogens and tolerance against drought stress. Anti-oxidant and UV resistant properties of PPFM pigments protect the host plants from strong sunshine. PPFMs have excellent draught ameliorating capacity.

To meet the ever increasing world population, more and more barren, less irrigated land has to be utilized for agriculture and horticulture purpose and use of PPFM group of organisms due to their draught ameliorating properties in addition to their plant growth promoting characters will be extremely useful. PPFMs are also promising candidates for the production of various industrially and medicinally important enzymes and other value-added products. Wider application of this ecofriendly group of bacteria will reduce crop production cost thus improving economy of the farmers and will be a greener alternative of hazardous chemical fertilizers and fungicides.

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The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

The study's goal was to identify the factors contributing to the practical completion of Kaizen events (KEs). The effect of the work-study man's characteristics, the supervisor's conduct and the autonomy of the Kaizen team are analysed in this study.

Data were collected from 249 respondents working in the manufacturing sector in India, mainly those who had been involved in Kaizen projects. Three-step procedures, namely, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and partial least squares, have been applied to test the research hypotheses through structural equational modelling.

The exploratory factor analysis extracted in-role performance, creative performance and human aspect as latent variables explaining work-study man's performance (eigenvalue = 1). The study's findings indicate that the performance of work-study man (in-role, creative and human) and supervisors' conduct is directly related to the success of KEs. It was shown that supervisors might influence the outcomes of KEs only by moderating the human aspects. Additionally, the degree of autonomy of the Kaizen team was found having a significant positive relationship with the success of KEs.

The current study suggests that in-role and creative performance are prime assets of a work-study man. At the same time, the human aspect is a delicate issue that can affect the supervisor's behaviour. Therefore, the study implies that work-study men have the tactics and abilities to work with other co-workers to make a Kaizen project successful.

Although the significance of Kaizen projects has been widely emphasised, past research has failed to establish what factors contribute to the success of Kaizen efforts. Similarly, the supervisor's critical role has been highlighted several times. However, it is unclear how their conduct influences the relationship between work-study man's performance and the effectiveness of Kaizen projects. This study contributes significantly to organisational culture and human resource management by answering these questions.

This study aims to emphasize green energy-driven solutions to address environmental sustainability issues, particularly to promote the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). This study intends to investigate user adoption of EVs as the existing predicament of converting car owners to EV buyers, demanding a push to create a facilitating environment for EV uptake.

A survey-based quantitative study involving 330 car owners and potential buyers was conducted involving four predictors, i.e. financial benefits, social influence, charging infrastructure and range consciousness. Environmental concerns and socio-demographic factors such as age, family income and gender were considered as moderators between these predictors and EV adoption intention. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used to analyse the proposed relationships.

The findings indicated that financial benefits (ß = 0.169, t = 3.930), social influence (ß = 0.099, t = 2.605), range consciousness (ß = 0.239, t = 3.983) and charging infrastructure (ß = 0.142, t = 4.8) significantly impact EV adoption. Family income was the most significant moderator with a large effect size (F square = 0.224), followed by environmental concern (F square = 0.182) and age (F square = 0.042) having a medium moderation effect and, subsequently, gender (F square = 0.010) as a mild moderator.

By analysing environmental concerns as a moderator, this study fosters a novel understanding of how environmental concerns impact EV adoption, which has not been explored. Additionally, the empirical assessment of the socio-economic and socio-demographic factors of EV adoption helps to offer a consumer perspective to the government and policymakers in undertaking initiatives to promote EV adoption.