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The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework that explains the roles and viability of both cooperation and competition as they emerge in communities of practice. Although the usefulness of cooperation in communities of practice is well-understood, few studies have considered the role of internal competition, and those that have generally only explored cases in which antagonistic behavior led to the community’s collapse.

A contingency theory of communities of practice is developed based on the manifestations of members’ participation.

This theory demonstrates the root causes of fracturing and also provides a foundation for studying communities of practice that have previously defied explanation.

This manuscript explains the potential role and limitations of internal competition in communities of practice, as well as the emergence of subgroups based on differing preferences for cooperation and/or competition. Future research should examine the manifestation and ramifications of such individual differences between community members.

Practitioners can use this theoretical framework to assess communities of practice that they oversee, diagnose potential pitfalls and take corrective action to mitigate potentially toxic influences or inject additional motivating forces that would sustain the community.

This theoretical framework diverges from previous assumptions that internal competition is necessarily toxic for communities of practice, showing the value that it may offer in some contexts.

Misinformation (i.e. information identified as false) spreads widely and quickly on social media – a space where crowds of ordinary citizens can become leading voices – during a crisis when information is in short supply. Using the theoretical lenses of socially curated flow and networked gatekeeping frameworks, we address the following three aims: First, we identify emergent opinion leaders in misinformation-related conversations on social media. Second, we explore distinct groups that contribute to online discourses about misinformation. Lastly, we investigate the actual dominance of misinformation within disparate groups in the early phases of mass shooting crises.

This paper used network and cluster analyses of Twitter data that focused on the four most prevalent misinformation themes surrounding the El Paso mass shooting.

A total of seven clusters of users emerged, which were classified into five categories: (1) boundary-spanning hubs, (2) broadly popular individuals, (3) reputation-building hubs, (4) locally popular individuals and (5) non-opinion leaders. Additionally, a content analysis of 128 tweets in six clusters, excluding the cluster of non-opinion leaders, further demonstrated that the opinion leaders heavily focused on reiterating and propagating misinformation (102 out of 128 tweets) and collectively made zero corrective tweets.

These findings expand the intellectual understanding of how various types of opinion leaders can shape the flow of (mis)information in a crisis. Importantly, this study provides new insights into the role of trans-boundary opinion leaders in creating an echo chamber of misinformation by serving as bridges between otherwise fragmented discourses.

One of the most effective tools used by interactive marketers is personalized advertising, which allows consumers to directly respond to customized offers to purchase a brand’s products and services. Yet, recent studies show many consumers are installing ad blockers to avoid personalized ads. This study aims to examine how ad skepticism, ad relevance and ad irritation predict ad avoidance directly, as well as indirectly through consumers’ attitudes toward personalized advertising. Also, considered were how these antecedents’ study in tandem to trigger consumers’ desire to avoid ads by installing ad-blocking software.

An online survey was administered to a pool of 1,313 paid panelists who were familiar with ad blocking and reported that they either currently used an ad blocker, previously used an ad blocker, were considering using an ad blocker or did neither use nor were they considering using an ad blocker. All hypotheses were addressed via path modeling using PROC CALIS in SAS 9.4.

Results indicate that attitudes toward personalized advertising are more complex than attitudes toward advertising in general and mediate the effect of ad relevance on ad avoidance. Likewise, trust in interactive marketers moderates attitude toward personalized advertising and the negative outcomes of ad avoidance and ad blocker usage among skeptical consumers. Also, the reported differences in ad avoidance based on participants’ current vs previous ad blocker usage suggest that former users are using a more sophisticated evaluation of the costs and benefits of using ad blockers.

Consumers’ trust in an interactive marketer to properly collect and use their information plays an important role in moderating negative outcomes associated with personalized advertising. Also, the key is the use of high-quality data (best obtained through a permission-based relationship with the consumer) to deliver relevant ads without stimulating reactance or (privacy-related) boundary turbulence. Findings suggest that bolstering trust by engaging in a transparent, permission-based relationship with consumers may mitigate the tendency to adopt ad blockers and enhance the effectiveness of interactive marketing efforts.

Ad blocking presents a significant threat to the effectiveness of interactive marketing efforts like personalized advertising. Previous research on the antecedents of ad blocking is limited, considers a broad range of factors and offers mixed findings. The present study examines an informed set of cognitive and affective factors suggested by previous ad blocking studies to predict consumers’ desire to avoid personalized ads by installing ad-blocking software. Given the continued threat to the interactive marketing industry posed by ad blocking, a greater understanding of consumers’ motivations to adopt and use ad blockers is critical.

The goal of this study is to examine how tweets containing distinct emotions (i.e., emotional tweets) and different information types (i.e., misinformation, corrective information, and others) are prevalent during the initial phase of mass shootings and furthermore, how users engage in those tweets.

The researchers manually coded 1,478 tweets posted between August 3–11, 2019, in the immediate aftermath of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings. This manual coding approach systematically examined the distinct emotions and information types of each tweet.

The authors found that, on Twitter, misinformation was more prevalent than correction during crises and a large portion of misinformation had negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, and anxiety), while correction featured anger. Notably, sadness-exhibiting tweets were more likely to be retweeted and liked by users, but tweets containing other emotions (i.e., anger, anxiety, and joy) were less likely to be retweeted and liked.

Only a portion of the larger conversation was manually coded. However, the current study provides an overall picture of how tweets are circulated during crises in terms of misinformation and correction, and moreover, how emotions and information types alike influence engagement behaviors.

The pervasive anger-laden tweets about mass shooting incidents might contribute to hostile narratives and eventually reignite political polarization. The notable presence of anger in correction tweets further suggests that those who are trying to provide correction to misinformation also rely on emotion. Moreover, our study suggests that displays of sadness could function in a way that leads individuals to rely on false claims as a coping strategy to counteract uncertainty.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2021-0121/

Discusses the transfer of undertakings in the UK, referring to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations of 1981, the Employment Rights Act 1996, and the Acquired Rights Directive 1977. Provides the raison d’etre of the Acquired Rights Directive and outlines how it was implemented in the UK. Talks about the confusing jurisprudence of the European and British courts, mentioning the European Court of Justice’s challenges to the directive, the 1994 proposals, amended 1997 proposals, the Commission’s memorandum of 1997 and the UK government’s consultation papers. Describes how the European Directive is applied and interpreted in relation to the Acquired Rights Directive and transfer of undertakings. Outlines the regulations controlling compulsory competitive tendering. Points out the obligation to inform and consult on the transfer of an undertaking and how the directive is enforced if this fails to occur. Notes the effect a relevant transfer has on existing collective agreements and the legal implications of dismissing employees by reason of the relevant transfer. Looks at the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on safeguarding employees’ rights in the event of transfer and the implications that would have on UK business. Concludes that a new directive is needed, building on the 1977 Directive but ironing out its inconsistencies.

Outlines social dialogue by providing a definition and background to its introduction and covers its progress to date. Critically examines the social dialogue resulting in the European collective agreement, the instrument for implementing directives. Concludes with the Collective agreement’s place in formulating European Law. Suggests the integration of the Maastricht Treaty into the body of the Treaty of Amsterdam forms a basis for solid advances in social policy.

Considers the nature of a collective agreement, outlining two types, collective and procedural. States that no European laws exist, at present, which cover these and questions the legal enforceability of any agreement. Outlines the European position and then covers the situation under UK law, showing the differences. Looks at the future proposed models of European Collective Agreements and highlights the need for discussion whilst the European Collective Agreement is in its infancy. Advocates different definitions for procedural and collective agreements with the former carrying legal enforceability which exists in Europe and the latter using the UK definitions and carrying legal unenforceability.

At the Royal Society of Health annual conference, no less a person than the editor of the B.M.A.'s “Family Doctor” publications, speaking of the failure of the anti‐smoking campaign, said we “had to accept that health education did not work”; viewing the difficulties in food hygiene, there are many enthusiasts in public health who must be thinking the same thing. Dr Trevor Weston said people read and believed what the health educationists propounded, but this did not make them change their behaviour. In the early days of its conception, too much was undoubtedly expected from health education. It was one of those plans and schemes, part of the bright, new world which emerged in the heady period which followed the carnage of the Great War; perhaps one form of expressing relief that at long last it was all over. It was a time for rebuilding—housing, nutritional and living standards; as the politicians of the day were saying, you cannot build democracy—hadn't the world just been made “safe for democracy?”—on an empty belly and life in a hovel. People knew little or nothing about health or how to safeguard it; health education seemed right and proper at this time. There were few such conceptions in France which had suffered appalling losses; the poilu who had survived wanted only to return to his fields and womenfolk, satisfied that Marianne would take revenge and exact massive retribution from the Boche!

The brief announcement that the Government had accepted that there should be regulations on open date marking of food, to come into effect in 1975, will come as no surprise. It is a timely reminder of what public pressure can achieve these days; how sustained advocacy and publicity by interested sectors of society—magistrates, local authorities, public health workers, consumer groups—can secure legislative changes which, in this case, run counter to trade opinions and the recommendation originally made by the Food Standards Committee that such a proposal was not practical and the existing law was an adequate protection. This was stated in the FSC Report on Food Labelling of 1964, although there was no indication of the evidence reviewed or that the subject had been considered very deeply; it was, after all, only a small fraction of the problem of food labelling control. It was also stated in this Report that in certain cases, date‐stamping of food could give to purchasers a false sense of security, “not justified by the conditions under which the food has been kept since manufacture”.

First January 1973 will not only mark the beginning of a New Year but a year which history will mark as a truly momentous one, for this is the year that Britain, after centuries of absence, re‐enters the framework of Europe as one of the Member‐States of the enlarged European Community. This in itself must make for change on both sides; Britain is so different in outlook from the others, something they too realize and see as an acquisition of strength. There have been other and more limited forms of Continental union, mainly of sovereignty and royal descent. Large regions of France were for centuries under the English Crown and long after they were finally lost, the fleur de lis stayed on the royal coat of arms, until the Treaty of Amiens 1802, when Britain retired behind her sea curtain. The other Continental union was, of course, with Hanover; from here the Germanized descendants of the Stuarts on the female line returned to the throne of their ancestors. This union lasted until 1832 when rules of descent prevented a woman from reigning in Hanover. It is interesting to speculate how different history might have been if only the British Crown and the profits of Tudor and Stuart rule had been maintained in one part of central Europe. However, Britain disentangled herself and built up overwhelming sea power against a largely hostile Europe, of which it was never conceived she could ever be a part, but the wheel of chance turns half‐circle and now, this New Year, she enters into and is bound to a European Community by the Treaty of Rome with ties far stronger, the product of new politico‐economic structures evolved from necessity; in a union which cannot fail to change the whole course of history, especially for this country.