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The construction industry is an industry which has gained notoriety when it comes to both physical and mental health problems. Compared to other industries, the construction sector has a higher prevalence of many stressors and mental health concerns. This calls for mechanisms to cope with these concerns. One coping mechanism propounded to help cope and adapt in the face of pressures and challenges is “Mental Toughness (MT)”. While mental toughness has been widely studied in various fields, there is a paucity of comprehensive research examining its significance among construction professionals. Thus, the motivation of this study is to establish the mental toughness characteristics among construction professionals in Ghana.

The construction industry is an industry which has gained notoriety when it comes to both physical and mental health problems. Compared to other industries, the construction sector has a higher prevalence of mental health concerns. One coping mechanism propounded to help cope and adapt in the face of pressures and challenges is “Mental Toughness (MT)”. While mental toughness has been widely studied in various fields, there is a paucity of comprehensive research examining its significance among construction professionals. Thus, the motivation of this study is to establish the mental toughness characteristics among construction professionals.

the study's findings revealed 13-factor model characteristics of mental toughness with 43 variables for mentally tough performers in the construction environment. These 13-factor models include Pressure Management (PM), Motivation (M), Emotional Intelligence (EI), Interpersonal self-belief (SB), Tough Attitude (TA), Job-related self-belief (SBB), Ethical Values (EV), Commitment (C), Focus (F), Optimism (OP), Expertise and Competence (EC), Imagery Control (IC) and Resilient (R).

The outcome of this study has significant practical implications for various stakeholders. For construction professionals the identified factors provide valuable insights into the psychological attributes and behaviours that contribute to mental toughness among construction professionals. Understanding these characteristics can empower professionals to develop strategies for coping with stress, maintaining focus, and fostering resilience in challenging construction environments to achieve optimum performance levels consistently.

The originality of this study's findings stems from the fact that it is among the first to provide greater insight into mental toughness characteristics considered by professionals (quantity surveyors, construction managers, engineers, project managers, architects, estate managers) in the construction industry.

The purpose of this study is to revisit the conventional wisdom about a key contribution [i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis] in the field of strategic management. The societal context and the role of academics, consultants and executives is taken into account in the emergence of SWOT analysis during the 1960–1980 period as a pivotal development within the broader context of the satisfactory, opportunities, faults, threats (SOFT) approach. The authors report on both the content and the approach, so that other scholars seeking to invigorate indigenous theories and/or underreported strategy practices will thrive.

Applying a historiographic approach, the authors introduce an evidence-based methodology for interpreting historical sources. This methodology incorporates source criticism, triangulation and hermeneutical interpretation, drawing upon insights from robust evidence through three iterative stages.

The underreporting of the SOFT approach/SWOT analysis can be attributed to several factors, including strategy tools being integrated into planning frameworks rather than being published as standalone materials; restricted circulation of crucial long-range planning service/theory and practice of planning reports due to copyright limitations; restricted access to the Stanford Research Institute Planning Library in California; and the enduring popularity of SOFT and SWOT variations, driven in part by their memorable acronyms.

In the spirit of a renaissance in strategic planning research, the authors unveil novel theoretical and social connections in the emergence of SWOT analysis by combining evidence from both theory and practice and delving into previously unexplored areas.

Caution is advised for scholars who examine the discrete time frame of 1960–1980 through mere bibliometric techniques. This study underscores the risks associated with gathering incomplete and/or inaccurate data, emphasizing the importance of triangulating evidence beyond scholarly databases. The paradigm shift of strategic management research due to the advent of large language models poses new challenges and the risk of conserving and perpetuating academic urban legends, myths and lies if training data is not adequately curated.

The paper aims to investigate how perceived psychological benefits from employee participation in corporate social responsibility activities affect organizational citizenship behavior across two Asia–Pacific countries with different national cultures.

A stakeholder relationship model, based on social exchange theory, underpinned the investigation that also tested the mediating role of organizational pride. In a cross-cultural context, data were collected from 319 full-time employees in Thailand and the US and analyzed with SEM-PLS.

Anticipated psychological benefits of hedonic value and perceived community value were found to be significant antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors, operationalized as customer-directed CSR advocacy. Organizational pride played a partial mediating role.

This study addresses a lack of micro-level CSR research into the relationship between psychological benefits of employee participation in CSR and organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, this is the first study to link CSR drivers with customer-directed employee advocacy of the firms CSR activities. The study is also the first to compare relationships between an Asian and Western context for CSR drivers of organizational citizenship behaviors.

This paper evaluates intellectual capital (IC) within entrepreneurial environments, towards conceptualising the sequential role of education, its institutions in practice, and wider ecosystems. Well-established attributes of entrepreneurialism, such as idea generation, problem-solving, market expertise and risk awareness are commensurate to that of expected IC practices within enterprising organisations. However, scarce research has been undertaken concerning the confronting of IC practices and activities across collaborative, and sequential, multistakeholder partnerships and activities. This includes alignment to distinct stages of developmental entrepreneurialism inclusive of education and ecosystem support: knowledge exchange and training; mentoring the emergence of the start-up; strategically timing scale-ups; and continued navigation within networks while enduring change.

An integrative review of the relationship between IC, entrepreneurs and new ventures is undertaken to evaluate developmental IC practices as per this paper’s highlighted sequential stages, within entrepreneurial environments and organisational contexts.

Significant roles and responsibilities are evident among collaborative sectors, benefitting the entrepreneurial process and heightening the importance and emergence of IC within entrepreneurial environments. Exposure to enterprise-specific education and support emphasises the developmental human capital process of progressing and protecting ideas and ventures. Latterly, ecosystem engagement leads to consistent intrapreneurialism amongst employees and new venture partners, influencing structured IC systems and enterprising cultures and relational aspects of responsive branding of commercial activity and increased market agility.

Through presenting an attribute-based framework, this paper conceptualises sequential multistakeholder intervention of IC practices and organisational considerations within institutions, as well as guiding the developmental role of education in emboldening individuals and organisations through building IC and evidencing entrepreneurial thinking.

Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend sociological knowledge about how movements (sometimes) diffuse and amplify insurgent actions, that is, how movements move. We extend movement diffusion theory by drawing a conceptual analogue with military theory and practice applied to the case of the organized and highly disciplined nonviolent Nashville civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We emphasize emplacement in a base-mission extension model whereby a movement base is built in a community establishing a social movement school for inculcating discipline and performative training in cadre who engage in insurgent operations extended from that base to outlying events and campaigns. Our data are drawn from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted with participants of the Nashville civil rights movement. The analytic strategy employs a variant of the “extended case method,” where extension is constituted by movement agents following paths from base to outlying campaigns or events. Evidence shows that the Nashville movement established an exemplary local movement base that led to important changes in that city but also spawned traveling movement cadre who moved movement actions in an extensive series of pathways linking the Nashville base to events and campaigns across the southern theater of the civil rights movement. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

This study examines the effect of delegation of decision rights, moral justification (MJ), and ethical climate (EC) on managers’ misreporting in the financial services sector. We employed an online research panel called Qualtrics, to collect data based on a sample of 127 middle-level managers from various US financial services firms. We find that MJ mediates the relation between delegation and misreporting, suggesting delegation of decision rights increases employees’ misreporting indirectly by increasing MJ. We also find that EC significantly moderates the relationship between MJ and misreporting. Furthermore, our test of the moderated-mediation effect reveals that the indirect effect of the delegation of decision rights on misreporting through MJ is stronger when there is a higher level of instrumental climate (IC) and a lower level of principle climate (PC).

This case teaches students the importance of maintaining a strong FICO score by illustrating the consequences of paying bills late or not at all. The protagonist is David Molina, a waiter at a struggling Italian restaurant located down the block from where he lives. Money is tight for Molina right now—his limited income means he lives paycheck to paycheck. However, Molina knows things will be looking up for him soon because he recently accepted a job as a bank teller across town—his first desk job.

Molina has been putting off paying two of his bills: a cable bill and his Bank of America credit card bill, both of which are late and have been issued, this time, in the form of threats to impact Molina's credit score if he doesn't pay them. He has just enough money to afford the minimum payments on each overdue bill. But then he receives a phone call from his friend, Jim Lindsey, reminding him about an invitation to go to Myrtle Beach for the upcoming weekend. Molina knows he cannot afford it, but a woman he's attracted to, Jessica, will be there too. Should Molina put off the bills yet again, and if so, how exactly will being late on them hurt his credit score?

Despite extensive academic research related to digital technologies (DT), their integration into architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects lags in practice. This paper aims to discover DT deployment patterns and emerging trends in real-life AEC projects.

A case study methodology was adopted, including individual case analyses and comparative multiple-case analyses.

The results revealed the temporal distribution of DT in practical AEC projects, specific DT products/software, major project types integrated with digital solutions, DT application areas and project stages and associated project performance. Three distinct patterns in DT adoption have been observed, reflecting the evolution of DT applications, the progression from single to multiple DT integration and alignment with emerging industry requirements. The DT adoption behavior in the studied cases has been examined using the technology-organization-environment-human (TOE + H) framework. Further, eight emerging trend streams for future DT adoption were identified, with “leveraging the diverse features of certain mature DT” being a shared recognition of all studied companies.

This research offers actionable insights for AEC companies, facilitating the development of customized DT implementation roadmaps aligned with organizational needs. Policymakers, industry associations and DT suppliers may leverage these findings for informed decision-making, collaborative educational initiatives and product/service customization.

This research provides empirical evidence of applicable products/software, application areas and project performance. The examination of the TOE + H framework offers a holistic understanding of the collective influences on DT adoption. The identification of emerging trends addresses the evolving demands of the AEC industry in the digital era.

In light of the recent changes in the internal audit (IA) landscape, the role of auditors has undergone a significant transformation. This paper aims to investigate the effects of applying Lean Six Sigma (LSS) techniques on the effectiveness and efficiency of IA.

The study used a quantitative approach, surveying Iranian internal auditors with a sample size of 384 participants. Data analysis involved confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The analyses demonstrate a significant association between LSS application and IA effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, an exploratory analysis indicates that the application of LSS techniques by less experienced internal auditors had a reverse effect on IA function quality as a component of IA competency. However, IA motivation factors, including education and position, did not mediate the impact of LSS on IA effectiveness and efficiency.

This study was conducted with Iranian internal auditors, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other countries. However, the primary academic implication of this research lies in its novel perspective on emphasizing the concept of continuous improvement in IA through the use of LSS techniques. By focusing on the need for internal auditors to add value to the business in new ways, this research contributes to the literature on IA quality.

This study has significant implications for the effective management of IA departments. By promoting the application of LSS techniques in IA, lean auditing is enhanced, and IA can create value by improving the quality of its functions. Moreover, IA regulators can benefit from this study as it emphasizes providing guidance and training on LSS techniques to enhance IA skills.

This research is pioneering in applying LSS methodology to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of internal auditing. It also considers the integration of lean thinking into current audit practices, making it unique and valuable in internal auditing research.

This study aims to synthesize and conceptualize the highly fragmented yet important literature on racial discrimination in entrepreneurship.

A bibliometric analysis and literature review were performed that involved 523 articles containing 26,926 references.

The bibliometric analysis identified three dominant research themes that comprehensively illustrate the state of research in this domain: strategic, sociocultural and individual-level perspectives. The synthesis of extant literature helped in formulating a holistic conceptual model that portrays the genuineness of racial discrimination in entrepreneurship. The sources, factors and impact of racial discrimination faced by entrepreneurs were identified. Based on the review and analysis of keywords, certain fruitful future research directions were formulated that will take the field forward.

This work is the first attempt to review the literature that narrows down the focus to racial discrimination in entrepreneurship (from other discriminations such as gender, cultural and religious discrimination) as one form of discrimination due to its unique origins and consequences.