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The purpose of this study is to examine the viewpoints and experiences of multiple budget actors to understand their particular budget related behaviours contingent upon the COVID-19 (C19) pandemic of a developing country.

This study uses Uganda as a case study and employs semi-structured interview method for the data collection. In trying to generate themes and patterns, data are analysed through three levels of coding: open, axial and selective coding. The contingency theory is used to interpret the data.

The task of budgeting formulation, implementation and control in times of C19 lead to varied actual behaviours of budget actors because of the environmental uncertainty, inappropriate structural and technological conditions and manipulative organisational cultures contingent upon the Ugandan C19 budget context.

The insights generated from the study can be useful for the national governments of emerging economies, e.g. African countries, to understand the conditions that influence the budget actors' behaviour and together, develop long-term financial resilience strategies to face future emergencies.

This study contributes to accounting and public budgeting theory by showing that contingency theory is a relevant framework for understanding budget actors' behaviour in emergency situations. The study potentially strengthens the contingency theory framework through its incorporation of organisational culture perspective into the “people” element.

This paper explores how fire and rescue services in England responded to the challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the form and nature of fire and rescue services’ collaborations with the ambulance, police and other services and how effective their emergency planning arrangements prepared them for the pandemic.

The authors briefly set out the background to the emergency services response to recent events of national significance in the UK and North America, focussing on the collaborative aspects of the emergency services response. The authors then examine three sets of secondary sources, namely documents specifically related to Fire and Rescue Services’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

All three investigations found that the pandemic had provided an opportunity for issues relating to planning and collaboration to be re-examined and for the emergence of new innovations (both technological and organisational) to provide new responses and solutions. Although the Inspectorate found that the services had generally responded well, it controversially criticised the role of the Fire Brigades Union in the national and local response to the pandemic.

The research is situationally bound to England although there may be transferable lessons to other services and jurisdictions.

Potential future improvements are identified at national and local levels for policy and for the operational response to widespread and long-term emergencies.

England has had very few contemporary public health emergencies on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic; this research presents an important opportunity for seeking to understand what is working well and where improvements are required to improve both the local and national response in relation to such a complex and dynamic environment.

Based on a lexical analysis of publications on 529 Facebook pages, published between 2013 and 2017, this research explores how Brazilian left-wing activist groups participate on Facebook to coordinate their opposition and engage in social struggles. This chapter shows how activist groups set up two main digital network repertoires of action when mobilizing on Facebook. First, in direct connection with major political events, the platform is used as a media arena to challenge governments’ political actions and second, it is employed as a tool to coordinate mobilization, whether these mobilizations are demonstrations on the street or at cultural events, such as at a music concert. These repertoires of action exemplify ways in which contemporary Brazilian activism is carried out at the intersection of online and offline engagements. While participants engage through these two repertoires, this network of activists is held together over time through a more mundane type of event, pertaining to the repertoire of action allowing the organization of mobilization. Stepping aside from opposition and struggles brought to the streets, the organization of cultural activities, such as concerts and exhibitions, punctuates the everyday exchanges in activists’ communications. Talk about cultural events and their related social agendas structures activist networks on a medium-term basis and creates the conditions for the coordination of (future) social movements, in that they offer the opportunities to stay in contact, in addition to taking part in occasional gatherings, between more highly visible social protests.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ability of transition metals (TMs) of iron-, nickel- and zinc-doped graphene nanosheet for adsorption of toxic gas of nitric oxide (NO). The results of this paper have provided a favorable understanding of the interaction between TM-doped graphene nanosheet and NO molecule.

A high performance of TM-doped graphene nanosheet as a gas sensor is demonstrated by modeling the material’s transport characteristics by means of the Langmuir adsorption and three-layered ONIOM/ density functional theory method. The Langmuir adsorption model has been done with a three-layered ONIOM using CAM-B3LYP functional and LANL2DZ and 6–311G (d, p) basis sets by Gaussian 16 revision C.01 program towards the formation of of NO→TM(Mn, Co, Cu)-doped on the Gr nanosheet.

The changes of charge density for Langmuir adsorption of NO on Mn-, Co- and Cu-doped graphene nanosheet orderly have been achieved as: ΔQ_Co-doped = +0.309 >> ΔQ_Mn-doped = −0.074 > ΔQ_Cu-doped = −0.051. Therefore, the number of changes of charge density have concluded a more remarkable charge transfer for Mn-doped graphene nanosheet. However, based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the sharp peaks around Cu doped on the surface of graphene nanosheet and C19 close to junction of N2 and Co17 have been observed. In addition, Cu-doped graphene sheet has a large effect on bond orbitals of C8–Cu 17, C15–Cu 17 and C16–Cu17 in the adsorption of NO on the Cu-doped/Gr which has shown the maximum occupancy. The amounts of ΔGads,NO→Mn−Co through IR computations based on polarizability have exhibited that ΔGads,NO→Mn−Co has indicated the most energy gap because of charge density transfer from the nitrogen atom in NO to Mn-doped graphene nanosheet, though ΔG(NO→Cu−C)0> ΔG(NO→Co−C)0>ΔG(NO→Mn−C)0.

This research aims to explore the adsorption of hazardous pollutant gas of “NO” by using carbon nanostructure doped by “TM” of iron, nickel and zinc to evaluate the effectiveness of adsorption parameters of various TM-doped graphene nanosheets.

Limited research exists on the role of information access as a key success factor for rural entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of information access, among other inequality forms, in shaping entrepreneurial outcomes.

The authors used a qualitative, inductive research methodology. They conducted interviews with rural entrepreneurs and gained insights into the role of information access and basic tangible resources in shaping their ventures.

The authors identified two critical factors that impact rural entrepreneurs: inequalities in access to information and basic tangible resources. They found that inequalities in rural entrepreneurship are often interrelated, rather than isolated. The authors demonstrated that the relationship between entrepreneurship and inequality is not solely characterized by a positive or negative correlation but is a dynamic interplay where certain inequality forms may create barriers to opportunities for some individuals while creating opportunities for others.

The authors uncovered key barriers in rural entrepreneurship and constructed a roadmap to effectively address these challenges, providing valuable insights to policymakers and support initiatives and enabling the target of high-impact resources. This research supports efforts to provide rural entrepreneurs with equal opportunities to grow and succeed.

This research significantly contributes to the field by examining the complexities of entrepreneurship in emerging economies, with a particular focus on rural areas. The authors introduced a comprehensive conceptual model linking inequality and entrepreneurship, explored the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs and offered strategic policy recommendations for development initiatives.

The aim of this study is to shed light on the talent management practices in the unique context of seasonal work in professional kitchens. Acknowledging that in the context of seasonal work in the hospitality industry it is rather difficult to rely on mainstream strategic talent management practices (e.g. training and development), the authors draw on resource orchestration, an extension of the resource-based view and propose a conceptual model of talent management tactics that could potentially increase seasonal employees’ likelihood of returning to the same employer.

Given the uniqueness of the context of this study and the dearth of prior relevant research, this study uses a grounded theory approach. Specifically, this study analyses and draws conclusions from 25 interviews with employees in commercial kitchens.

This study develops a “talent orchestration model”, which places emphasis on management of talented employees across three dimensions: structuring, leveraging and developing talent.

Extant literature in human capital management focusses mostly on the development of human capital, but the results place more emphasis on using or leveraging human capital.

This study moves beyond the well-researched context of hotels and focusses on talent management behind closed doors as in the case of kitchen chefs and, drawing on resource orchestration, this study further examines talent management practices with shorter time frame targeted on seasonal employees.

This article seeks to offer an answer. It explores the criteria on which commercial property market participants can develop strategies in hugely challenging circumstances. For this purpose, a survey-based approach was developed with work conducted with property-market professional in the United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany and Sweden to produce a criteria-based tool supporting adaption to changing market circumstances.

The data have been analyzed using statistical analysis. The data's statistical analysis included Cronbach's alpha's application to evaluate the respondents' replies' reliability. A entral tendency test was used to identify the means of relevance of the criteria. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to determine potential material differences between the UK and other countries with Bonferroni corrections applied to minimize type-I errors.

Thirty characteristics have been identified that impact the dynamics of the commercial property market. Their relevance to the commercial property market was determined using a survey. The literature analysis showed that the researchers paid more attention to quantitative criteria and their comparison. The survey showed that the relevance of criteria to the commercial property market dynamics is unequal. However, the survey results showed that it is most important to pay attention to emotional criteria to adapt to uncertainty changing conditions. The problem of the environment has been on the agenda for the last four decades. Therefore, the fact that the results of the study showed that the environmental criteria are the least significant is unexpected.

The study involved economically developed countries of Europe. Extending the study's geographical scope would be valuable in revealing whether the same differences exist in other geographical areas (such as Australia or the USA).

The practical implication of the analysis may be to facilitate the decision-making process of either selecting a country for commercial property investment or selecting the most sensitive and relevant criteria for the decision-making.

Criteria for commercial property market performance which promote successful property investment have been developed. Moreover, the criteria affecting the commercial property market have been weighted by their relevance to the market and their sequence of relevance has been established. And finally, the developed criteria have been placed into five groups that could serve as a foundation for a macro-level assessment of commercial property market dynamics.

To gain and differentiate competitive advantage, the sustainable service quality is a determining factor that railway companies can use. The purpose of this study is to identify both the importance and performance of rail transportation service quality factors in a case study as well as determine the most influential quality features.

A comprehensive approach namely importance–performance analysis (IPA) technique and decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Matriced’ Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC) techniques was utilized.

The relative position of each attribute is specified on the IPA matrix proposing four strategies of concentrate here, keep up the good work, low priority and possible overkill. This study reveals that attributes of “the company cares about having a good society” are the most influential factor, and “having good business relations with shareholders” is the most permeable factor. Actually, consumers pay attention to how companies act toward society and maintain communication with shareholders. Through ISM technique and by summing the row and column of the consistency matrix, the attributes were partitioned into four levels. Also, MICMAC analysis identified the four clusters of linkage, independent, autonomous and dependent status of the attributes in terms of the driving power and dependence power.

Due to the nature of single case study methodology, caution should be taken into consideration regarding the generazability of the obtained results.

The hybrid DEMATEL-ISM technique is used to analyze service quality factors in Iran’s transportation industry, which can be utilized in other industries as well as other countries.

This paper aims to explore the potential of implementing an action competence teaching model as a framework for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education. The paper seeks to draw insights from the students on the potential of this teaching model.

The study adopted a quantitative research design in exploring the potential of an action competence teaching model. This study used self-report measures to obtain insights into the objective of the study.

The action competence teaching model was seen as useful in equipping students with knowledge about a problem, confidence and willingness to act. However, some issues like the design of the projects, teamwork and instructional practices were identified and discussed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to implement an action competence teaching model to help draw insights from students on its potential. This paper documents certain aspects of action competence that require attention before being implemented in higher education. This information so far lacking in scientific literature contributes to ongoing discussions on SDGs while unveiling strengths and weaknesses to be considered.