Search results

China’s population is ageing. Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) are an emerging living arrangement of older Chinese. Incorporating social sustainability features into CCRCs helps to create age-friendly residential environments for residents. However, it is still unclear what kinds of social sustainability features are incorporated into the residential environments of CCRCs in China. Therefore, this study aims to address this research gap.

Qualitative content analysis is adopted to analyse the retrieved business information of representative CCRC developers in China.

This study revealed 36 social sustainability features in CCRCs, with the top-ranked ones being health care and management, social connection and engagement, high-quality and diverse services and daily life support and assistance. Additionally, a preliminary social sustainability framework of CCRCs was proposed, and this framework includes the five components of care and health, environment and management, service and facility, age-friendly life philosophy and social support and inclusion.

In theory, this research’s findings clarify the meaning of social sustainability within the context of CCRCs, which supports future relevant explorations in the CCRC research community. In practice, these findings enhance stakeholders’ understanding of the social sustainability in CCRCs, which promotes the development of age-friendly living environments for older people in an ageing society.

A new High School Equivalency (HSE) policy was developed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in response to a shift toward a knowledge-based economy and a transformation toward STEM education. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the stakeholders' perceptions and experiences in implementing the new HSE policy in a school that follows a US curriculum in the UAE. The study was conducted before the COVID-19 lockdown. The phenomenological approach was used to shed light on the implementation of the HSE policy in an active learning environment and the challenges facing the school's stakeholders. The study results reveal the challenges that stakeholders face in implementing the HSE policy and their experiences in offering students the courses they need. All stakeholders agreed that the transformation toward STEM education requires proper implementation of the high school equivalency policy in an active learning environment that help in developing students' twenty-first-century skills and prepare them to meet the job market needs.

The post-pandemic recognises changes are required; universities need to rethink their e-servicescapes strategies by offering different approaches to enhance students’ learning. This study aims to draw on learning self-efficacy trajectories and propose a conceptual model for exploring the predictive validity of satisfaction. In addition, it explores the mediating role of e-servicescapes and the moderating relationship effect of mature and younger students.

Learning self-efficacies is incorporated into the design of the model in an attempt to understand student cognition. The influences of e-servicescape on adopting online preferences and satisfaction are also examined. The model was empirically validated by surveying 266 respondents. Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis were used to analyse the data.

The results of this study show learning self-efficacies has no significant influence on satisfaction. Yet, they showed a significant influence on e-servicescapes. E-servicescapes positively influenced satisfaction and preference for adopting online learning. E-servicescapes also had a mediating effect between self-efficacy to complete a course and satisfaction, as well as self-efficacy to interact with instructors and satisfaction. It had a negative suppressed effect on social interaction.

The research makes the following contributions. Firstly, the conceptualised model identifies an association between learning self-efficacies and e-servicescapes, suggesting universities as service providers can maximise the value offerings of their customer assets. Secondly, e-servicescapes demonstrate a full mediating effect between self-efficacies and satisfaction, indicating that if universities are to compete successfully in dynamic markets, they should co-create value in their e-servicescapes domain to increase satisfaction. Thirdly, the study recognises the need for a hybrid system of both face-to-face and online delivery because the multi-group analysis shows mature age preference for online learning is required to make this transformation successful.