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In the 1947 article, The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, Colin Rowe famously compared the spatial and geometric properties of buildings by two architects: Palladio and Le Corbusier. Many of Rowe's observations in this article have since been extensively debated but not rigorously tested. This paper examines Rowe's proposition that Palladio's villa plans possess greater intelligibility and cellularity than Le Corbusier's villa plans.

Two established computational techniques, axial line analysis and isovist analysis, are adopted in this paper to quantify and compare the properties of intelligibility and cellularity in the four villas that Rowe used to construct his argument: Malcontenta, Rotunda, Stein, and Savoye.

While acknowledging methodological limitations, the results of this paper do not support Rowe's claims, but they do lead to a unique quantitative examination of spatial configurations and properties of four famous villa plans.

This is the first paper to quantitatively examine Rowe's claims that Palladian villas possess greater intelligibility and cellularity than Le Corbusier's villas.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Implementation and Disclosure in the Banking Sector: the case of banks with Islamic identity in Syria. This study aims to explore Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD) in Syrian banks which have an Islamic identity, investigating their motivations when implementing and disclosing CSR and the challenges banks have faced. This study employed content analysis to extract knowledge from 33 annual reports published by three banks which have Islamic identity in Syria over the period 2008–2020. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with five participants who are aware of CSRD policy in the banks in the sample, in order to gain a fuller understanding of their motivations in relation to CSR and any challenges they faced. This article draws on the overlap between Stakeholder and Legitimacy theories in order to explain the motivations of the banks in question. The study found that banks which have an Islamic identity increased their levels of CSR implementation during the conflict crisis but were not publishing details on these activities because of a concern regarding the Islamic modesty around charitable actions and to avoid upsetting the sensibility of beneficiaries. Interviewees commented that in the time of conflict crisis, many Syrians needed relief and support. Because of this, banks in our research sample decided to take responsibility to lessen the negative impact of the conflict crisis on the Syrian community. In addition, the analysis revealed that banks engaged with Environment and Human Right issues after 2013 because they wanted to fulfil the requirements of their national partners.

The field of supply chain management (SCM) needs to attract and retain workers to solve the current talent shortage. The purpose of this research is to identify and evaluate factors that influence career advancement in SCM and compare male and female supply chain experts' perceptions of the importance of those factors.

First, 32 factors perceived as affecting career advancement in SCM were identified by conducting a literature review and consulting 36 experts. Those factors were grouped into four categories: “environmental and structural”, “human capital”, “individual” and “interpersonal”. Those factors were validated via the Delphi method, and ten factors were retained for further study. Second, the voting analytical hierarchy process was used to determine the priority weights experts assigned to these factors. The weights assigned by male and female experts were compared to determine if there were differences between the women's and men's perceptions of the factors' importance.

The findings reveal that the category of human capital factors is the most important, followed by individual factors and the least important is interpersonal factors. The experts consulted for this research emphasized “skills”, “a good fit between an individual and an organization” and “self-confidence” as important factors for career advancement. There were two unexpected results. First, the experts rejected all the environmental and structural factors. Second, no significant difference was found between the male and female groups' evaluations.

Prior to this study, no integrated approach to identify and evaluate the factors perceived which affect career advancement in SCM had been developed. This research is a single empirical and integrative study in France that provides valuable insights for academics and practitioners.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between big data and supply chain platform in China’s retail industry. With the emergence of big data resources and technologies, the business pattern of new retail advocates the combination of online and offline channels. Supply chain platform plays a key role in the implementation of retail activities, which has gradually become a research hotspot in the cross field of operations management and information system.

Through the method of literature review and case study, this study empirically explores how big data shapes supply chain platform to support new forms of online retail by grounded theory.

The model framework is validated by reliability test and coding method to process survey materials. The results identify the overall antecedents of supply chain platform and reveal positive effects between big data and new retail. The findings help firm managers build a big data-driven supply chain to support new retail.

There are insufficient studies on theoretical frameworks and interaction relationships among big data, supply chain platform and new retail.

This paper aims to examine how gamification components affect training outcomes through intrinsic or extrinsic motivation (IM and EM), drawing on the self-determination motivation theory.

In this study, survey method has been used to analyse the hypotheses and objective of the research. A total of 260 surveys were received through the web-based stage and 260 surveys were legitimate. The data in this study was investigated using SPSS version 20.0 and Smart-PLS version 3.0 software.

The findings represent how IM intervenes in gamification parts of training outcomes. Apart from the indirect effect, this study also shows the immediate effect of experience point and progress bar affecting IM and EM. This study shows that the immediate effect of IM has a positive impact on training outcomes, however there is an adverse consequence in the event of EM on training outcomes as well as there is no intervening or mediating impact.

In this study, the authors offer novel research that might aid businesses in identifying the most important aspects of gamification for the relevant personnel. There is a substantial correlation between gamification and employee engagement that was previously focused on. With particular emphasis on the progress bar and experience point, the authors have demonstrated a connection between IM and EM through the use of gamification elements, paving the way for businesses to place a greater emphasis on intrinsic drive-in gamification systems intended to enhance employee training.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how physical therapists make meaning of their professional role identity when transitioning from clinician to leadership positions. Despite the importance of professional role identity in the transition from health-care provider to health-care leader, research on this topic in physical therapy remains almost nonexistent.

A qualitative, phenomenological research approach was used in this study. Data was collected through a three-part, semistructured interview process. An open coding to focused coding process was used to analyze data and develop themes which answered the research question.

Physical therapists in this study engaged in identity work, making meaning of their professional role identity by referencing a professional role identity focused on more than clinical skills, accepting the role of discomfort, focusing on relationships, exercising agency over the construction of their leader identity, recognizing consistency between clinical and leader roles and establishing a professional role identity informed but no longer bound by their physical therapist identity.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate how physical therapists make meaning of their professional role identity when transitioning into leadership positions. The findings of this study highlight uniquities in the physical therapy professional role identity and the manner in which physical therapists navigate this work role transition.

In recent years, the relationship between Manchester United fans and their club has been put under the spotlight due to the contentious relationship between the fanbase and the club’s American owners, the Glazer family. However, the commercialisation of Manchester United and their ramping up of their associated brand accelerated massively during the 1990s, as a result of the coincident timing of the country’s glamour club returning to dominance during a period of ever-greater financial returns for top-flight success. As the undoubted commercial trailblazers in English football (and the first English club to be listed on the Stock Exchange), analysing their development during the 1990s is, arguably, the best way of understanding how and why top-flight football clubs operate the way they do and, in a knock-on effect on the league’s competitiveness, why the clubs below them can so easily fall away.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reform of initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Australia over a 25-year period from 1998 to 2023. It examines policy shifts and movements over this timeframe and aims to better understand the ongoing reforms in the changing contexts of their times.

The paper engages a critical policy historiography approach, focusing on four “policy moments” each linked to a review commissioned by the Commonwealth government of the day. It draws upon the reports and government responses themselves, along with media reports, extracts from Hansard, and ministerial speeches, press releases and interviews related to each of the four policy moments, asking critical questions about the “public issues” and “private troubles” (Gale, 2001) of each moment and aiming to shed light on the complexities of these accounts of policy and the trajectory they represent.

The paper charts the construction of the problem of ITE in Australia over time, highlighting the discursive continuities and shifts since 1998. It traces the constitution of both policy problems and solutions to explain the current policy settlement using a historical lens.

Its value lies in offering a reading of the current policy settlement, based on a close and systematic historical analysis. Where previous research has focused either on particular moments or concepts in ITE reform, this analysis seeks to understand the current policy settlement by taking a longer, contextualised view.

Supply chains are among the most important, complex and risky systems in the modern world. Thus, managing risk is no longer an option, but a fundamental process in organizations. Given the lack of pathways that guide companies toward supply chain risk management (SCRM), the purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual reference, in the form of a maturity model, to support them in the evolution and improvement of this process.

The proposal covered a broad literature review, a survey and a multiple case study. The research was conducted in the aerospace industry and included companies from the supply chain of a leading aircraft manufacturer.

The model elaborated with the research results has eight attributes and four levels, addressing critical issues for SCRM to achieve its scope and purposes. The attributes include the structuring and scope of the SCRM process, the importance it receives within the organization, the resources used and the qualification of employees, the role of leadership and the inter-organizational collaboration.

Managing risk along supply chains is particularly challenging, demands resources and knowledge and requires a continuous effort. The proposed model offers a reference for improvement, helping to identify areas that need to be strengthened and practices to be implemented. Thus, it can guide the focus and efforts in a more efficient and systematic way, in addition to support evaluations and comparisons.

Although maturity models are abundant in different fields and several are available for risk management, models specifically developed for SCRM are scarce. This study broadens the understanding of SCRM with novel insights about how to improve this process in an evolutionary way. While many researchers focused their efforts on the SCRM process steps, this study identified critical issues that transcend these steps. The research was carried out in a sector with a long tradition in risk management and included companies belonging to a same supply chain, that is, using an approach still little explored in studies on SCRM or risk management maturity models.

The purpose of the article was to identify the core dimensions of strategic thinking and create a measure that provides a comprehensive operationalization of the construct.

The construct validity of the measure was assessed in two studies using four samples with a total of 985 participants. The measure was created using a multi-step process that included item development and content validation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity, criterion validity and test-retest validity.

The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported the existence of the three dimensions of strategic thinking (visionary, synthetic and creative thinking) as conceptually proposed. The measure was reduced to nine items. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the three dimensions and revealed acceptable factor loadings and model fit. Convergent, discriminant and criterion validity were established, and the measure demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability.

An individual's ability to think strategically is vital for making strategic decisions and relevant to upper echelon theory and strategic management. The definition and core dimensions of strategic thinking are unclear in the literature, creating confusion. This study added to the literature by defining the core dimensions of strategic thinking and developing the strategic thinking assessment (STA) to measure the construct.