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Drawing on an intersectional perspective on racial, migrant and entrepreneurial identities, this paper investigates the identity work of racial minority entrepreneurs with native-born and migrant backgrounds, confronted to experiences of othering in a White entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The study takes a qualitative-interpretivist approach and builds on six cases of racial minority entrepreneurs in nascent stages of venture development within the Dutch technology sector. The dataset comprises 24 in-depth interviews conducted over the course of one and a half year, extensive case descriptions and online sources. The data is thematically and inductively analysed.

Despite strongly self-identifying as entrepreneurs, the research participants feel marginalised and excluded from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which results in ongoing threats to their existential authenticity as they build a legitimate entrepreneurial identity. Minority entrepreneurs navigate these threats by either downplaying or embracing their marginalised racial and/or migrant identities.

The study contributes to the literature on the identity work of minority entrepreneurs. The paper reveals that, rather than “strategising away” the discrimination and exclusion resulting from othering, racial minority entrepreneurs seek to preserve their sense of existential authenticity and self-worth, irrespective of entrepreneurial outcomes. In so doing, the study challenges the dominant perspective of entrepreneurial identity work among minority entrepreneurs as overly instrumental and market-driven. Moreover, the study also contributes to the literature on authenticity in entrepreneurship by highlighting how racial minority entrepreneurs navigate authenticity threats while building legitimacy in a White ecosystem.

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates. That is, without critically inquiring into the knowledge of life, which is well-being and valuable, life is not worth living. Critical thinking questions existing theories and their unexamined and obsessive assumptions and generalizations, constraints, and the so-called “best” practices of the prevailing system of management and tries to replace them with more valid assumptions and generalizations that uphold the dignity, uniqueness, and inalienable rights of every individual and the community. In our diverse and pluralistic cultural environment, the promise of a truly generative dialogue among occidental (western) and oriental (eastern) cultures and civilizations holds great hope for the future. Critical thinking can facilitate this dialogue such that all of us have a meaningful place in this universe. In this chapter, we explore introductory working definitions of critical thinking so that we can early enough understand its demanding domains, moral calls, and ramifications in its current critical applications. Specifically, in Part I, we examine the structured layers of our thinking and reasoning to dismantle them progressively, and in Part II, in support of our claims, we explore complexity and chaos theories as a new resource for critical thinking.

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

The urban environment is perceived through multiple senses in parallel, which means that visual understanding of space is aided and complemented by auditory, basic-orienting, and haptic stimuli – although mainly unconsciously. Sensory conditions are inherent attributes of urban places, but are often overlooked in research. To include these aspects in any way in analysis of the urban landscape, they need to be understood as properties of urban space, to be translated from attributes of the perceiver to attributes of the perceived. Using the relation between a designed garden and its suburban context in Bad Oeynhausen (DE) as an example, I will explore an alternative analytical methodology that takes the first-hand perspective view of the subject moving through the city as the starting point. The human body explores space by moving through it; walking is the most direct way to access, study, and research the physical qualities of the (urban) landscape, involving not only visual experience but also sound, rhythm, kinaesthesia, balance, and so forth. A notation technique that discloses the interrelation between visual qualities and their perception over time is the technique of ‘scoring’. Scores are symbolisations of processes, which extend over time. They can objectively represent non-visual qualities of space, communicating the relation between such processes and their spatial context to others in other places and other moments. These representations of movement expose the qualities of the surroundings that change as one moves through them, thus communicating the experiential aspects of urban landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to examine recovery through lived experience. It is part of a series that explores candid accounts of addiction and recovery to identify important components in the recovery process.

The G-CHIME model comprises six elements important to addiction recovery (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life and empowerment). It provides a standard against which to consider addiction recovery, having been used in this series, as well as in the design of interventions that improve well-being and strengthen recovery. In this paper, a first-hand account is presented, followed by a semi-structured e-interview with the author of the account. Narrative analysis is used to explore the account and interview through the G-CHIME model.

This paper shows that addiction recovery is a remarkable process that can be effectively explained using the G-CHIME model. The significance of each component in the model is apparent from the account and e-interview presented.

Each account of recovery in this series is unique and, as yet, untold.

Reducing aircraft fuel consumption has become a paramount research area, focusing on optimizing operational parameters like speed and altitude during the cruise phase. However, the existing methods for fuel reduction often rely on complex experimental calculations and data extraction from embedded systems, making practical implementation challenging. To address this, this study aims to devise a simple and accessible approach using available information.

In this paper, a novel analytic method to estimate and optimize fuel consumption for aircraft equipped with jet engines is proposed, with a particular emphasis on speed and altitude parameters. The dynamic variations in weight caused by fuel consumption during flight are also accounted for. The derived fuel consumption equation was rigorously validated by applying it to the Boeing 737–700 and comparing the results against the fuel consumption reference tables provided in the Boeing manual. Remarkably, the equation yielded closely aligned outcomes across various altitudes studied. In the second part of this paper, a pioneering approach is introduced by leveraging the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). This novel application of PSO allows us to explore the equation’s potential in finding the optimal altitude and speed for an actual flight from Algiers to Brussels.

The results demonstrate that using the main findings of this study, including the innovative equation and the application of PSO, significantly simplifies and expedites the process of determining the ideal parameters, showcasing the practical applicability of the approach.

The suggested methodology stands out for its simplicity and practicality, particularly when compared to alternative approaches, owing to the ready availability of data for utilization. Nevertheless, its applicability is limited in scenarios where zero wind effects are a prevailing factor.

The research opens up new possibilities for fuel-efficient aviation, with a particular focus on the development of a unique fuel consumption equation and the pioneering use of the PSO algorithm for optimizing flight parameters. This study’s accessible approach can pave the way for more environmentally conscious and economical flight operations.

Inaccurate capturing and processing of customer requirements result in negative economic and ecological effects. Digital twins of customer demands promise to remedy these issues. However, successful implementation necessitates users' technology acceptance. This study contrasts three hierarchical digital twin levels with different degrees of user integration and examines determinants for their respective acceptance.

A structural equation model is applied in a comparative manner, considering different levels of digital twin radicalness. A multidimensional approach is used to measure attitudes towards usage. Data are collected in the context of organisational supply management.

Results show harmonious effects across digital twin levels. This indicates that technological radicality plays only a subordinate role when assessing acceptance determinants such as user perception on ease of use, usefulness, trust and risk.

Rather than focussing solely on technological factors, findings suggest that users prioritise the actual outcome and efficiency of the system. This perspective offers practical implications for organisations seeking to implement advanced systems and emphasises the significance of user perceptions beyond technological features.

The societal impact of this research are an appreciation of customer roles in the supply chain where an enhanced detection of customer needs and preferences aligns businesses with the dynamic and evolving demands of a diverse and a continuously environmentally-conscious consumer base.

This study applies a measurement model for technology acceptance in a unique and multidimensional manner. Thereby, a comparative analysis of user perceptions across different digital twin levels sheds more light on a nascent, promising and underexplored technological method. This interdisciplinary research combined knowledge from the supply chain management and management information systems fields by highlighting key factors for the adoption of complex technological methods.

The purpose of this study is to develop a theory that explains how organizations can create a more inclusive atmosphere on the individual, organizational and societal levels. The consequences of an inclusive environment were subsequently developed and explored.

Constructivist grounded theory methods were used to collect and analyze data from interviews with 20 hotel executives and their company websites.

The findings of this study produced a theoretical framework for inclusion in hotel leadership, leadership inclusion theory (LIT). The LIT states organizations must address individual differences, organizational policies and culture and societal norms to develop an inclusive environment. Equity follows inclusion as the value for individual differences makes equitable treatment easier. Finally, diversity increases through increased inclusion and equity.

The LIT describes steps for managers to take to develop an inclusive environment, establish equitable practices and increase diversity within an organization.

The LIT highlights several unintended exclusion practices and generational attitudes that are common among organizations. By making conscious efforts, managers can take deliberate actions to establish a perceived environment of equality.

The LIT is a seminal theory-building effort grounded in hospitality. It explains the when and why of several phenomena related to inequality in the hotel industry and how to overcome such imbalances.