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The 2014/2015 UK requirement for involvement of service users and carers in training mental health professionals has prompted the authors to review the work of involvement in clinical psychology training in the university programme. Have the voices of service users and carers been heard? The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors update the paper of 2011 in which the authors described the challenges of inclusion and the specific approaches the authors take to involvement. The authors do this in the context of the recent change to UK standards for service user and carer involvement, and recent developments in relation to partnership working and co-production in mental healthcare. The authors describe the work carried out by the authors – members of a service user involvement group at a UK university – to ensure the voices of people affected by mental health difficulties are included in all aspects of training.

Careful work and the need for dedicated time is required to enable inclusive, effective and comprehensive participation in a mental health training programme. It is apparent that there is a group of service users whose voice is less heard: those who are training to be mental health workers.

For some people, involvement has increased. Trainee mental health professionals’ own experience of distress may need more recognition and valuing.

The authors are in a unique position to review a service-user-led project, which has run for 12 years, whose aim has been to embed involvement in training. The authors can identify both achievements and challenges.

This paper aims to describe the challenges and rewards of service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training as experienced in one training centre.

After outlining the major challenges of involvement in higher education and in clinical psychology training, the paper describes the work carried out by the authors. Members of the service user and carer advisory group Salomons Advisory Group of Experts by Experience (SAGE) recount their experiences of working with them in clinical psychology and Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) training. The challenges of inclusion and specific approaches that are used to work with these are explored.

Members of SAGE have experienced their contributions to the work in positive ways. However, inclusion in this context requires everyone involved to fully acknowledge the social and historical barriers in order to work together to overcome them.

Some of the approaches to meeting the challenges of inclusion in doctoral level clinical training may be applicable in other places.

In the authors' experience, true inclusion means openness to the authoritative voices of people not normally viewed as educators. A parallel question is the degree to which professionals feel safe to admit to service user experience or to draw upon other aspects of their personhood while working professionally. This may be crucial for successful partnership.

The authors are still on this journey of inclusion, and hope that by sharing some of their experiences of its complexities that they may help illuminate some elements of others' journeys.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of using a co-production partnership approach in the development of a Recovery College pilot.

This is a case study of the co-production process, using action research to learn from ongoing reflection, mid-project review and feedback questionnaires.

The partnership process is an integral and valued aspect of the Recovery College. Challenges include different organisational cultures and processes and the additional time required. Mutual respect, appreciation of different expertise, communication, a shared vision and development plan have been key to success. The paper focused on governance and fidelity; recruitment and training; curriculum development and evaluation. People are enthusiastic and motivated. Co-production and equal partnership are a valuable approach to developing a Recovery College.

At present many regions are developing Recovery Colleges. This paper describes one approach and shows that co-production is valuable to the process of developing a Recovery College.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Recovery College from a student perspective and consider what contributes to making Recovery College effective.

The authors draw on interviews with students, course feedback forms, a detailed narrative of one of the authors’ experiences as a student and the authors’ own reflections.

Students’ experience is that Recovery College is effective because of the social relational factors, learning from other students and the collaborative co-production approach; the educational approach learning skills and knowledge, and choice and progression to personal goals.

This paper explores key aspects of Recovery College from a student perspective, informing the authors about possible components to their effectiveness.

Previous research suggests that service user and carer involvement (SUCI) in clinical psychology training may have an impact. The purpose of this study was to develop a validated questionnaire to enable trainee clinical psychologists to rate this.

A collaborative project was carried out with service users and carers and trainee clinical psychologists. The principles of questionnaire design were followed. The authors developed and validated a trainee self-report questionnaire, based on focus groups and relevant literature indicating potential impacts of involvement on practice. A draft 60-item version was piloted with 15 trainee clinical psychologists. Then, 133 trainees from 22 UK clinical psychology courses completed it (estimated response rate of 13.2%). The sample was representative of UK trainees in gender and ethnicity, but slightly older.

The principal component analysis produced a 36-item questionnaire with four factors: human communication, carer perspectives, empathy and challenging/changing. The questionnaire showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Stakeholder consultation suggested face and content validity and there was some indication of construct validity.

The project has resulted in a usable co-produced questionnaire, which is now available to clinical psychology courses to assess the self-reported impact of SUCI in training, and which may also be used in future research.

This study aims to provide nuanced insights into the effectiveness of digital outdoor advertising in redefining urban tourism appeal. Amidst a transformative era for urban tourism and city branding strategies, this study evaluates Tecoration’s influence on city branding and tourism promotion frameworks. Using the “Wave” digital outdoor advertising campaign in Seoul as a focal point, this analysis explores how such innovative marketing efforts reshape potential tourists’ perceptions and intentions toward visiting Seoul.

The study uses a bifurcated methodological framework. The initial phase undertakes a granular topical analysis, decoding keyword patterns from YouTube video commentaries, offering an unmediated insight into viewer sentiment. This is juxtaposed with a structural equation modeling technique in the subsequent phase, which serves to validate and triangulate the findings of the primary analysis.

The study reveals that viewer reactions, imbued with a sense of surprise attributable to both the content’s novelty and the technological innovation, exhibit a strong correlation with increased media engagement. This enhanced engagement significantly influences the viewers’ overall perception of the city, culminating in a marked increase in their intentions to visit Seoul.

The findings have transformative implications for city branding strategies, accentuating the potential of digital outdoor mediums. The study advocates for a paradigm shift that underscores the indispensability of Tecoration in elevating urban brand imagery and catalyzing the broader objectives of smart city metamorphosis, urban tourism rejuvenation and commercial growth trajectories.

The results of this research highlight the transformative potential of digital outdoor media in city branding. The findings suggest a shift in strategy, emphasizing the critical role of Tecoration in enhancing urban brand imagery, driving smart city development, revitalizing urban tourism and fostering commercial growth. This study underscores the strategic importance of integrating Tecoration into the urban branding framework, showcasing its vital contribution to the growth and dynamism of modern cities.

The findings of this study highlight the social implications of integrating Tecoration media in urban environments. By enhancing city branding and tourism through innovative digital signage, cities can foster a more vibrant and attractive urban atmosphere, promoting community pride and engagement. Additionally, the increased visitor traffic can boost local economies and support cultural exchange, contributing to the overall social and economic well-being of urban areas. Strategic use of digital outdoor advertising can also bridge the gap between technological advancements and public spaces, creating more interactive and inclusive urban experiences for residents and tourists alike.

This study embraces a viewer-centric perspective, delving into the relatively uncharted realms of surprise and media engagement within the digital consumption landscape. By adopting this innovative angle, the research significantly deepens the comprehension of viewer experiences and broadens the academic boundaries concerning city branding and media effect frameworks in management literature.

This study aims to examine the role of the board of directors in affecting earnings management practices across small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) life cycle.

Data is collected from 280 SMEs listed on the London Stock Exchange during the period of 2009–2016. Fixed effects regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

This study shows that the impact of the board of directors' roles on earnings management practices varies depending on the SMEs life cycle stage. In the introduction, growth and decline stages of SMEs, the wealth creation role of the board is negatively significant with earnings management, while the wealth protection role of the board is positively significant in the growth and maturity phases. Results suggest that the board's responsibility to create wealth deters early-stage earnings management strategies, while protecting shareholder interests, in latter stages, leads to a decrease in earnings management.

The findings suggest that corporate governance should be customized to the specific stage of the SMEs life cycle. Additionally, different life cycle stages may impose different requirements on corporate boards to shape the effectiveness of these mechanisms and constrain earnings management practices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study offers one of the first insights on the UK SMEs to understand how board functions and earnings management practices vary over SMEs life cycles. It will offer important information on the effect of board features on earnings management in SMEs in the UK and is anticipated to be of importance to policymakers, regulators, investors and practitioners.

This case is based on Weatherford International’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Both the SEC and the DOJ were critical of Weatherford for its violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and for its “inadequate internal controls.” This case explores the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations and issues related to internal controls.

Case study.

This case is based on Weatherford International’s settlement with the SEC and the Department of Justice. Weatherford provided equipment and services in the oil and gas industry. Because international markets were growing faster than domestic markets, Weatherford made a strategic decision to pursue growth in international markets. The oil and gas industry has high levels of operating risk as did the countries that Weatherford decided to pursue operations in. However, despite the decision to take on additional risk, Weatherford failed to implement adequate systems of internal controls. The title of the case “A Perfect Storm” refers to Weatherford’s trifecta of operating in an industry with high levels of corruption risk, countries with high levels of corruption risk and failing to implement adequate internal controls despite those high operating risks (Department of Justice, 2013). Weatherford was ultimately assessed a $152m penalty for its violations of the FCPA that included bribery, volume discounts, improper payments and kickbacks.

Undergraduate and graduate auditing classes.

This paper aims to study the role of self-concept in consumer relationships with anthropomorphised conversational artificially intelligent (AI) agents. First, the authors investigate how the self-congruence between consumer self-concept and AI and the integration of the conversational AI agent into consumer self-concept might influence such relationships. Second, the authors examine whether these links with self-concept have implications for mental well-being.

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 20 consumers who regularly use popular conversational AI agents for functional or emotional tasks. Based on a thematic analysis and an ideal-type analysis, this study derived a taxonomy of consumer–AI relationships, with self-congruence and self–AI integration as the two axes.

The findings unveil four different relationships that consumers forge with their conversational AI agents, which differ in self-congruence and self–AI integration. Both dimensions are prominent in replacement and committed relationships, where consumers rely on conversational AI agents for companionship and emotional tasks such as personal growth or as a means for overcoming past traumas. These two relationships carry well-being risks in terms of changing expectations that consumers seek to fulfil in human-to-human relationships. Conversely, in the functional relationship, the conversational AI agents are viewed as an important part of one’s professional performance; however, consumers maintain a low sense of self-congruence and distinguish themselves from the agent, also because of the fear of losing their sense of uniqueness and autonomy. Consumers in aspiring relationships rely on their agents for companionship to remedy social exclusion and loneliness, but feel this is prevented because of the agents’ technical limitations.

Although this study provides insights into the dynamics of consumer relationships with conversational AI agents, it comes with limitations. The sample of this study included users of conversational AI agents such as Siri, Google Assistant and Replika. However, future studies should also investigate other agents, such as ChatGPT. Moreover, the self-related processes studied here could be compared across public and private contexts. There is also a need to examine such complex relationships with longitudinal studies. Moreover, future research should explore how consumers’ self-concept could be negatively affected if the support provided by AI is withdrawn. Finally, this study reveals that in some cases, consumers are changing their expectations related to human-to-human relationships based on their interactions with conversational AI agents.

This study enables practitioners to identify specific anthropomorphic cues that can support the development of different types of consumer–AI relationships and to consider their consequences across a range of well-being aspects.

This research equips marketing scholars with a novel understanding of the role of self-concept in the relationships that consumers forge with popular conversational AI agents and the associated well-being implications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why individuals use corporate pages on Facebook with the aim of developing a usage-specific inventory of incentive factors which describe brand page utilization for consumption, participation and production behavior.

A combined perspective of uses-and-gratifications (U&G) and social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied to develop three models of brand page behavior. Based on a literature review, an online survey (N=215) was conducted. Exploratory factor analyses identified motivational factors based on SCT incentive dimensions, which were cross-validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Results indicate that consumption behavior can best be explained by activity, self-reactive-novel and monetary incentives. Status incentives, practical-novel and self-reactive-idealistic incentives drive participation. Production behavior is best explained by social, self-reactive and status incentives.

The models’ strategic implications for integrated communication management are discussed.

The results suggest interconnections of incentive dimensions unique to brand page usage, which have not yet been explored in any research.