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This paper focuses on image-to-text manuscript processing through Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), a Machine Learning (ML) approach enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). With HTR now achieving high levels of accuracy, we consider its potential impact on our near-future information environment and knowledge of the past.

In undertaking a more constructivist analysis, we identified gaps in the current literature through a Grounded Theory Method (GTM). This guided an iterative process of concept mapping through writing sprints in workshop settings. We identified, explored and confirmed themes through group discussion and a further interrogation of relevant literature, until reaching saturation.

Catalogued as part of our GTM, 120 published texts underpin this paper. We found that HTR facilitates accurate transcription and dataset cleaning, while facilitating access to a variety of historical material. HTR contributes to a virtuous cycle of dataset production and can inform the development of online cataloguing. However, current limitations include dependency on digitisation pipelines, potential archival history omission and entrenchment of bias. We also cite near-future HTR considerations. These include encouraging open access, integrating advanced AI processes and metadata extraction; legal and moral issues surrounding copyright and data ethics; crediting individuals’ transcription contributions and HTR’s environmental costs.

Our research produces a set of best practice recommendations for researchers, data providers and memory institutions, surrounding HTR use. This forms an initial, though not comprehensive, blueprint for directing future HTR research. In pursuing this, the narrative that HTR’s speed and efficiency will simply transform scholarship in archives is deconstructed.

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the concept of crisis leadership based on perceptions of 48 Australian leaders drawn from various sectors including Australian politics, higher education, not-for-profit and corporate sectors.

This qualitative study employed semi-structured virtual interviews of 48 leaders from Australian politics, higher education, not-for-profit and corporate sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leximancer text analytics program was used for data analysis.

Participants perceived effective leadership during a crisis as encompassing four macro themes: leadership as power, leadership as emanating from people, leadership as management and leadership as specific to the organization. While these findings reinforced extant literature on facets of effective leadership, leaders from different sectors differed on the relative importance of some leadership themes and their relevance to specific sectors.

While the data were collected from a convenient sample, our findings from multiple sectors in Australia extend our knowledge on crisis leadership by revealing differences in sectorial perspectives of crisis leadership. Further, these findings help refine the extant traditional explanations of leadership and especially offer an enhanced understanding of leadership during a crisis. Consequently, our findings support future research that could help identify specific attributes of leaders navigating organizational crises. Such future research could subsequently help develop a theory on crisis leadership based on a valid and reliable measurement for assessing crisis leadership effectiveness in diverse organizational settings.

Our study is based on multi-sector data and consequently lays a solid foundation for extending the conceptualization of leadership during crisis, and the need to reconceptualize effective leader attributes useful in crisis contexts. Theoretically, the current study extended recent research on crisis leadership, by examining the conceptualizations of crisis leadership within specific Australian sectors.

The first two decades of the 21st century saw the rise of girl power discourses in international development, which argue that when girls in the Global South are given an investment to stay in school, they will lift entire communities out of poverty. Transnational Corporations partnered with, or even founded, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) aimed at educating girls. Yet many of these corporations face criticisms that their products, employment practices, or supply chains are harmful to girls and women. In this chapter, I employ a feminist, postcolonial and poststructuralist approach, analyzing the transnational politics of corporate–NGO partnerships for girls' education. I argue that Apple Inc.’s sponsorship of the Malala Fund and Caterpillar Inc.’s partnership with Girl Up amount to transnational forms of genderwashing, aimed primarily at alleviating the concerns of publics in the Global North while doing little to address harm experienced by girls and women in the Global South.

Rural indigenous schools in Malaysia can be far from equipped with facilities and conducive learning environments, especially in schools serving a large and diverse community. SK RPS (Rancangan Penempatan Semula/Resettlement Programme) Banun is an all-indigenous school located in the interiors of Gerik, Perak in Malaysia. Being the only school in the vicinity of an Orang Asli settlement comprising 18 villages of the Je hai and Temiar tribes, this public school is said to be a one stop hub for the community. Despite the school's existence, there are several challenges which hinders children of the Orang Asli community to attain a quality education or in some cases to even go to school. This paper is written based on the lived experiences of three teachers from mid-2022 to mid-2023 and amplifies the day-to-day challenges of the school and its community. The paper also discusses the initiatives implemented to tackle some of the challenges, highlighting key successes and suggestions to improve some areas particularly in enhancing and reimagining pedagogical approaches as well as learning environments in Orang Asli schools in Malaysia.

Two-sided messages in advertising, which contain both negative and positive information, can have varying effects on persuasion. Thus, it is crucial to understand the conditions under which such messages are more or less effective compared to one-sided messages that only contain positive information. This research investigates the moderating role of the visual angle (close-up vs. long shot) of an image by drawing upon construal level theory.

This research reports two experimental studies employing a 2 (message: two-sided [positive and negative information], one-sided [positive information as a control condition]) × 2 (visual angle: near [close-up], distant [long shot]) between-subjects design.

The results demonstrate that two-sided messages paired with a close-up image decrease positive electronic word of mouth (eWOM) due to increased feelings of ambivalence, while two-sided messages paired with a long-shot image increase positive eWOM due to increased perceived authenticity.

These findings provide insight into the impact of two-sided messages on advertising persuasion and provide guidance for marketers in developing effective communication strategies to leverage positive eWOM.

Organizations remain a vital sociological topic, but organizational sociology, as a subfield, has evolved significantly since its inception. In this paper, I argue that organization sociology is becoming increasingly disconnected from organizational theory, as currently conceived. The focus of sociological research on organizations has become more empirically grounded in the study of social problems and how organizations contribute to them. Sociologists continue to see organizations as important actors in society that play a role in shaping social order and as contexts in which social processes play out. I propose two main sociological approaches for organizational research, which I describe as “organizations within society” and “society within organizations.” The first approach examines the role of organizations as building blocks of social structure and as social actors in their own right. The second approach treats organizations as platforms and locations of social interactions and the building of community. These approaches are somewhat disconnected from the sort of grand theorizing that characterizes much of organizational theory. I argue that the problem-oriented sociology of these two approaches offers a vital way for organizational scholars to expand and theoretically revitalize the field.

The purpose of this study is to explore how intercultural competencies impact the employment of young people, and to showcase virtuous examples of practices by the University of Turin and the company Global Mindset Development.

Drawing upon a comprehensive review of relevant literature, this paper highlights the theoretical foundations of intercultural competencies and their relevance to labor market integration. It examines their multidimensional nature, encompassing knowledge, skills, attitudes and awareness necessary for individuals to effectively navigate and engage with diverse cultural contexts. The paper then presents several good and promising practices realized by the University of Turin and the training and consultancy company Global Mindset Development. Furthermore, it addresses potential challenges associated with developing and implementing intercultural competencies in practice.

The study enriches the body of literature on the importance of intercultural competencies for young workers acquired through experiences such as international mobility for labor market integration.

The study presents some innovative approaches to training through experiential and mobility training programs. These new examples of practices can inspire further research and implementation.

This paper analyzes the ways in which accounting enables operations managers to enter and perform multiple roles in their interplay with organizational groups on the shop floor and in management, and the associated negotiations that operations managers have with “the self.”

Using field-based studies in a mining organization, the study draws on Goffman’s backstage–frontstage metaphor to analyze how operations managers enter and perform several roles with the aid of accounting.

The findings show that accounting legitimizes operations managers when they cross organizational boundaries, as accounting gives them an “entry ticket” that legitimizes their presence with the group. Accounting further allows operations managers to embrace more than one role by “putting on a mask” to become an outsider or insider in relation to a group. In performing their roles, operations managers exhibit varying attributes and knowledge. Accounting can thereby be withheld from, or shared with, organizational groups. The illusion of accounting as deterministic presented frontstage is not necessarily negotiated that way backstage. Rather, alternatives discussed backstage often become silenced in the frontstage performance. The study concludes that operations managers cross boundaries, embrace roles and exert agency as they navigate with accounting, enrolling it into their performance simultaneously as they backstage reflect upon accounting and its role for their everyday work.

This study relies on the frontstage/backstage metaphor to visualize the discrepancies in how accounting is enrolled into role performances and how seemingly categorical fronts do not necessarily share that dominant position backstage.

Foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operate in complex and competitive international environments, implement market and non-market strategies, manage resources and value-added activities and contribute to the overall performance of their parent firms. Thus, the research question on the determinants of MNE foreign subsidiaries’ performance is of interest to managers and academic researchers. The empirical literature has flourished over the recent decades; however, the domains are fragmented, and the findings are inclusive. The purpose of this study is to systematically review, analyse and synthesize the empirical articles in this area, identify research gaps and suggest a future research agenda.

This study uses the qualitative content analysis method in reviewing and analysing 150 articles published in 24 scholarly journals during the period 2000–2023.

The literature uses a variety of theoretical perspectives to examine the key determinants of subsidiary performance which can be grouped into six major domains, namely, home- and host country-level factors; distance between home and host countries; the characteristics of parent firms and of subsidiaries; and governance mechanisms (the establishment modes and ownership strategy, subsidiary autonomy and the use of home country expatriates for transferring knowledge from the headquarters and controlling foreign subsidiaries). A range of objective and subjective indicators are used to measure subsidiary performance. Yet, the research shows a lack of broader integration of theories and presents inconsistent theoretical predictions, inconclusive empirical findings and estimation bias, which hinder our understanding of how the determinants independently and jointly shape the performance of foreign subsidiaries.

This study provides a comprehensive, nuanced and systematic review that synthesizes and clarifies the determinants of subsidiary performance, offers deeper insights from both theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects and proposes some promising avenues for future research directions.

This study aims to uncover the mechanisms behind the marginalization of county-level public libraries.

The research surveyed 25 counties in central China, including Hubei, Chongqing, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with library directors and deputy directors, focusing on main and branch library construction, cultural inclusivity, library assessment, and digital services.

Contributing factors to library marginalization were identified as economic pressure, institutional domain, longstanding issues, organizational entity, and societal misconceptions. Building on this, the study introduces the HBAC model to explain county-level public library marginalization. Considering the actual social context of these libraries, the article proposes a “3 + 1” approach to mitigate their marginalization.

The research methodology, analysis process, theoretical model, and recommendations provided could shed light on academic research and practical exploration in the field of public libraries globally.