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Earned value management systems (EVMS), also called integrated project and program management systems, have been greatly examined in the literature, which has typically focused on their technical aspects rather than social. This study aims to hypothesize that improving both the technical maturity of EVMS and the social environment elements of EVMS applications together will significantly impact project performance outcomes. For the first time, empirical evidence supports a strong relationship between EVMS maturity and environment.

Data was collected from 35 projects through four workshops, attended by 31 industry practitioners with an average of 19 years of EVMS experience. These experts, representing 23 organizations, provided over 2,800 data points on sociotechnical integration and performance outcomes, covering projects totaling $21.8 billion. Statistical analyses were performed to derive findings on the impact of technical maturity and social environment on project success.

The results show statistically significant differences in cost growth, compliance, meeting project objectives and business drivers and customer satisfaction, between projects with high EVMS maturity and environment and projects with poor EVMS maturity and environment. Moreover, the technical and social dimensions were found to be significantly correlated.

Key contributions include a novel and tested performance-driven framework to support integrated project management using EVMS. The adoption of this detailed assessment framework by government and industry is driving a paradigm shift in project management of some of the largest and most complex projects in the U.S.; specifically transitioning from a project assessment based upon a binary approach for EVMS technical maturity (i.e. compliant/noncompliant to standards) to a wide-ranging scale (i.e. 0–1,000) across two dimensions.

Given the acute competition between music-streaming platforms (MSPs), the purpose of this study is to identify the relational motivators of brand loyalty towards the MSP in terms of user-brand involvement, brand trust, brand engagement, brand recommendation and brand loyalty.

Cross-sectional quantitative data, gathered from a total of 340 eligible respondents via an online questionnaire survey, were empirically analysed and validated using a hybrid predictive-analytics structural equation modelling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method.

The results of this study demonstrate that user-brand involvement promotes brand loyalty toward a MSP by fostering brand engagement, brand trust and positive word-of-mouth. SEM and ANN data comparison reveals good consistency.

The generalizability of the research outcomes may be constrained, as this study only considers the data from a single country (i.e. Malaysia) and one music streaming platform (i.e. Spotify). This study highlighted the relevance of user-brand involvement and non-core supporting services in the cultivation of brand loyalty, particularly their salient roles in promoting favourable attitudes and behaviours towards platform brands.

The insights produced can aid MSPs in devising better user retention strategies that can be used to maintain their competitive edge over time. The findings of this study made it abundantly evident that practitioners should facilitate more user-brand cooperative activities to encourage user-brand involvement and, ultimately, foster brand loyalty.

This study has addressed a major research gap by examining the relational roots of brand loyalty, which transcend the typical focus on transactional factors and technical lock-in. This study pioneered the investigation of brand involvement with user involvement.

This chapter addresses the potential for knowledge, learning, and collaboration (KLC) cultures in public sector organizations. Public sector organizations are among the most complex for introducing or nourishing a KLC approach because there are multiple levels of cultures with varying levels of influence. We describe these complex cultures as tiers. First, we define public sector organizations’ business goals, purpose, and strategies. Then, the authors translate and interpret all five levels of culture for public sector organizations. The chapter also details the nature of cultural complexity, namely the four tiers of public sector cultures: (1) the company culture (Tier 1); (2) the public service culture (Tier 2); (3) the culture of the external environment (Tier 3); and (4) the internal KLC cultures (Tier 4). This chapter establishes a framework for describing an organization’s complex culture and determining the best KLC approach for the context.

Heritage buildings are a witness to previous civilizations and constitute important elements in transmitting cultural identity through generations. In 1938, Alexandria University was established; it was called the University of Farouk at the time. In 1952, the university was named “Alexandria University,” and since then, it has witnessed growth and expansion in several fields. The research aims to preserve the heritage of this academic institution. It seeks to document this wealth of buildings that tell the story of the second-earliest university in Egypt.

A mixed-method approach was employed. A descriptive method was used to narrate the history of the university and the importance of its buildings. Within the quantitative approach, a questionnaire was chosen as the survey instrument for collecting the data within the research case study. The aim was to determine the awareness of students, staff and employees of the heritage importance of their faculty. Within the qualitative approach, several interviews were conducted with employees in the engineering departments of the university administrative building at Chatby and some of the selected faculties. The aim was to determine the methods used for the conservation of these buildings.

Alexandria University has a heritage value not only in its great history but also through its heritage buildings. Raising the awarness of the university's affiliates of this heritage will lead to enhance the feelings of loyalty and belongings to the university. Therefore, preserving this heritage and properly managing it is crucial.

Universities have to recognize that their built heritage constitutes a unique expression that can create a distinctive sense of place. University heritage is crucial in defining and interpreting the university cultural identity. The institution must identify resources that will help build a new public image and contribute to develop a successful brand. Campus appearance is an important factor that has a significant impact on student feelings of loyalty and belonging.

Researchers and practitioners working within transdisciplinary research projects face specific challenges when addressing representation of evidence-based concepts across complex occurrences, particularly when delivering a visitor experience design and documentary film encompassing an extensive cultural and natural heritage timeline period. In this chapter, these challenges are explored from the contrasting points of view of the view of the principal investigator and design lead and the filmmaker and researcher within an ongoing transdisciplinary research project Portalis, which is funded by the ERDF through The Ireland Wales Cooperation Programme.

The Portalis visitor experience design promotes and supports citizen science-based climate action behavioural change within six distinct Irish and Welsh cross-border coastal communities. It explores whether there are any parallels with how we can adapt to climate change now, with a focus on the resilience and innovation evidenced within Waterford's earliest settlements during and after South East Ireland's earlier climate change periods. The design research and the filmic documentation of archaeological and geological surveys is employed to map the story of these early post-glacial settlements 10,000 years ago along the Waterford Estuary. Interwoven through this mapping is a demonstration of how those living along the Estuary are preserving their maritime heritage through citizen science led engagement and community initiatives.

Adding a deep resonance to the research project, singular to Waterford, a new vision is called for; an acknowledgement of Waterford City and its Estuary as an area of unique conservation and growth and a recognition of this much travelled waterway as a designated and protected cultural landscape. A successful transdisciplinary approach creates a rich and accessible resource towards recognising the Estuary's cultural and marine heritage in city planning for the future. In so doing, it broaches the so-called rural-urban divide, adds to the global community of practice and allows for reflection on how urban planning can learn from our past in this context.

This paper aims to use doctrinal legal investigative methods combined with economic analysis to investigate the efficacy of the Law.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the inherent absurdity in the modern law of town and village greens (TVGs). The author wishes to show that the public understanding of what constitutes a green worth protecting is incomparable with how the Law currently operates, instead providing a crude vehicle to prevent development.

Applying an efficiency maximisation framework to the law of TVGs the Law fails to protect land worth protecting, as well as prevents allocatively efficient bargaining from taking place.

This research has not presented empirical evidence to suggest the extent of the damage identified. This is a separate question to the marginal impacts of the damage.

A Law and Economics analysis of TVG Law in England and Wales has not been attempted before.

This paper aimed to test a proposed framework highlighting strategic green marketing initiatives and how they drive new technology implementation towards green corporate performance, underpinned by institutional isomorphism.

The study used a quantitative method and convenience sampling approach in gathering data using adapted questionnaires to solicit first-hand information from 225 employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and hospitality sector underpinned by the theory of institutional isomorphism.

The study shows that green communication and green strategy alignment have significant predictive effects on new technology implementation. Cultural isomorphism significantly moderated the effects of implementing new technology (i.e. green communication and strategy alignment). In addition, “new technology implementation had a significant predictive effect on green corporate performance”. Meanwhile, the moderation effect of “green creative behaviour on the new technology-green corporate performance dyad was positive but insignificant.”

The study’s novel framework confirms how green communication strategy and green strategy alignment complement cultural isomorphism to explain the impact of new technology implementation on green corporate performance, underpinned by institutional isomorphism.

Absorptive capacity is a knowledge-processing ability that hospitality organizations should hone to create competitive advantage in a fierce business environment. This study aims to examine an integrative model explaining how hospitality organizations infuse external knowledge into competitive advantage via absorptive capacity processes and opportunity-capturing abilities.

This study used structural equation modeling, using the R Lavaan package, with 288 survey responses collected from hospitality employees.

Structural equation modeling with multiple indirect relationships presents a holistic picture of how hospitality organizations develop externally acquired knowledge into organizational outcomes through detailed absorptive capacity processes. Unit size is found to positively moderate the indirect relationship between external acquisition and competitive advantage through knowledge transformation only. Competitiveness level negatively moderates indirect relationships through assimilation and transformation.

The findings highlight the importance of hospitality organizations’ knowledge management capabilities through acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation processes. These integrative mechanisms can be facilitated by intraorganizational coordinative processes through collective interpretations and applications of knowledge and effective organizational routines based on management and technical support.

This study proposes an integrative model encompassing a process perspective and the role of intraorganizational coordination in bridging potential and realized absorptive capacity.

In this chapter, we explore group counseling interventions for Black males and explain the Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) group model for racial and mathematical development. We use critical race theory (CRT) as a framework to analyze school counseling (SC) and mathematics literature that focuses on Black male students to inform the reconceptualization of the ASE group model for school counselors. We examine the programs and interventions that have been published with Black male participants in school settings within the SC literature. We also examine programs and interventions that have been specially designed to improve Black males' mathematics skills. We specifically focus on gathering findings that provide successful outcomes for Black males in public schools. We examine literature that reflects the role school counselors (SCs) take when supporting Black male students' academic, social, emotional, college, and career identity development. We believe uncovering ideas to capture Black males' experiences in school settings could shed light on how to foster Black excellence. Gaining an understanding of programs and interventions for Black male students through a CRT lens could inform future research, policy, and practice in SC while combating ongoing racism that continues to persist.