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The purpose of this paper is to examine emergency medical service (EMS) personnel’s perceptions and experiences of managing underground mining injury incidents.

In total, 13 EMS personnel were interviewed according to a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

An underground mining environment was described as unfamiliar and unsafe and, with no guidelines for operational actions in an extreme environment, such as underground mines, the EMS personnel were uncertain of their role. They therefore became passive and relied on the rescue service and mining company during a major incident. However, the medical care was not considered to be different from any other prehospital care, although a mining environment would make the situation more difficult and it would take longer for the mine workers to be placed under definitive care.

This study complements earlier studies by examining the EMS personnel’s perceptions and experiences of major incidents.

Background: Amid increasing leadership failures in the global business context, the mining industry is one of the industries with many adverse incidents, affecting employee safety, the environment, and surrounding communities. Emerging economies tend to have unique socio-economic challenges and greater relative economic dependence on mining, presenting unique challenges to leaders. The purpose of this research was to study the realities of responsible leadership in the mining industry in an emerging economy.

Methods: A qualitative research study, consisting of semi-structured interviews was conducted. Nine senior mine managers were selected to represent perspectives from different operations and mining houses. Data was gathered from August to October 2020 in South Africa, an emerging economy with significant mining operations. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted through the use of software, rendering five themes, with 12 sub-themes.

Results: The research found that requirements on mining leaders in emerging economies demand consistent balancing of a complex set of competing risks, whilst attending to paradoxical requirements among operations, and internal and external stakeholders. Leaders face several competing requirements from stakeholders, the environment, mining practices, and time frames. Responsible leaders must navigate a paradoxical maze of needs and time horizons, with several conflicting forces and dilemmas, and dichotomous relationships. Responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy is a proverbial minefield of paradoxes and dilemmas between responsible intentions and practical realities. These paradoxes and dilemmas are specifically acute in the context of emerging economies due to the dire socio-economic situations. A total of 10 competencies emerged as essential responsible leadership requirements in this context.

Conclusions: The study provides an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of responsible leadership in the mining industry of an emerging economy. This understanding will contribute to capacitating leaders in the mining industries of emerging economies to act responsibly.

Literature on cultural districts has repeatedly pointed out the role of place branding as a tool to upgrade the image of urban environment as an indicator of meaning and significance. Throughout the case of UNESCO’s mining heritage district in Sardinia (Italy), the purpose of this paper is to investigate on the role that Place Branding Organizations (PBOs) has and/or may have in the construction of coherent images for landscape and cultural heritage in the design of “sustainable” cultural districts in connection with local authorities’ agenda. At this purpose, the authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” and a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity within place branding theory.

Considering what recently expressed by UNESCO about the integration between spatial and cultural planning, the authors focus the research on cultural heritage districts protected by this organization. Starting from the definition of strategy proposed by Anholt (2011) and the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010), the authors propose a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity and the authors try to apply it to the experience of mining heritage in Sardinia (Italy), comparing the activity of local PBOs (the Consortium for the UNESCO’s Sardinian Geo-mining Park and the Local Tourism System) with the Development Plan of the Carbonia-Iglesias Province. In the final part of the work, the authors discuss the outcomes of the comparative analysis in terms of partnership building strategy and its influence on cultural heritage district design.

The experience of the Sardinia district proves that partnership building strategy has a relevant role both in place branding and cultural heritage district design but it is not sufficient to make this letter really functioning. It confirms also that a place brand can survive to political regime changes on a periodic basis only if the PBO establishes an appropriate institutional framework for the creation of a cooperative network that can take the branding process forward. The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.”

The analytical framework which the authors provide on the basis of a new operative definition of partnership strategy building, has proved to be a useful tool to assess PBO’s activity but, despite this, it represents only a partial result because the theoretical model of the relationships between PBOs, local and supra-local actors requires further developments to describe the effective type and nature of this links.

The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.” To achieve a real sustainable development and a shared enhancement of identity and landscape, the authors propose as a possible solution the abandonment of administrative boundaries in cultural planning through a correspondence between cultural district and historic region, this latter defined according to the methods and tools developed by the geographical sciences for the “cultural basin.” At this scope the authors propose a new methodological framework which takes the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” for the district design, setting a future research agenda.

The authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” for the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010) and, on this base, the authors test a new analytic framework to evaluate PBOs’ activity which combines the traditional activities of promotion and marketing with PBOs’ partnership strategies. Finally, the authors propose a methodological frame which brings the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” setting a future research agenda in cultural heritage district’s design.

Adopting a qualitative research design and following a single case study research methodology 21 semi-structured interviews with asset integrity project managers (PM), project sponsors (PS) and members of the project management office (PMO) were conducted. These were complemented with company’s project management framework documents and tools and direct observation by the researcher’s observation.

The data on the value creation in the mining asset integrity and improvement project portfolio was collected through 21 interviews with PM, PS and members of the PMO and complemented by observational data and the analysis of the Australian mining company process documentation.

The study finds that establishing a culture of delivering value supported by functional governance is critical for effective value creation practice in asset integrity and improvement project portfolios. In addition, early engagement of the key stakeholders with clearly defined roles and utilisation of project value management artifacts, enables effective value delivery throughout the project lifecycle.

The research offers an empirically grounded framework to facilitate value creation throughout the project lifecycle in asset integrity and improvement project portfolios drawing on a benchmarking case of an Australian mining company.

This study aims to develop a practical and effective approach for market segmentation using customer experience dimensions derived from online reviews.

The research investigates over 6,500 customer evaluations of food establishments on Taiwan’s Yelp platform through the Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) data mining approach. By using the LDA-derived experience dimensions, cluster analysis discloses market segments. Subsequently, sentiment analysis is used to scrutinize the emotional scores of each segment.

Mining online review data helps discern divergent and new customer experience dimensions and sheds light on the divergent preferences among identified customer segments concerning these dimensions. Moreover, the polarity of sentiments expressed by consumers varies across such segments.

Analyzing customer attributes extracted from online reviews for segmentation can enhance comprehension of customers’ needs. Further, using sentiment analysis and attributes of online reviews result in rich profiling of the identified segments, revealing gaps and opportunities for marketers.

This research presents a new approach to segmentation, which surmounts the restrictions of segmentation methods dependent on survey-based information. It contributes to the field and provides a valuable means for conducting customer-focused market segmentation. Furthermore, the suggested methodology is transferable across different sectors and not reliant on particular data sources, creating possibilities in diverse scenarios.

Using a theory of translation of ideas, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the mining industry has implemented and practices lean production as well as the form of this practice.

The study reviewed the scientific literature on lean production in the mining industry, as well as in the reported practice of the concept in a mining company. The results were then analyzed using content analysis.

Lean production has not seen a full implementation in the mining industry. Rather, select practices are focused, though the literature covers several more. The findings suggest that the form and extension of lean production in mining differ from other industries owing to characteristics of the industry itself.

The scientific literature on the subject is limited. Additional material was used to attempt to offset this. However, there are still blind spots relating to practice that is not reported in the type of material investigated.

This paper contributes to understanding the evolution of lean production in a unique industry. It suggests why lean implementation may be unsuccessful in this type of industry while also identifying the focal point of its lean production practice.

The Web 3.0 has been hugely enabled by smartphones and new generation mobile applications. With the growing adoption of smartphones, the use of mobile applications has grown exponentially and so has the development of mobile applications. This study is an attempt to understand the issues and challenges faced in the mobile applications domain using discussions made on Twitter based on mining of user generated content.

The study uses 89,908 unique tweets to understand the nature of the discussions. These tweets are analyzed using descriptive, content and network analysis. Further using transaction cost economics, the findings are reviewed to develop practice insights about the ecosystem.

Findings indicate that the discussions are mostly skewed toward a positive polarity and positive user experiences. The tweeters are predominantly application developers who are interacting more with marketers and less with individual users.

Most of these applications are for individual use (B2C) and not for enterprise usage. There are very few individual users who contribute to these discussions. The predominant users are application reviewers or bloggers of review websites who use the recently developed applications and discuss their thoughts on the same.

The results may be useful in varied domains which are planning to expand their reach to a larger audience using mobile applications and for marketers who primarily focus on promotional content.

The domain of mobile applications on social media is still restricted to promotions and digital marketing and may solely be used for the purpose of link building by application developers. As such, the discussions could provide inputs towards mobile phone manufacturers and ecosystem providers on what are the real issues these communities are facing while developing these applications.

The study uses mixed research methodology for mining experiences in the domain of mobile application developers using social media analytics and transaction cost economics. The discussion on the findings provides inputs for policy-making and possible intervention areas.

Effective safety supervision plays a crucial role in ensuring safe production within coal mines. Conventional coal mine safety supervision (CMSS) in China has suffered from the problems of power-seeking, excessive resource consumption and poor timeliness. This paper aims to explore the Internet+ CMSS mode being emerged in China.

The evolution of CMSS systems underwent comprehensive scrutiny through a blend of qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, evolutionary game theory was used to analyze the necessity of incorporating Internet+ technology. Second, a system dynamics model of Internet+ CMSS was crafted, encompassing a system flow diagram and equations for various variables. The model was subsequently simulated by taking the W coal mine in Shanxi Province as a representative case study.

It was revealed that the expected safety profit from the Internet+ mode is 296.03% more than that from the conventional mode. The precise dissemination of law enforcement information was identified as a pivotal approach through which the Internet+ platform served as a conduit to foster synergistic collaboration among diverse elements within the system.

The outcomes of this study not only raise awareness about the potential of Internet+ technology in safety supervision but also establish a vital theoretical foundation for enhancing the efficacy of the Internet+ CMSS mode. The significance of these findings extends to fostering the wholesome and sustainable progress of the coal mining industry.

This research stands out as one of the limited studies that delve into the influence of Internet+ technology on CMSS. Building upon the pivotal approach identified, to the best of authors’ knowledge, a novel “multi-blind” working mechanism for Internet+ CMSS is introduced for the first time.

Draws extensively on the unpublished papers of Henri Fayol to show how his experiences as an engineer, director and CEO for Commentry Fourchambault provided the basis for the ideas presented in his classic Administration Industrielle et Générale (1916). Emphasizes Fayol′s experiences managing coal miners; his direction of a firm facing crisis owing to depletion of its primary assets (coal and ore deposits); and his struggle to assert the primacy of the CEO in dealings with the company board of directors.

By juxtaposing fatal colliery explosions in early twentieth-century Britain and in 2010 at Pike River, New Zealand, this paper aims to investigate the generalizability of the mock bureaucracy concept to underground coal mining disasters.

The main source is published official accident inquiries; a methodological reflection justifies the use of these materials.

Mock bureaucracies existed in the British underground coal mining milieu from the time when safety rules were first formulated in that industry context. As for Pike River, it is an exemplary case. The development in 1970s Britain of a new approach to safety management (the Robens system), and its subsequent export to New Zealand, means that a contemporary coal mine under financial duress, such as Pike River, is a prime site for mock bureaucracy to flourish.

Although the concept of mock bureaucracy has been applied to an explosion in an underground coal mine before, this is the first paper to explore the concept’s historical usage and generalizability in explaining the environing context of such explosions.