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The aim is the introduction of lesson study (LS) in geometry in Malawi secondary schools supported by a teaching framework that includes a focus on language responsive teaching.

The study reports an LS on geometry for professional development (PD) of secondary teachers. Data analysed includes lesson plans, transcripts of lessons, reflective discussions. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis.

Teachers' lexicalisation of an exterior angle of a triangle evolved as a function of a teaching framework that guided their participation in planning, teaching and reflecting through LS cycle, and that was derived from networking between theories.

This is both a small-scale study, and a limited content focus in the lesson, a function of LS being a new practice, and teachers simultaneously learning ideas about geometry teaching, those embedded in the framework and doing LS.

The paper includes a description of how LS might contribute to teachers' learning of language responsive teaching, and so is useful for others working on LS and language practices.

This paper fulfils an identified need to learn more about how networking theories to inform and support LS can create learning opportunities for teachers, particularly about language responsive teaching, an interest and concern worldwide.

Most previous research in the domain of relationship marketing has focused on the antecedents of loyalty and commitment in industrial markets, distribution channels or consumer goods. This study, however, models the antecedents of clients’ relationship commitment in the context of a professional service, high in credence qualities (where customers have difficulty in confidently evaluating service quality, even purchase and consumption) ‐ i.e. personal financial planning services. The impact of four key explanatory variables (communication effectiveness, technical quality, functional quality and trust) are examined. The results support the hypothesized model and show communication effectiveness to be a key driver of all antecedent variables, and the single most powerful determinant of relationship commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the associations between management direct communication to employees, unionization, foreign direct investment (FDI) and company performance in Mauritius, Africa's most successful economy.

The authors use firm data from a survey conducted in Mauritius in late 2011. The authors conduct regression analysis to study the relationship between direct communication, unionization and performance conditional on ownership type.

Mauritian labour unions, in common with their counterparts from mainland Africa, are strongest in the public sector. They have been characterized as weak and lacking in influence on management. Yet the authors find a strong association between unionization and management communication in the private sector. The authors also find a positive association between direct communication and company performance which the authors argue is likely to be an indirect consequence of unionization. FDI shows no particular effects.

It appears that the consequences of union presence transcend pay and conditions. The effects are unexpectedly marked, particularly when the stress by some authors on union weakness in the private sector is taken into account.

It may be that local unions’ strong focus on the enterprise – a form of representation favoured by US-based multinational companies, constitutes a strength in stimulating management communication to employees by focusing union activities at that level. Whilst the authors have suggested that this is unlikely to be primarily a result of conscious union strategy, the enterprise focus may serve to buttress existing employee attitudes. In any event, unionization is certainly closely associated in this African country with a practice that is linked to positive economic effects at the enterprise level.

Accounting is a complex system, comprising numerous items and transactions that are interrelated in various ways. Management’s decisions are reflected in accounting information. The user of accounting information has a real need to comprehend such information in order to make informed decisions. The research reported in this article reveals that when the directors’ report fully complies with the letter and context of the Companies Act, it should be used as: a communication tool to enhance comprehensibility; as a mechanism to explain the economic reality of the company; and as a vehicle to reduce the gap between accounting information and the user. It should therefore be used as a knowledge‐creating statement, which the various stakeholders of the company can tap into.

Big data and analytics make digital communications more effective, but little is known about how institutional pressures shape data-driven communications. These pressures determine and constrain how, what, when and to whom practitioners should communicate. This empirical study explores how institutional forces influence the use of data in guiding digital communications. The paper identifies factors that impact communications and shape practitioner views on particular tools in their day-to-day work.

This study uses a qualitative exploratory approach with in-depth interviews of 15 Australian communication practitioners through the lens of neo-institutional theory. Thematic analysis was applied to identify three main themes.

Communications professionals disclosed how they were influenced by coercive institutional forces such as ambiguous data privacy regulations, normative forces that shaped ethical concerns, professionalism and various challenges, and mimetic forces that determined shared methods and implementation of digital communications technologies such as analytics. Furthermore, the authors reveal how analytics – tools typically associated with uncertainty and mimetic influences – exert coercive pressures that could lead to misguided decision-making.

This study’s findings highlight the need for practitioners to learn more about the inner workings of analytics tools and for managers to determine if the perceived benefits of these solutions outweigh any undesirable effects.

The study contributes to extant research on digitalization in strategic communication by providing new insights into practitioner views and challenges with digital communications technologies.

Despite the considerable effects of institutional pressures, this study is the first to explore the impacts of data-driven communications at the level of individual practitioners. The paper advances neo-institutional theory in public relations (PR), strategic communication and corporate communications at the micro level.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government risk communication to the public was among the critical works, as the governments had to fight two enemies at once: the pandemic itself and the infodemic surrounding the COVID-19. Government risk communication could provide the public with prompt and accurate information as well as eliminate fake news, rumors and misinformation, thereby raising the public’s knowledge and risk perception and, thus, shaping their compliance with the government’s advices and directives. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of government risk communication through mass media on the public’s knowledge, risk perception and compliance with safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ordinary least square and probit regression models were used for analyzing data collected from citizens living in Vietnam during the COVID-19 social distancing.

The results of this paper show that government risk communication enhances the public’s knowledge of the COVID-19 and raises their risk perception of the virus. In addition, government risk communication is found to shape the public’s compliance with most safety measures.

This paper offers practical implications for containing a pandemic (especially in the context that vaccines are unavailable or insufficient) by emphasizing the role of government risk communication.

This paper is among the first attempts that examine the role of government risk communication through mass media in enhancing the public’s knowledge, their risk perception and their compliance with safety measures during a pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of spousal communication and attitude toward family planning (FP) use among young mothers in the peri-urban area of Osun State, Nigeria.

The study was limited to a primary cross-sectional dataset collected among 420 young mothers between the ages of 15 and 30 years residing in the peri-urban area of Osun State, Nigeria. The distribution of the use of FP across the socio-demographic, spousal communication and attitude was described, and multivariate logistic regression was used to assess FP use likelihood. The results were presented as crude odds ratios (cOR) and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Statistical significance was set at p-value < 0.05.

FP use were more likely to be higher among the respondents whose male spouses have good communication [cOR = 35.5; 95% (15.93–78.99)], good attitude [cOR = 8.6 95% (3.59–20.65)] and this persisted after adjusting for significant covariates [aOR = 80.7; 95% (19.80–328.84)] and [aOR = 5.4 95% (1.34–22.17)].

The study's strength is the ability to design questionnaires tailored toward the literature gap on nonuse of FP by young mothers. However, the study is without limitation because the focus was on young mothers alone why their spouses were not interviewed. Male spouse details were collected from the young mothers, and there may be inaccuracy in the reporting of male spouse socio-demographic characteristics used as a control variable in this study. Also, because this research was conducted among specific group, the results of the study cannot be used to generalize for other group.

Future studies should consider both partners to harness the true picture of poor communication and attitude toward each other. The future study will also be more robust if it can consider a qualitative research design as this will help unveil more underlining factors influencing the nonuse of FP among young mothers.

Young mothers with good spousal communication and attitude were more likely to use FP. Deliberate interventions should include focus group discussion and community sensitization to encourage good communication and attitude of male spouse toward their partner in the peri-urban area of Osun State, Nigeria.

Increasingly, universities are adopting social media as a strategy to improve their competitive advantage. However, little is known of whether or not stakeholders are actually engaging with universities in such online environments. The purpose of this paper is, first, to analyze the level of stakeholders’ engagement via social media, particularly Facebook, in European and US universities. Second, to examine the influencing factors that boost online interactions, in particular, “location,” “transparency,” “size,” “academic performance” and “activity.”

An engagement index and a multivariate regression analysis were carried out. Regarding the sample, European and US universities belonging to the “Top 100” of the Academic Ranking of World Universities were analyzed.

Despite the large online community that US universities possess, European universities attain the higher level of online engagement from its stakeholders. In particular, the greatest level of engagement is achieved by European universities of greater size, in terms of students, with lower academic performance and a lower level of online activity.

This study contributes to existing literature by identifying the actual social impact of social media to build successful relationships with the stakeholders of higher education entities.

This paper can contribute to the current scarcity of literature concerning social media to improve new models of accountability in higher education entities with different managerial models.

This chapter explores the development of advertising regulations governing food advertising to children in Australia since the 1940s. By introducing the advertising and marketing self-regulatory system, the Australian Government is taking a neoliberal approach, advocating for the free market to initiate and sustain the country’s economic development, instead of greater government regulation. By examining the primary and secondary literature, such as government reports and research, and newspaper and academic articles, this chapter outlines different regulatory initiatives adopted by both the government and food industry to limit food and beverage advertising to children on television and online, in order to prevent obesity rates increasing in children. This chapter synthesizes and critically evaluates food industry and public health studies, government and non-government reviews, and other research studies to evaluate the influence of self-regulation on Australian television food advertising within the neoliberal context since the 1990s. It contributes to the literature on food advertising regulations for children in Australia by offering evidence of how the government, public health authorities and the food industry have attempted to keep pace with changes in the advertising, marketing and media industries by developing and reviewing advertising codes. It identifies the loopholes that exist in these self-regulatory codes and concludes that Australia’s current advertising regulatory arrangements are failing to protect our children from unhealthy food marketing on television, especially on relatively under-regulated online platforms such as social media and branded websites. The issues identified in this chapter could aid the food and beverage industry, as well as the self-regulatory system, to offer comprehensive and applicable solutions to combat Australia’s obesity crises by implementing new legislations that align with different marketing practices.

This study aims to examine some of the benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility. Specifically, building on communication visibility theory, the authors study how and why message transparency and network translucence may increase knowledge reuse and perceived overload through behavioral responses of vicarious learning and technology-assisted supplemental work.

Drawing on survey data obtained from 1,127 employees of a global company operating in the industrial machinery sector, the authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized model.

The results demonstrate that the two aspects of communication visibility yield somewhat differential benefits and drawbacks in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload, through vicarious learning and supplemental work practices.

The results demonstrate the relationship between different aspects of communication visibility and knowledge reuse, specifically through vicarious learning. Furthermore, the findings highlight a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work. Overall, network translucence seems more beneficial compared to message transparency in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload.

The study connects with recent work on communication visibility by distinguishing differential direct and indirect effects of message transparency and network translucence. It also extends this work by testing relationships between communication visibility and a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work.