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According to Sen's theoretical framework of capability (1985), individuals reach their full potential once they have the freedom, intended as the set of functionings at their disposal, to do so. However, many critiques have been developed against the lack of embeddedness of the capability approach in social and political relations and structures. In this article, the authors investigate the influence of three institutional contexts (Belgium, the Netherlands and France) on the respective work-related functionings of self-employed and regular workers, with a focus on human capital investment and institutional support offered to them.

Data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) are used to highlight similarities and differences in building work-related functionings for regular and self-employed workers. A regression analysis is provided at the country level.

In the three labour markets, the authors find that the building of work-related functionings is more successful for regular employees, especially as regards institutional support. Self-employed workers, on the other hand, need to rely on their individual capability as regards employment protection and human capital investment. However, the authors find interesting differences between the three institutional contexts. In both Belgium and France, self-employed workers are subject to higher instability in terms of changes in salary and hours worked, whereas atypical work is better positioned in the Dutch labour market. The Netherlands is also characterised by a less significant gap between regular and self-employed workers with respect to participation in training.

In this article, the authors contextualise Sen's (1985) theoretical framework by taking into account the institutional differences of labour markets. In particular, the authors provide a novel application of his capability approach to regular and self-employed workers in an economically relevant European area.

This paper aims to examine how an alternative accounting system developed by a marginalised group of women enables them to counter oppressive systems built at the intersections of gender, class and race.

The authors draw on diary notes taken over a period of 13 years in France and Senegal in the context of the first author's family interactions with a community of ten Black immigrant women. The paper relies on Black feminist perspectives, namely, Lorde's work on difference and survival to illuminate how this community of women uses the creative power of its “self-defined differences” to build its own accounting system – a tontine – and work towards its emancipation.

The authors find that to fight oppressive marginalising structures, the women develop a tontine, an autonomous, self-managed, women-made banking system providing them with cash and working on the basis of trust. This alternative accounting scheme endeavours to fulfil their “situated needs”: to build a home of their own in Senegal. The authors conceptualise the tontine as a “situated accounting” scheme built on the women's own terms, on the basis of sisterhood and opacity. This accounting system enables the women to work towards their “situated emancipation”, alleviating the burden of their marginalisation.

This paper gives visibility to vulnerable women's agentic capacities through accounting. As no single story captures the nuances and complexities of accounting, further exploration is encouraged.

This paper contributes to the counter-accounting literature that engages with vulnerable, “othered” populations, shedding light on the counter-practices of accounting within a community of ten Black precarious women. In so doing, this study problematises these counter-practices as intersectional and built on “survival skills”. The paper further outlines the emancipatory potential of alternative systems of accounting. It ends with some reflections on doing research through activist curiosity and the need to rethink academic research and knowledge in opposition to dominant epistemic standards of knowledge creation.

Often linked to the New Public Management (NPM) doctrines, agencification has been on the priority list of policy makers for over two decades. This article proposes an analysis of the role of agencies in the French health system and the impact of government agency reform on physicians and the public.

The research analyzes the perceived implementation of a re-concentration of decision-making powers within public agencies as the declared goal of agencification at the French health care system, specifically primary care providers and hospitals. The assessment relies on secondary sources from ministerial bodies such as the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, the Social Security and the General Accounting Office, and specialized French technical agencies.

Decentralization in France and the subsequent rise of public health care agencies had outcomes below expectations. Hence, a re-concentration of decision-making powers within the larger Regional Health Agencies; a streamlining of the public administration; and a re-appropriation of decision-making powers by the Ministry of Health are needed. The monitoring of health providers allows central health authorities to govern at a distance.

The analysis of health care agencies in France and of their use of efficiency-enhancing techniques may trigger a change of values within the medical profession.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

This paper aims to examine the mediation effect of organizational learning on the link between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance in some Big4 financial services companies.

The quantitative methodology was chosen for this research, using resource theory and knowledge-based approach to explain the relationship between latent variables. A sample of 403 HR employees and managers of the companies under study in France was selected in 2022. Structural equations modeling was used based on the Spss-Amos program to test the research hypotheses.

The results revealed that organizational learning played a mediating role between HRM practices (hiring, training, motivation and decision-making) and organizational performance and that learning enabled the performance of workers to improve and achieve competitive advantages in this field.

The sample was based on four international companies working in the field of financial services and consulting and providing their services within France, which may affect the generalisability of the results and limit them to the studied sector.

The contribution of the study is to improve the awareness of administrators, decision makers and company employees of the importance of organizational learning for companies, and to stimulate motivation to learn and exchange knowledge in a constructive way that enhances organizational performance. Working on organizational culture change through HRM-practices-based learning as an effective mechanism for organizational performance improvement is one implication. These practises influence cadres' attitudes toward their work, which improves their performance.

Working on organizational culture change through HRM-practices-based learning as an effective mechanism for organizational performance improvement is one implication. These practises influence cadres' attitudes toward their work, which improves their performance.

This study seeks to provide cadres and executives with an in-depth analysis of HRM and organizational learning, which, through its integration of these attributes, can contribute to the earning of knowledge-based competitive advantage and achieve superior and sustainable performance.

The success of SMEs' financial and market performance (MAP) depends on the firms' level of blockchain technology adoption (BCA) and identifying the crucial antecedents that influence SMEs' adoption. Therefore, this research attempts to develop an integrated model to understand and predict the determinants of BCA and its effect on SMEs' performance. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

The theoretical foundations are the technology–organization –environment (TOE) framework and the resource-based view (RBV) perspective. The authors distributed a survey to SMEs in South Africa and received 311 responses. The covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) followed by the artificial neural network (ANN) technique was used for the data analysis.

The SEM results showed that SMEs' relative advantage, compatibility, top management support (TMS), organizational readiness (ORD), competitive pressures (COP), external support, regulations and legislation significantly influence SMEs' BCA. However, complexity negatively impacts SMEs' BCA. The analysis results also revealed that SMEs' BCA significantly influences the financial performance of the firms, followed by MAP. Furthermore, model determinants were input to an ANN modeling. The ANN results showed that TMS is the most critical predictor of SMEs' BCA, followed by ORD, COP, external support, and regulations and legislation.

The results provide valuable information for SMEs when maneuvering their adoption strategies in the scope of blockchain technology. Additionally, from the perspective of an emerging market, the study has successfully contributed the TOE framework and the RBV.

This study is the first work to explore the determinants of BCA in the context of SMEs from a developing country. This paper is also one pioneer in attempts to develop a causal and predictive statistical model for predicting the determinants of BCA in SMEs' performance.

This study aims to assess the effect of water variation on bioethanol production from cassava peels (CP) using Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast as the ethanologenic agent.

The milled CP was divided into three treatment groups in a small-scale flask experiment where each 20 g CP was subjected to two-stage hydrolysis. Different amount of water was added to the fermentation process of CP. The fermented samples were collected every 24 h for various analyses.

The results of the fermentation revealed that the highest ethanol productivity and fermentation efficiency was obtained at 17.38 ± 0.30% and 0.139 ± 0.003 gL⁻¹ h⁻¹. The study affirmed that ethanol production was increased for the addition of water up to 35% for the CP hydrolysate process.

The finding of this study demonstrates that S. cerevisiae is the key player in industrial ethanol production among a variety of yeasts that produce ethanol through sugar fermentation. In order to design truly sustainable processes, it should be expanded to include a thorough analysis and the gradual scaling-up of this process to an industrial level.

This paper is an original research work dealing with bioethanol production from CP using S. cerevisiae microbe.

1. Hydrolysis of cassava peels using 13.1 M H₂SO₄ at 100 ^oC for 110 min gave high Glucose productivity

2. Highest ethanol production was obtained at 72 h of fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

3. Optimal bioethanol concentration and yield were obtained at a hydration level of 35% agitation

4. Highest ethanol productivity and fermentation efficiency were 17.3%, 0.139 g.L⁻¹.h⁻¹

Hydrolysis of cassava peels using 13.1 M H₂SO₄ at 100 ^oC for 110 min gave high Glucose productivity

Highest ethanol production was obtained at 72 h of fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Optimal bioethanol concentration and yield were obtained at a hydration level of 35% agitation

Highest ethanol productivity and fermentation efficiency were 17.3%, 0.139 g.L⁻¹.h⁻¹

Do luxury consumers negatively evaluate digital interactions (website and social media) by international luxury brands? The topic has received much debate. The authors argue that luxury brand personality (modern vs. traditional), which encompasses a more stable form of brand identity in global markets, affects evaluations of digital interactions. They further investigate the role of self-brand connection in this process.

Three experiments on Prolific use a European sample and manipulate a single factor between subjects (modernity: less vs. more; traditionality: less vs. more) of French luxury brands and measure evaluations as the dependent variable. Two studies assesses self-brand connection (continuous) as a moderator (studies 2a, 2b). Study 2b rules out some alternative explanations, with culture (independent vs. collectivist) as an independent variable. A fourth study, using a North American sample on CloudResearch, assesses the effect of personality manipulation (more modernity vs. more traditionality) on consumer evaluations of an Italian brand, and assesses ubiquity perceptions as a mediator.

Consumers evaluate digital interactions of international luxury brands less favorably when luxury brand personality exhibits more (vs. less) modernity or less (vs. more) traditionality. Perceptions of ubiquity mediate these relationships. When self-brand connection is high, this effect is attenuated.

The research sheds light on the debate on whether luxury brands should create digital interactions in international markets, given that these global brands operate in multiple channels. Findings show that luxury brands can develop strategies based on aspects of their brand identity, a less malleable feature of brand identity within global markets. Additionally, the research contributes to the conversation about a global luxury market. In short, the findings offer evidence in favor of brand identity (personality) influencing the digital channel strategy a brand should undertake in international markets, first, followed by consumer needs.

This study aims to investigate the morphing concepts able to manipulate the dynamics of the downstream unsteadiness in the separated shear layers and, in the wake, be able to modify the upstream shock–boundary layer interaction (SBLI) around an A320 morphing prototype to control these instabilities, with emphasis to the attenuation or even suppression of the transonic buffet. The modification of the aerodynamic performances according to a large parametric study carried out at Reynolds number of 4.5 × 10⁶, Mach number of 0.78 and various angles of attack in the range of (0, 2.4)° according to two morphing concepts (travelling waves and trailing edge vibration) are discussed, and the final benefits in aerodynamic performance increase are evaluated.

This article examines through high fidelity (Hi-Fi) numerical simulation the effects of the trailing edge (TE) actuation and of travelling waves along a specific area of the suction side starting from practically the most downstream position of the shock wave motion according to the buffet and extending up to nearly the TE. The present paper studies through spectral analysis the coherent structures development in the near wake and the comparison of the aerodynamic forces to the non-actuated case. Thus, the physical mechanisms of the morphing leading to the increase of the lift-to-drag ratio and the drag and noise sources reduction are identified.

This study investigates the influence of shear-layer and near-wake vortices on the SBLI around an A320 aerofoil and attenuation of the related instabilities thanks to novel morphing: travelling waves generated along the suction side and trailing-edge vibration. A drag reduction of 14% and a lift-to-drag increase in the order of 8% are obtained. The morphing has shown a lift increase in the range of (1.8, 2.5)% for angle of attack of 1.8° and 2.4°, where a significant lift increase of 7.7% is obtained for the angle of incidence of 0° with a drag reduction of 3.66% yielding an aerodynamic efficiency of 11.8%.

This paper presents results of morphing A320 aerofoil, with a chord of 70cm and subjected to two actuation kinds, original in the state of the art at M = 0.78 and Re = 4.5 million. These Hi-Fi simulations are rather rare; a majority of existing ones concern smaller dimensions. This study showed for the first time a modified buffet mode, displaying periodic high-lift “plateaus” interspersed by shorter lift-decrease intervals. Through trailing-edge vibration, this pattern is modified towards a sinusoidal-like buffet, with a considerable amplitude decrease. Lock-in of buffet frequency to the actuation is obtained, leading to this amplitude reduction and a drastic aerodynamic performance increase.