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To develop an overview of generalized scales based on pansystems‐relative quantification.

This is a discussion paper exploring the key issues surrounding generalized measures.

The concrete contents of the study include generalized measure views, dimension theory, concepts, logic, theories, Einstein's relativity, quality‐quantity‐degree, methodology of physics, theorems in pansystems mathematics and physics explained within the framework of pan‐scale transformations.

Provides an overview of generalized scales based on pansystems‐relative quantification.

Reports that, in 1943, Heinrich Freiherr von Stackelberg (1905‐1946) discussed with an informal group meeting in Freiburg (Breisgau ‐ Germany) “Limits and possibilities of economic planning”. Explains that the group called after its chairman “von Beckerath Circle” met to discuss problems of demobilization and the post‐Second World War economic order in Germany. States that Stackelberg’s lecture was found among his manuscripts and published after his death. Notes that Stackelberg is generally considered for his contributions to economic theory; little is known about his views on economic policy. Argues that his views on theory and policy were closely linked, however. Gives a concise statement of Stackelberg’s view on the post‐Second World War economic order in Germany. Points out that he argues strongly against (central) planning of the economic process, makes the important ORDO distinction between economic policy instruments compatible and incompatible with a market economy, but he is not a pro‐market economist of the anti‐state type. Explains that the state is assigned a wide range of policy options (in terms of policy instruments compatible with the market economy), ranging from specific forms of price intervention to income policies and extensive forms of taxation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of entrepreneurial role from the perspective of a global, family-owned firm located in Uruguay and operating in a niche market.

This case study adopts role theory as its theoretical framework. Face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the firm’s ownership/management. The data were analysed using content analysis.

During the interviews, the importance of entrepreneurs’ role was highlighted in various ways. For instance, role emerged in the form of re-developing a business vision, executing strategies and ideas, anticipating events, innovating and internationalising. Together, these key elements helped build entrepreneurial resilience in light of emerging issues. An alignment with various perspectives of role theory, including “functional”, “symbolic interactionist” and “structural” was identified.

The role of the succeeding generation of the firm’s ownership not only is fundamental in reinforcing an entrepreneurial path established by the firm’s founder but also is critical in building upon the earlier foundation, continue innovating and adapting to contemporary challenges in a very dynamic business environment.

The present study makes an original contribution, by examining the significance of entrepreneurial role through the lens of role theory. In this context, the case of a medium-sized, global Latin American family business is investigated.

The paper accepts the “functional paradigm” in the formative process of the image of an object. It holds that the used formulae must be mathematically demonstrated. As for many systems with memory, the frequently met formula is a defined integral. Its inferior limit is considered “the initial instant”. In this paper we show that: (1) The integral representation formula, that gives the image η (t) as a functional on the history ξ =ξ (τ),τ≤q t, of the evolutions both of the observed object and the observer, is only an approximate one. There exists the possibility to appreciate the order of size of the error. (2) The inferior limit of the integral may be mathematically determined and its choice requires some discussions. (3) A more precise formula of η (t) contains also a double integral upon a quadratic form of ξ(τ). The mathematical model is based on the differential calculus on the linear topological locally convex spaces.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the extant body of the entrepreneurship and business management literature, investigating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its implications for firms’ competitiveness. The cases of four different firms are examined through the lens of the resource-based view of the firm and role theory.

Face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with the owners and managers of four model firms identified in Western Australia.

While financial outcomes clearly stand out as the end goal for engaging in CSR-related practices, the importance of firm managers’ entrepreneurial role emerges in using existing resources to exploit business opportunities to ultimately achieve competitiveness, benefit the organisation, the community and society. Management’s ability to reconcile financial objectives and CSR practices give rise to the notion of entrepreneurial CSR.

The study demonstrates that management’s entrepreneurial drive, skills, knowledge, expertise or strategic strengths can identify substantial opportunities. Furthermore, the investment of resources to develop socially responsible products and services can help achieve CSR and the firm’s bottom line. Finally, learning about participants’ motivations for engaging in CSR could identify areas, concepts and directions to be considered by entrepreneurs, compared/contrasted to previous research or even operationalised by enterprises of different sizes elsewhere.

This paper aims to analyze Northern Manitoba employers' indexes of employability skills that influence the UCN (University College of the North) students' employability in indigenous contexts.

This study constructs the employability skills into six indexes from employers' perspective: reading comprehension, numeracy, technology, soft skills, job searching skills and indigenous cultural awareness. Mixed methods have been applied to this research: survey data are used for empirical analysis of the six indexes of employability skills; secondary sources of similar studies together with functional theory in education as a framework is adopted to explore the breadth and depth of employability skills requested by employers; indexing analysis is adopted to validate the necessity of developing such skills in indigenous contexts in Northern Manitoba.

The correlation analyses and mean values show that employers in Northern Manitoba take the six indexes as influential factors of students' employability. As such, the study indicates that Northern Manitoba employers consider employability in indigenous contexts as a combination of basic skills, professional requirements, soft skills and cultural awareness. The employers' attested employability is in line with the concept of the technical-function theory, which requires education to meet the demand for updated job skills due to a technological change. Moreover, Northern Manitoba employers' emphasis on indigenous cultural awareness as employability skills rationalizes the necessity to integrate indigenous cultural contents into programs and curriculums in UCN and post-secondary institutes with similar attributes. It confirms that indigenous cultural awareness is required by employers in Northern Manitoba populated with indigenous communities. The research findings suggest that the functional theory of education might help UCN and similar institutions globally to offer programs that will reduce employment inequality.

This research is conducted among the employers in Northern Manitoba, and the indexes and their factors are designed to evaluate UCN students' employability in general.

The outcomes of this paper can be applied as a parameter for upgrading educational strategies to integrate essential and professional employability skills such as reading comprehension, numeracy, technology, soft skills and job searching skills with indigenous cultural components into UCN curriculums and programs. It can be applied to other post-secondary institutes with similar attributes to enhance their students' employability. Furthermore, the research findings can be used as a guideline for UCN to tailor their programs for the job market locally and as references for post-secondary institutions with similar student compositions globally.

This paper provides empirical evidence from the employers' viewpoint to support the necessity of integrating essential and professional employability skills with indigenous cultural awareness into the curriculums and programs of UCN, a post-secondary institution in indigenous populated Northern Manitoba. Furthermore, it is also attested that employers consider indigenous cultural awareness as an influential factor of students' employability in indigenous contexts.

This study aims to empirically examine the knowledge, social and religious factors effecting the intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination while considering the mediating role of attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. The research explores how the Islamic ideologies shape Muslims’ knowledge, social and religious beliefs towards COVID-19 vaccination acceptance or refusal.

Theoretically, the study is based on the functional theory of attitudes. The model of the study is comprised of nine variables explaining the attitude and intention towards COVID-19 vaccination. Among nine variables, perceived Islamic religiosity, perceived behavioural control and Halal consciousness among Muslims are explained through the value-expressive function of attitude. Furthermore, the perceived risk of COVID-19, the perceived side effect of COVID-19 vaccination and the perceived efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination are considered in the model based on the utility function of attitude. Moreover, social influence for COVID vaccination, subjective norms and group conformity are abstracted from the social-adjustive function of attitude. This study used a quantitative survey research method to test the hypotheses. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed to non-vaccinated Muslim respondents from five cities in Pakistan. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to test the relationship among the variables in the proposed model. The partial least square-SEM method explained the variances in the dependent variables. Moreover, to test the structure of data, different statistical tests, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), factor loadings and average variance extracted, were used with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and analysis of a moment structures (AMOS) 23.0 version.

Results for direct effect showed a significant negative effect of Islamic religiosity, perceived behavioural control, halal consciousness, perceived side effect of COVID-19 vaccination, social influence, subjective norm and group conformity on attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. In contrast, insignificant results showed no relationship of perceived risk from COVID-19 infection and perceived efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination with attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. Results for mediating effect showed the significant negative mediating effect of attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination between Islamic religiosity, perceived behavioural control, halal consciousness, perceived side effect, social influence, subjective norm, group conformity and intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination. While results showed the insignificant mediation of attitude towards COVID-19 between perceived risk from COVID-19 infection, perceived efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination and intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination.

Further studies are required to compare the attitude and intention among the temporary refusal group (those who will consider vaccination the future) and the permanent refusal group (those who will not consider vaccination the future). Comparing Muslim and non-Muslim groups can also explain differences in attitude and intention towards COVID-19 vaccination.

The area of acceptance and refusal of COVID-19 vaccination has been given limited attention in academic literature. Theoretically, this research has proposed a well-defined model to explain the attitude of Muslims towards COVID-19 vaccination. This model can helpf predict the attitude and intentions of Muslims towards vaccination or medicines. Moreover, this research is a unique contribution for the vaccination brands to consider the discussed factors before launching their brand in Muslim countries.

Leadership is a crucial driver of project performance. While traditionally, the project leader was considered as the exclusive source of leadership behavior, recent research indicates that particularly dispersed projects may profit from joint leadership efforts by all project members. However, leadership functions in dispersed projects are likely to differ from those in a face-to-face context. In this chapter, we specify shared leadership functions for the domain of geographically dispersed project teams with high levels of task uncertainty. Arguing that shared leadership in dispersed teams occurs through interrelation of individual and team actions, we specify a dispersed screening function as well as self-, other-, and team-directed interrelation functions and develop propositions on how these functions are related to project performance. Furthermore, we point to motivational aspects of shared leadership and discuss the role of the vertical leader in developing and facilitating shared leadership.

The purpose of this study is to adopt stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory to reveal the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on buying intentions of young consumers in the presence of hedonic brand attitude (HBA) and utilitarian brand attitude (UBA) as mediators, among smartphone customers in the context of brand fan pages in Facebook.

The paper uses a single cross-sectional design to survey a sample of 326 young online customers present in leading smartphone brand fan pages on Facebook in India. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and replies were recorded on a Likert scale (five-point). The data was subjected to structural equation modelling for model and hypotheses testing.

eWOM has a significantly positive influence on the buying intentions of the young. Both HBA and UBA partially mediate the influence of eWOM on buying intentions.

The study examines only the personal-oriented functions of attitude and does not investigate the role of social dimensions of attitudes. Its scope is confined to smartphones in the consumer electronics segment and only Facebook among social networking sites.

A theoretical contribution to eWOM literature is made by studying it under the lens of S-O-R theory and functional theory of attitudes. Measurement of two different dimensions of attitude, i.e. hedonic and utilitarian, may facilitate managers to comprehend the source of variance in consumers’ decision-making behaviour in the online context.

The only study to explore brand attitude as a mediator in its multi-dimensional form, in the context of social eWOM.

This study assesses the relevance of both individual and contextual factors as an antecedent to employee participation in corporate volunteering (CV) activities and affective organizational commitment and inter-role conflict as an outcome of employee volunteering. This study draws from the functional theory of motivation, social exchange theory and role strain perspective to explain hypothesized relationship of the study constructs.

A questionnaire survey was administered with 461 employee volunteers who had participated in company-sponsored volunteering programs. The authors adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the study hypotheses.

The findings from the survey suggest that altruistic motives and organization CV capability will impact employee's participation in CV. The results highlight that employee participation in CV enhances affective organizational commitment, indicating that employee volunteering creates inter-role conflict.

Though the study has identified inter-role conflict as a potentially unfavorable outcome, exploring when and how employee volunteering will create a negative effect will add significant value to organizations to protect the interest of their employees.

This study provides insights to understand the relative effects of self- and other-oriented motives. The results suggest that organizations have more directed and carefully designed employee volunteering activities to enable more favorable benefits to employees.

This study contributes to expanding the knowledge on the phenomenon of employee volunteering by introducing and empirically validating an integrated framework of antecedents and consequences of employee volunteering.