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There is almost unanimous agreement among futurists that without strong support from the top of the organization, a futures group cannot survive. But it is difficult to enlist top management's support for futurism: tunnel vision and shortsightedness (the antitheses of futurist thinking), carefully managed and nurtured, have, in the past, been forces propelling executives to the top.

This study aims to analyze how the presence of women is seen in family small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) succession process from the successors' perspective.

To do so, the multiple case study method (qualitative approach) was used: five Brazilian SMEs and three Portuguese SMEs, and the data-collecting techniques were the online interview and documentary analysis. Data analysis was through content analysis using NVivo software.

The empirical evidence obtained led to the conclusion that the natural succession process is predominant in the family SMEs studied here. Although succession planning is present in some firms, these plans are informal and not rigid as regards deadlines. Nor do they present stages and tasks that could be considered as a planned succession.

The study shows that successors do not see gender as a relevant criterion for the choice of successor. It is concluded that women's participation in family SME succession, even to a lesser extent, is still marked by gender inequality. So, this study provides directions to policymakers and researchers to focus on developmental programmes for the presence of women in family SMEs' succession process.

Although some successors consider that these firms' performance may be different due to gender characteristics, others emphasize that management is the same. Therefore, this study provides the futuristic direction to policymakers, researchers and educators for focusing on the enhancement of women entrepreneurs which plays a crucial role in the family SMEs' succession process. Therefore, a conceptual framework is proposed that explains the articulation of different categories to understand the gender perspective in family firms' succession.

Social innovation is a nascent field. Within research on social innovation, the context of higher education has largely been ignored. To better understand social innovation, it is important to explore factors that facilitate social innovation in universities’ context. There is little research on enablers of social innovation in universities and the impacts of social innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the enablers of social innovation in the Saudi Arabian context. Moreover, the impacts of social innovation projects are also explored.

A qualitative approach was used to carry out this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, and content analysis was performed.

Data revealed that institutional commitment, mission, active collaborations, curriculum, support, training, community university engagement offices, university social impact offices and reward and evaluation were among critical enablers. The impact of social innovation in terms of social, institutional, economic and community specific was also reported.

Research on the enablers and outcomes of social innovation in the higher education context is limited. This study adds to the innovation literature by investigating what processes and factors (enablers) can help universities to engage in social innovation initiatives and what are the outcomes (impact) of engaging in social innovation. Findings of the study have important policy implications.

Introduction to the Metaindustrial Work Culture, Are human professionals in the forefront of the profound global transition now underway from the industrial to the Information Society? Are they cognisant of the driving forces of new technologies, especially microelectronics and genetic engineering? Are they exercising leadership in the creation of the work environments characterised by information processing and performed by knowledge workers? For these questions to be answered in the positive, the respondent must be aware of the emerging metaindustrial work culture. The term “metaindustrial” comes from an AT and T report on the New Industrial Revolution. It describes the ongoing social or second industrial shift away from the traditional manufacturing industries, organisational models and roles and managerial styles. That industrial way of life not only produced its unique approaches to training, development and education, it was a way of life that enacted social legislation and systems of support. It is rapidly disappearing, and the evidence is present in economic downturns, huge unemployment and bankruptcies. It is evident in the occupational trends toward information/ knowledge/education enterprises — 50 per cent of the US work force is already in the information industries, and this is projected to rise to 66 per cent by the year 2000.

This study aims at investigating the impact of using Lego Serious Play (LSP) on the effectiveness of teaching supply chain (SC) 4.0 in higher education by going from a traditional 2D approach to a 3D one. LSP in this study is explored as a gamification pedagogical approach that taps into the connection between hands and brain to inspire and engage students to build 3D models using metaphors and storytelling.

An empirical study was conducted among 50 students (over two terms) who were enrolled in a SC 4.0 course and used LSP in their final project that focused on digital SC design. Two questionnaires were designed (one after the standard LSP workshop and the other upon completion of the project) to solicit feedback with respect to how LSP helped students to better understand SC 4.0 topics and fulfill their project. The results were analyzed using Bloom’s taxonomy as well as other pedagogical framework to understand the positive impact of LSP at the cognitive, motivation and social levels.

Results showed that using LSP can enhance the teaching of various SC principles and technologies beyond the abstract point of view (2D) through offering the students an opportunity to apply these principles and technologies in a futuristic project using a hands-on 3D approach. The LSP approach demonstrated its ability to help students navigate through both lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in a meaningful and playful manner. Finally, improving the design skills for students was clear using LSP as it unleashes imagination and taps into internal knowledge together with collective inputs.

The reliance on one case study can be a limitation regarding the generalization of the proposed results. This limitation is attenuated by the representativeness of the case study analyzed. Furthermore, the presented work should encourage future analyses as well as expanding the implementation of LSP to other SC 4.0 teaching contexts and applications.

This paper contributes to the very few literatures regarding using gamification in SC education and specifically how LSP methodology can be adopted in teaching SCM 4.0.

The emerging technological work culture calls for a massive re‐education of the existing workforce, especially for the new careers emerging as a result of the revolutions in microelectronics, biotechnology and communication. In this monograph the author argues that for management it demands a new attitude toward employees as human capital. For the average worker, especially those displaced by the new technologies, it will require re‐education focused on skill development for new careers and service activities.

The purpose of this research paper is to assess e-governance efficacy in various sectors of India. The paper develops on Grey System Theory (GST) methodology and enlightens grey portions of e-governance in select sectors. Research study identifies few grey criteria which affect implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) applications to support sustainable e-governance. Such criteria are related to information security breaches, information technology (IT) policy implementation, investments and strategic advantages for the various sector developments.

Considering “information” as a sensitive element to security for administration and part of dark portion to Indian economy, GST-based COmplex PRroportional ASsessment (COPRAS-G) method is adopted to assess the e-governance efficacy. The method provides flexible multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to assess e-governance in prioritizing the sector alternatives of future strategic development. Priority order of select sectors is estimated, and COPRAS-G method is used in the research study to support decision-making on e-governance. Study compares ten major gross domestic product-dependent sectors based on few grey criteria. These criteria are chosen based on authors’ perspective on this study and feedback received from government officials of district levels under the Digital India-training programme. To address the subjectivity that lies in e-governance grey areas of sector, criteria are also weighted using fuzzy scale. Later methodology-based results are presented to draw a strategic road map for strategic development of the country.

On applying COPRAS-G method to predict pessimistic, optimistic and realistic scenarios of e-governance implementation across the ten sectors, high priory order in realistic scenario of results shows that implementation of ICT applications for e-governance should be in the sectors such as environment, climate change and in the railways. Industrial sector is also ranked as the preferred one over the other sectors on the basis of e-governance efficacy assessment.

Here COPRAS-G method is used as MCDM techniques. However, few other MCDM techniques such as GRA, DRSA, VIKOR, SMAA, SWARA and SAW can be also explored to outrank various Indian sectors to deal with subjectivity in decision-making.

Implementation of ICT applications to support e-governance varies from sector to sector. ICT-based governance involves high degree of complexity in driving the operations for development of respective sectors. Therefore, government and policymakers need more flexibility to overcome present barriers of sector development. Such research can support decision-making where GST-based COPRAS-G method is able to capture and address the breaches of information security. Moreover, management concern for sector development has been presented on the basis of pessimistic, optimistic and realistic scenarios more precisely.

The results can provide guidance to the academicians, policymakers and public sectors highlighting various possible measures to handle the security breaches in multi-facet intention of sustainable development. The outcomes from MCDM framework can also help in drawing a rough trajectory of strategy, i.e. development of ICTs applications and e-governance process.

This paper can supplement and act as the support for decision-making in conflicting situations on different flexible scenarios. Moreover, such work can synergize conflicting ideas of decision makers, academics and various other stakeholders of the Indian IT sector.

The purpose of this study is to extend the current knowledge of curriculum developments in international business and marketing curricula. Integrating sustainability into business and marketing curricula of the universities are widely debated in previous literature. Sustainability is a global phenomenon; however, curriculum development projects aimed at integrating sustainability education into international business and marketing curricula are scarce. The study investigates the learning gaps in sustainability education among undergraduates enrolled in an International Marketing course to postulate a series of pedagogical practices, leading to effective integration of sustainability education into the curricula.

Two-phased research method consisting of complementary data collection techniques informed the findings of this study. First, an online survey was conducted among 111 undergraduates enrolled in an International Marketing course. The findings of the survey are used in designing the second phase of data collection performed through a content analysis of essays written by 60 undergraduates evaluating sustainable marketing practices of international firms. Informed by the findings gathered through SPSS- and Nvivo-aided data analysis, this study postulates a series of pedagogical practices.

The study argues that curriculum development projects in integrating sustainability into an existing curriculum in universities should be aimed at bridging undergraduates’ learning gaps in sustainability education. The main learning gaps identified in the study reveal that undergraduates find it difficult to view the social function of international business firms from a holistic point of view; critically assess sustainable marketing practices; and articulate futuristic views on sustainable marketing practices. Further, the content analysis revealed three major thematic categories: sustainability from reductionists’ perspective, sustainable marketing practices bring nothing “but good for businesses”, ambivalent about the future success of sustainable marketing practices. Triggered by these learning gaps, thematic categories and the theoretical underpinnings of Rusinko’s (2010) matrix for integrating sustainability education, the study offers a set of practical pedagogical guidelines to incorporate sustainability education into curricula.

The study is limited to exploring undergraduate student perspectives, and it would be worthwhile if educators’ perspectives are explored in future studies. The findings could be further improved by conducting a cross-sectional study across several business disciplines.

Based on the findings of the study, a set of guidelines for developing a pedagogical plan to incorporate sustainable education into curricula is presented.

Educators argue that successful curriculum development projects aiming at integrating sustainability into existing curricula should be aligned with the structure of the existing curricula, and those new pedagogical practices in integrating sustainability into existing curricula should be built on students’ learning gaps in sustainability education. To this end, this study examined undergraduates’ learning gaps in sustainability education and postulated pedagogical practices toward integrating sustainability education into an existing curriculum of international marketing.

The purpose of this study is to examine the organisational capabilities needed for strategic agility among private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia that are operating in a turbulent business environment. In addition, the study also intends to determine the area of prioritisation for these institutions.

A two-month data collection was carried out on 375 private HEIs via a Web-based survey, which garnered a response rate of 41.33%. The data were subsequently analysed with the partial least squares structural equation modelling to establish the validity and reliability of the research model and to test the postulated hypotheses. The assessment of importance and performance matrix analysis (IPMA) was also carried out to highlight the areas of significance for improvement.

The study discovered that all three constructs of organisational capabilities, i.e. environmental scanning, marketing and organisational learning, attributed significantly to strategic agility. This in turn enabled strategic agility to significantly influence the organisational performance of private HEIs in Malaysia. Finally, IPMA revealed that private HEIs need to prioritise organisational learning to strengthen their strategic agility, thus optimise organisational performance.

Aside from business and management research of strategic agility in other industries, the current study manages to establish that strategic agility also plays an important role in the private higher education sector. Furthermore, the use of IPMA provides fresh insight into the importance and performance of the organisational capabilities examined against strategic agility.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Industrial and Commercial Training is split into five sections covering abstracts under the following headings:Education/Graduates/Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Management Development; Career/Human Resources Development; Training Technology.