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The purpose of this paper is to describe the evaluation of an educational occupational therapy home visit simulation newly built in Unity, compared with a previously created simulation based in the Open Sim platform. The evaluation is based on students’ preferences.

A simulation was built in Unity in which the academic content was identical to the previous Open Sim-based simulation. Student groups used the simulations then completed a questionnaire. Numerical data and descriptive comments were analysed.

Students preferred the simulation built in Unity to the Open Sim simulation. Improvements with the Unity simulation include; reduced time to gain competence to use, ease of use and fewer negative physiological experiences. The small percentage of students experiencing motion sickness is an ongoing concern and warrants further investigation. The Unity simulation may also be useful as an academic assessment tool.

Findings are limited by short time usage of the simulations in 3D virtual worlds with confined spaces and no requirement for in-world group interaction, and by some methodological limitations including the research being based within a single higher education institution, and with a profession-specific group of students.

This paper highlights student preference for using a purpose built simulation created with Unity over a simulation built in Open Sim, showing where best to spend future development time and funding. Similar comparison research is scarce.

The purpose of this paper is to inform the readers of the design process and practical implications of a new gripping device created by the authors.

We have developed a novel gripping device based on the biomechanics of the feeding apparatus of the marine mollusk, Aplysia californica. The gripping device uses modified McKibben artificial muscles arranged in rings and placed in parallel. The rings contract sequentially to produce peristalsis, which moves a grasping mechanism back and forth through the rings.

The central grasper is capable of conforming to soft and irregular material.

This device could have novel applications both for removal of tissue in medical applications and for removing material from clogged plumbing lines.

This paper demonstrates the utility of using biological inspiration for developing novel robotic devices and suggests new ways of handling slippery, irregular, and fragile material.

This study surveys professional niche sports sponsors in an effort to empirically understand what selection criteria these companies deem important when evaluating professional niche sports sponsorship proposals. Findings suggest that professional niche sports properties may possess unique attributes on which sponsors place very high levels of importance, such as cost effectiveness, flexibility in assisting sponsors achieve their objectives, a more targeted fan-base and decreased sponsorship clutter. Pragmatically, findings provide professional niche sports managers with tools that may be useful when competing for sponsorship funding against more established mainstream sports properties. Theoretically, the current study begins to fill a gap in the sports sponsorship literature which has primarily focused on mainstream professional sports, major intercollegiate sports and elite amateur sports such as the Olympic Games.

This paper aims to investigate the role of relational governance in innovation platform development, specifically investigating the context of living labs.

Two longitudinal case studies are presented, derived from auto-ethnographic narratives, qualitative interviews and secondary documents, which cover the critical stages in the development of each living lab.

Empirical insights demonstrate the relevance of coordination activities based on joint planning and activities to support innovation platform development across different stages. The governance role of research actors as platform activators is also identified.

The paper offers a useful perspective for identifying collective goals between living lab actors and aligning joint activities across different stages of living lab development.

The case provides insights into the challenges and opportunities for collaboration between academia, industry and users to support sustainable construction innovation.

A relational governance mode is identified, going beyond top down or bottom up approaches, which contributes a new understanding of how collective goals align within a relational space.

Small hybrid rocket motors using solid propellant and gaseous oxidizer are becoming increasingly popular as a propulsion device. This paper describes the development of a one‐dimensional flow model for the design of a small rocket motor. Combustion of polyethylene as solid propellant with oxygen is used as a candidate hybrid fuel to test and evaluate the performance of this hybrid system. To assess the performance under different operating conditions, a computer program has been developed, which facilitates inputs to be varied and effects assessed. A system of governing equations is summarized in the main body of this paper and is numerically solved by the computer program. The results of the modelling are then used to design and build a small low‐cost rocket motor for experimental verification. Therefore, the materials presented herein could be used in the future design of hybrid rocket motors.

This paper aims to emphasize the importance of Chinese institutional contexts beyond “culture” by analyzing a few non-cultural institution-dependent contexts in Chinese HRM research, using an institutional theory perspective.

The authors review existing Chinese indigenous management research from an institutional theoretical perspective and provide a critique of the research from that perspective.

Chinese contexts are more than Confucianism. Focusing on this aspect of culture without integrating other institutional contexts, while informative, is unlikely to identify and explain the uniqueness of Chinese individual and organizational behaviors. Informed by institutional theory, the authors examine how institutional language context influences Chinese institutional behavior. The authors also argue that the guanxi phenomenon is more strongly dependent on institutional forces than on culture in the recent Chinese history. Incorporating these “non-cultural” institutional contexts in research enables us to describe the “what” and explore the “why” and “how” in theory development, rather than placing value judgments on the institutional arrangements.

While societal culture provides an important institutional context, China’s broad culture is not unique among countries with similar Confucian traditions. Chinese management scholars are encouraged to be mindful of pervasive institutional contexts in exploring and theorizing local organizational phenomena. Research without considering non-cultural institutional contexts may prevent a finer-grained understanding of Chinese organizational phenomena for developing Chinese management theory, and it is unlikely to identify the uniqueness of Chinese organizational phenomena among countries influenced by similar Confucian cultural traditions.

Built on previous literature, this paper is among the first to specify and examine explicitly non-Confucian Chinese institutional contexts as a basis for the exploration of Chinese organizational phenomena.

A cross‐cultural model of international accounting compatibility is offered by blending Perera's (1989) cultural schema with other dynamic theories. Rahman's (1990) explanatory variables of the accounting regulator and the profession are included along with costly contracting theories (Watts and Zimmerman, 1990) regarding management's behaviour. These latter perspectives help explain the dynamic changes in the external environment. An application of the resulting cross‐cultural model follows through an examination of the potential accounting impact of the emerging free trade zone between New Zealand and Australia. The ability of the tuo national systems to harmonise is suggested by similarities in the environmental factors identified by the extended model. Differences in the regulatory approach between New Zealand and Australia are shown to be supported by underlying cultural factors and may be a persistent barrier. Recent initiatives are les sening this gap. The implications for the New Zealand Society of Accountants' ability to retain control over the standard setting process in New Zealand are also considered.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the core findings from recently published place‐based crime prevention research. The paper aims to critically evaluate the available evidence on the contribution of crime prevention through environmental design as a crime prevention strategy.

Large‐scale evaluations of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) are reviewed with a view to clarifying current knowledge on the evidence of crime prevention through environmental design.

The review concludes that there is a growing body of research that supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is effective in reducing both crime and fear of crime in the community.

Although the paper may not review all the evaluations of CPTED, it nonetheless provides a detailed compilation and overview of the most significant research in the area, including an extensive and modern bibliography on the subject. Research implications will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.

CPTED is an increasingly fashionable approach and is being implemented on a global scale. Additionally, individual components such as territoriality, surveillance, maintenance, access control, activity support and target‐hardening are being widely deployed. However, the evidence currently available is inconclusive and much criticised, which effectively prevents widespread intervention and investment by central government. The paper details the difficulties associated with demonstrating the effectiveness of CPTED.

The paper concludes that although empirical proof has not been definitively demonstrated, there is a large and growing body of research, which supports the assertion that crime prevention through environmental design is a pragmatic and effective crime prevention tool. This review provides an extensive bibliography of contemporary crime prevention through environmental design and a follow‐up paper will discuss the future research priorities for it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing frontier. One promising area for AI is its potential to assist sales managers in providing salesperson feedback. Despite this promise, little work has been done within the business-to-business (B2B) sales domain to investigate the potential impact of AI feedback on critical sales outcomes. The purpose of this research is to explore these issues and respond to calls in the literature to determine how AI can enhance salesperson adaptability and performance.

Survey data from a sample of 246 B2B salespeople was used to test the conceptual model and research hypotheses. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings provide broad support for the model. An AI-feedback rich environment and salesperson feedback orientation predicted perceived accuracy of AI feedback which, in turn, strengthened intentions to use AI feedback. These favorable reactions to AI feedback positively related to adaptive selling behaviors, and adaptive selling behaviors mediated the relationships between intentions to use AI feedback and organizational commitment, as well as sales performance. Contrary to expectations, it did not mediate the relationship between intentions to use AI feedback and job satisfaction.

The managerial implications of this study lie in explaining practical considerations for the implementation and use of AI feedback in the sales context.

This study extends literature on technology adoption, performance feedback and the use of AI in the B2B sales domain. It offers practical insight for sales managers and those responsible for implementing AI solutions in sales.

Managers may “creatively” choose accounting methods in order to smooth income figures. Using a sample of 1,094 transportation firm‐year observations before and throughout the global financial crisis (GFC) period of 2006‐2009 in seven Asian countries, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether managers' smooth reported earnings to meet the benchmark target of last year's earnings figure.

Following previous research (e.g.,Burgstahler and Dichev; Degeorge, Patel, and Zeckhauser; Holland and Ramsay; Burgstahler and Eames; Daske, Gebhardt, and McLeay; Gore, Pope, and Singh; Charoenwong and Jiraporn), this study uses an earnings benchmark of sustaining last year's performance as the key indicator of earnings management.

The empirical evidence reveals that corporate managers seem to opportunistically smooth income to beat earnings targets. The results also show that the AuditQuality, EcoCrisis and Size are not explanatory for the smoothing behavior of the above target firms. However, the independent variables EcoCrisis and Size are predictors for the smoothing behavior of the sample firms that engage in income‐increasing earnings management. The coefficient on EcoCrisis is negative and significantly (at p=0.001) related to the earnings management measure, suggesting that during a period of economic stress, transportation firm managers engage in less aggressive income‐increasing discretionary accruals strategy. Furthermore, the findings confirm that large size firms exhibit less aggressive income‐increasing earnings management behavior. Specifically, the coefficient on Size is negative and moderately significant (p=0.056) associated with earnings management measure.

This study strongly supports the political costs hypothesis which argues that larger firms are subject to more public scrutiny and political actions therein exhibiting less aggressive income‐increasing earnings management behavior. The authors further note a “big bath” phenomenon during the GFC period suggesting that corporate managers manipulate their reported earnings downward to make poor results even worse in the current financial period, artificially enhancing future year's earnings.