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This paper compares four external technology acquisition channels' (foreign technology transfer, exporting, inter-industry R&D spillover and domestic technology transfer) contributions to Chinese high-tech enterprises' innovation in the moderating role of absorptive capacity (AC).

Using technological catch-up theory and China Statistics Yearbook on High Technology Industry, this research investigates 16 Chinese high-tech industries from 2004 to 2015 via negative binomial regression.

The results show that indigenous knowledge transfer improves foreign-funded enterprises' (FFEs) innovation, while transnational knowledge transfer is the main channel for state-owned enterprises' (SOEs) technology acquisition. AC strengthens the positive relationship between transnational knowledge transfer and innovation in SOEs and improves FFEs' innovation and exported tacit knowledge absorption.

This study contributes to the literature on external technology acquisition (ETA) and innovation by examining the different mechanism of ETA instead of isolated strategy considering the AC and ownership structure of Chinese high-tech enterprises, which enrich the technological catch-up theory.

This study aims to explore how indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage preservation and ethnic identity influence the production of traditional ikat textiles in northeast Thailand.

A qualitative research method used an ethnographic perspective with a realistic design. Purposive sampling was used to conduct 30 in-depth ethnographic interviews with members of Phu Thai ikat textile groups in Kalasin province. Interview transcripts were studied using thick descriptive analysis (themes, categorisation, coding and keywords).

The ethnographic study shows that natural dyeing, traditional crafts, materials, designs and patterns are used in Phu Thai ikat textile weaving. The results reveal that indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage preservation and ethnic identity are relevant to traditional ikat textiles.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study uniquely focuses on a deeper theoretical understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage preservation, to sustain traditional ikat textiles.

While the possibility of a university fostering sustainable development is present in the extant literature and policy documents, the idea still warrants further consideration. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the nature and outcomes of the university’s engagement with Indigenous communities and perceptions of Indigenous knowledge systems in both academic and non-academic activities, and what might be required to foster the university’s contributions towards sustainable development.

A qualitative case study of the only public university in The Gambia was conducted, including non-university actors. Interviews and focus group discussion methods were used, and these enabled close collaboration between researchers and participants, and the latter were empowered to describe their perceptions of reality.

Three major sets of findings emerged from the analysis of the transcripts from interviews and focus group discussions with the university and community members. These are the limited nature of and outcomes from university–community engagement, the sustainable outcomes of Indigenous practices and ideas for Indigenising university engagement for sustainable development.

Particular implications of the study that underpins this paper can be underscored; these include: a contribution to the literature on ways of connecting Indigenous communities with universities, and to a conceptualisation of the Indigenised university; a provision of insights into the connectivity between university community engagement, Indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development; the creation of a context for subsequent studies on practical steps that universities might take in the direction of epistemic justice and sustainable development for all; and heightening the intractability of theoretical and philosophical issues of epistemology, knowledge ecology and epistemological justice, as they reveal themselves in practice, in complex situations.

Matters of the university reaching out to Indigenous peoples have yet to find their way into conceptualisations of the university for sustainable development. This paper addresses this gap in the existing literature by advancing possibilities for the Indigenised university for sustainable development to emerge.

Africa is a vast, immensely diverse continent with hundreds of local languages, traditions, values, and cultures that shape the lives of its people. The vast resources available on the continent present numerous opportunities for economic development and prosperity. The preceding chapters in this volume have explored many of these resources, highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge in driving sustainable business structures across Africa. This chapter concludes with practical recommendations for implementing and sustaining indigenous knowledge on the continent and building a more equitable and sustainable future for Africa. We anticipate that these observations and recommendations will aid African researchers, government and non-governmental organisations, educators, business actors and leaders, legislators, and the general public in thinking globally but acting locally to advance indigenous knowledge in Africa.

This paper argues that multinational firms can benefit from indigenous knowledge diffusion in a host developing country so that there can be two‐way productivity spillovers between foreign and local firms even in the developing world. This new argument is confirmed by a very large firm‐level data set from the Chinese manufacturing sector. After grouping firms based on their trade orientation, we find that foreign firms have a positive impact on local‐market‐oriented Chinese firms. When the degree of foreign presence is sufficiently high, there will be negative productivity effects on export‐oriented Chinese firms. On the other hand, local Chinese firms have a positive impact on export‐oriented foreign invested firms. After dividing foreign firms according to their sources, we find that the beneficial spillovers between OECD and local Chinese firms are much greater than those between Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan and local Chinese firms.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to an indigenous community that lives in the periphery of Taiwan. The Tao were confronted with modernization beginning with the Japanese colonial time and later through missionary work and Sinicization. These exogenous factors had a major influence on the Tao's traditional lifestyle and cultural habits. After democratization and due to the Tao's empowerment and efforts of multicultural education as well as interactive learning applications, a revitalization of traditional knowledge, and cultural customs became visible.

The methodology is inspired by social scientific methods that are common in anthropological research. The data collection are based on ethnographic field work that provides a unique and authentic picture of the subject. Besides participating and systematic and informal observation, qualitative forms of interviews were applied.

The paper highlights the influences and dynamics of exogenous and endogenous factors on the traditional lifestyle of an indigenous community in the western Pacific. Due to global influences of modernity, the Tao's spiritual belief lost its importance and the traditional structures of the people began to change. However, the Tao were not only passive toward the transformation to a modern society, but they also contributed to the cultural revitalization on their own in terms of education and teaching management.

The paper provides valuable insights into an indigenous community in Taiwan and their way of dealing with modernity. After periods of structural discrimination, the people contributed to their own well-being and cultural revitalization with multicultural learning. In recent times, networks with other communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region were established to foster the empowerment of traditional ecological knowledge and to develop new adequate teaching technologies.

Water is a very common word for every human and a very common element for every life on earth. But underneath a very common meaning, a critical element and path for life being and existence lay placidly. Through various interactions between human and water, the intrinsic perceptive meaning is developed and varied in different place and time. It can mean life or death, strength or weakness, rich or poor, peace or conflict, and rise or fall. And this perceptive intrinsic meaning can be captured in one mind or extended to or shared with many thoughts. Sharing or extending from one to many or from an individual to an assemblage represent the evolution and development in complexity of relationship or social structure and function among all associates through space and time.

The purpose of this paper is to engage with the discourse on the assumed existence of an distinct “African management” model. It critically deconstructs the concepts and submits an alternative strategy to address the need to understand what is happening in management of business in Africa.

Qualitative critical text analysis is used to understand the discourse on the nature of “African management” from the extant literature. The identity theory informs the understanding of the references to “African” as fundamental to identify a distinct management model. This analysis is supplemented by empirical case study research into successful African business.

Scholars failed to conceptualise what is “African”, and subsequently also what constitutes “African management”. This conceptual void undermines the critical reconstruction of a single African management model. Empirical research into actual management practices emerge as fundamental to systematic progress in this discourse. This research points to diverse management traditions converging into pragmatic practices.

Only a limited number of case studies were conducted into management history in Africa. This paper argues for an extended research programme, but this is future work.

It suggests a research strategy for scholars in African business studies, business history and management history to collaborate towards making a solid contribution to the economic development of our continent.

This research has the potential of forging collaboration in business among all of the people in Africa.

A critical text analysis is used to expose the conceptual lacunae that undermines progress in the discourse. This paper contributes to the literature on “African management” by systematically deconstructing the concept of “African identity” as a prerequisite to the management discourse. By signalling ethnic nostalgia, the critical reconceptualisation of Africanness offers an intellectually creative strategy out of the stalled discourse.

This chapter discusses the Maldives information culture as observed and defined from the results of a research project undertaken as a Master of Philosophy at Curtin University in Australia. A survey of one rural Maldives community and one urban Maldives community collected data on their information use, access and awareness. Additional qualitative in-depth interviews with key information stakeholders in the Maldives sought supplementary information on the prevailing information situation. We present a conceptual model of the Maldives information culture including seven key elements: indigenous knowledge, ICTs, information literacy, research and publication, libraries and information services, mass media and information policies. The Maldives information culture is ‘paperless’, not in the modern online sense, but more in terms of the Maldives population's high reliance on verbal information interchange for their everyday information needs. In the Maldives, broadcast media and verbal information exchange predominate over print media. In the Maldives, reading as a leisure activity is present to some degree, but reading as an intellectual activity is limited. Libraries are not commonly used as an information source. Adoption of ICTs is swift and promising. However, even if the Maldives population is literate in the local language, a significant group lacks the English language literacy to benefit from the online information environment. There are no major differences in the use of information between the rural and urban community; the difference is in the level of access to information sources and the respondents' information literacy skills.

Responding to COVID-19, this conceptual paper uses rewilding to interrupt anthropocentric and human/nature dualist properties of accounting education. Through rewilding accounting education, informed by posthumanist and ecofeminist thought, this paper aims to develop an accounting pedagogy that shapes greater ecocentric narratives. Accounting educators can contribute to addressing crises by evolving new pedagogies that radically transform the education of future accounting professionals.

The authors take a critical stance in analysing the human-centred accounting education model. They explore how this model can be reimagined through rewilding accounting education, resulting in learning interventions that foster an understanding of intrinsic value, complexity of systems and collective disposition with all species and the natural world.

Rewilding learning interventions embed an ecocentric approach in accounting curricula design to extend beyond a human focus. Rewilding learning interventions practically explored with application to accounting include learning with and from nature, Indigenous knowledge perspectives, play as a common language and empathy as a dialogical bridge.

The authors present an accounting pedagogy that fosters among accounting students and educators a relational orientation and ecological consciousness that encompasses compassion and openness to others, including non-human species and nature. This will ensure that accounting graduates are better prepared for addressing future crises that stem from our disconnect with nature.

This paper adds to limited research investigating accounting and the Anthropocene. Investigations into the Anthropocene’s human-centred discourse in accounting education are vital to respond adequately to crises. This paper extends social and environmental accounting education literature to encompass less anthropocentric discourse and greater relational learning.