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This paper aims to explore how the Celtic Tiger economic boom and Great Recession influenced drug and alcohol use in one Irish city.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 people, living in Cork City, who had previously used drugs and/or alcohol problematically. All participants had engaged with services for their problematic use and had at least one year of abstinence at time of interview.

Some participants reported that their drug and/or alcohol consumption increased during the economic boom; others, who were already in (self-defined) active addiction, reported how full employment lessened some of the harms of their problematic use. For others, problematic use struck once the economy entered a downturn and, heavy drink and drug use became a means of soothing the strains of economic recession.

The paper provides two key contributions. Methodologically, it demonstrates how large-scale national quantitative data can mask local idiosyncratic tendencies, suggesting the need for mixed-method approaches for understanding drug market trends. The paper also provides insights into the impact of global and local economic conditions on drug and alcohol consumption in Ireland.

The topic of parent migration and its effects on the family environment has become a focus of moral dilemmas in East Europe for the last three decades. Children have been portrayed as social orphans and parents working abroad as neglectful parents. Today, with more evidence from research and experience, the impact of parental migration is much more comprehensive and nuanced, recognising its noxious or even harmful but also possibly empowering effects. This chapter reflects on the involvement of left-behind adolescents as co-researchers in a study of transnational families. It acknowledges the agentic role of children (often automatically labelled as victims of neglect), amplifies their voices to inform existing data on the impact of parents' departure to work abroad and identifies directions for intervention that might strengthen families.

The research is an integral part of CASTLE – Children Left Behind by Labour Migration, an ongoing project (June 2021–December 2023). ¹ This chapter presents the research collaboration experience with 12 co-researcher adolescents with previous left-behind experiences, originating from Moldova and currently residing in Romania. The co-researchers participated in all stages of the research process: training, design of data collection, recruitment of research participants, data analysis and dissemination of results. Taking co-researcher roles had an empowering effect on adolescents, who learnt how to express their views on the topic, voiced their experiences about the emotional costs of being left behind by their parents and reflected on sensitive issues like separation of family members and violence in the family.

This paper tests whether Bayesian A/B testing yields better decisions that traditional Neyman-Pearson hypothesis testing. It proposes a model and tests it using a large, multiyear Google Analytics (GA) dataset.

This paper is an empirical study. Competing A/B testing models were used to analyze a large, multiyear dataset of GA dataset for a firm that relies entirely on their website and online transactions for customer engagement and sales.

Bayesian A/B tests of the data not only yielded a clear delineation of the timing and impact of the intellectual property fraud, but calculated the loss of sales dollars, traffic and time on the firm’s website, with precise confidence limits. Frequentist A/B testing identified fraud in bounce rate at 5% significance, and bounces at 10% significance, but was unable to ascertain fraud at the standard significance cutoffs for scientific studies.

None within the scope of the research plan.

Bayesian A/B tests of the data not only yielded a clear delineation of the timing and impact of the IP fraud, but calculated the loss of sales dollars, traffic and time on the firm’s website, with precise confidence limits.

Bayesian A/B testing can derive economically meaningful statistics, whereas frequentist A/B testing only provide p-value’s whose meaning may be hard to grasp, and where misuse is widespread and has been a major topic in metascience. While misuse of p-values in scholarly articles may simply be grist for academic debate, the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of p-values in business analytics actually can cost firms money.

There is very little empirical research in e-commerce that uses Bayesian A/B testing. Almost all corporate testing is done via frequentist Neyman-Pearson methods.

This paper aims to provide an analysis of gender strategies in the planning, programmes towards the implementation of Africa’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It involved the identification and disaggregation of climate risks on women key climate affected sectors (water, energy, agriculture, health, energy).

This involves review of vast scholarly and academic research, to establishment of linkages and interlinkages between the risks. A diagnostic analysis was done on the NDCs to understand the orientation of gender considerations in the NDCs of African countries, and then an assessment on emerging opportunities and empowerment of women to address climate change was carried out as an un-detachable component of gender considerations.

Poverty, cultural barriers and inequality, climatic risks such as floods, occurrence of infectious diseases and water scarcity create life threatening situations for women as well as their livelihood Analysis on the NDCs (and INDCs) of all African countries show that over 85% of actions reference gender. At the regional level West Africa has the highest gender actions in their NDCs (41%), East Africa 25%, Southern Africa 15%, Central Africa 8% and North Africa 6%. The coping responses of women, their knowledge about the environment and the environmental services they offer, provide great opportunities for them in the climate change scenario which is seldom spoken about. Empowerment of women by providing access to Information, education, training; sensitization on various facets of climate change; the risks, consequences, possible sustainable solutions (Adaptation and mitigation) and their basic rights especially with regards to land and ownership is necessary, and can help reduce the climatic risks they face.

The limitation of this study was time constraint as the research was done during my fellowship at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa which was a short period in relation to the fact that the authors were assigned to other duties.

Though most African countries are making an effort towards gender integration in their NDCs, they need to carry out systematic gender analysis; collecting and using sex-disaggregated data; establishing gender-sensitive benchmarks and indicators; and developing practical tools to support increased attention to gender perspectives.

Climate change is a serious threat to humanity and views from mostly those affected indicates that there is still a big disconnect between the ambitious agendas set by various stakeholders involved (International organizations, governments and regional organizations), and the real grassroots initiatives, actions and programs being implemented in the ground. There is also inarguably increasing evidence that climate change is amplifying gender inequality, the vulnerability of women and children; consequently, a serious barrier to the achievement of the Paris Agreement, UN 2030 Sustainable development goals, the 2063 Africa Union Agenda.

Though there exist many research papers on climate and gender and also on NDCs, creating a link between gender risks and climate policies, strategies and programs gives the issue of gender and climate change “high importance”. An integrated approach on identifying the risks makes policies coherent.

The production of the ‘good life’ or the ‘less bad-life’ (Berlant, 2007, 2011), especially among generations of the Marcos dictatorship and the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue revolutions (henceforth, EDSA revolutions) in the Philippines, is animated by the ‘mobility imperative’ (Farrugia, 2016). The mobility imperative includes processes that encourage or demand mobility (Farrugia, 2016) for individuals and institutions. It figures in various ‘systems of practice’ (Levitt, 1998, 2001) among families in migrant-sending communities, government and corporations that magnify how migration is the ticket to better life (McKay, 2012) or its glorification as a heroic act (de los Reyes, 2013, 2014). Among the generations of the Martial Law and the EDSA revolutions, therefore, the ‘good life’ is hinged upon departure as professionals (e.g. nurses and engineers), workers in elementary occupations (e.g. construction and domestic workers) or mail-order brides or pen pals. Put simply, the good life in these generations is a function of remittances.

This chapter examines how the contemporary generation of young people construct the ‘good life’ in differential and new terms (de los Reyes, 2023; McKay & Brady, 2005) from previous generations. Using interviews and vision boards of left-behind children (15–18 years old), it argues that left-behind children critically appraise the ‘mobility imperative’. The chapter shows that there is a growing imagination of alternatives to the migration-induced good life among left-behind children, and therefore, they gradually refuse the ‘mobility imperative’. For them, the aspired good life consists of potentially being employees or entrepreneurs in their own villages and living a life with their own families (de los Reyes, 2019, 2020).

Health risks associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have severely affected the financial stability of airline companies globally. Recapturing financial stability following this crisis depends heavily on these companies’ ability to attain efficient and productive operations. This study uses several empirical approaches to examine key factors contributing to carriers sustaining high productivity prior to, during and after a major recession. Findings suggest, regardless of economic conditions, that social distancing which requires airline companies in the Asia Pacific region to fly with a significant percentage of unfilled seats weakens the performance of those companies. Furthermore, efficient operations do not guarantee the avoidance of productivity declines, especially during a recession.

This study sought to understand how having a calling influenced engagement, work–life balance and career satisfaction for Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) and Golf Course Superintendent of America (GCSA) professionals.

A conceptual model was used to examine callings among golf course supervisors and its impact on their engagement, work–life balance and career satisfaction. This study also explored the moderation effect of employees’ generalized or specialized role on the calling–engagement relationship. Surveys were collected from a single golf management company and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis.

The results revealed significant relationships among all of the variables, with the exception of the impact of having a calling on work–life balance. Additionally, the more having a calling increased, the more important it was for supervisors to have specialized roles to increase their engagement.

This study identifies important differences in factors that promote career satisfaction for golf course supervisors and extends current understanding of role theory.

This paper aims to present the findings of a government-initiated project that sought to explore the possibility of incorporating cultural connections to land within the federal national accounting system using the United Nations Systems of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) framework as a basis.

Adopting a critical dialogic approach and responding to the calls for critical accountants to engage with stakeholders, the authors worked with two Indigenous groups of Australia to develop a system of accounts that incorporates their cultural connections to “Country”. The two groups were clans from the Mungguy Country in the Kakadu region of Northern Territory and the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation of Northern Queensland. Conducting two-day workshops on separate occasions with both groups, the authors attempted to meld the Indigenous worldviews with the worldviews embodied within national accounting systems and the UN-SEEA framework.

The models developed highlight significant differences between the ontological foundations of Indigenous and Western-worldviews and the authors reflect on the tensions created between these competing worldviews. The authors also offer pragmatic solutions that could be implemented by the Indigenous Traditional Owners and the government in terms of developing such an accounting system that incorporates connections to Country.

The paper contributes to providing a contemporary case study of engagement with Indigenous peoples in the co-development of a system of accounting for and by Indigenous peoples; it also contributes to the ongoing debate on bridging the divide between critique and praxis; and finally, the paper delves into an area that is largely unexplored within accounting research which is national accounting.

This integrative literature review aims to explore themes within higher education that may be applicable to leadership education including: descriptions of trauma, trauma-informed practices and trauma-informed practitioners.

Integrative, systematic literature review.

The results suggest that trauma and trauma-informed practices may have a place in leadership education pedagogy.

There is no work being done in trauma informed practice in leadership education. This study provides future direction for both research and practice.

Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.