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When an individual leaves evidence to suggest that they are dead to mislead others, they are committing “pseudocide.” This study aims to examine pseudocides performed for the purpose of committing or concealing a financial crime.

This manuscript summarizes information from both academic and nonacademic publications. To provide evidence related to the conclusions made by prior authors and identify the risk factors that are often indicative of pseudocide, this manuscript examines the characteristics of pseudocides that received media coverage.

Pseudocides that receive media coverage often involve a prominent figure or a compelling story. These stories are not representative of the average pseudocide, which receives no publicity because it occurs in a less developed nation and is committed by a nonpublic figure. Common characteristics include the absence of a corpse and paperwork procured through bribery.

One of the only academic papers focused on pseudocide, this manuscript provides readers with information related to the scope of the issue, common methodologies and factors indicative of pseudocide. This should be of interest to several parties including forensic accountants, insurers, regulators and academics.

This paper identifies the effects of different dimensions of the cuteness (i.e. baby schema cuteness and whimsical cuteness) of artificial intelligence (AI) agents on attachment to them. In addition, the current paper examines the consequences of the attachment to AI agents.

A pretest to validate the measurement scale for the attachment to AI agents and a survey study were conducted with AI agent users. The authors used structural equation modeling to analyze the data for hypothesis testing.

The baby schema and whimsical cuteness of AI agents drive consumers to develop stronger attachments to their AI agents. This is because consumers perceive cute AI agents as being more trustworthy. As a result, consumers who feel attached to their AI agents are more inclined to report higher satisfaction and commitment levels. They are also more likely to purchase products or services recommended by their AI agents and use them more frequently.

Despite the growing popularity of AI agents, there is a lack of understanding regarding which characteristics of AI agents affect consumer behavior. Therefore, this research examines how the attribute of cuteness influences consumers' attachment to AI agents and subsequently affects their satisfaction and purchase intention toward products recommended by AI agents. Our study demonstrates that the element of cuteness in AI agents plays a crucial role in shaping perceptions of benevolence trustworthiness, as well as fostering users' attachment to AI agents. Furthermore, we observe positive consumer behaviors as a result of their attachment to AI agents. The findings from this study provide valuable insights for practitioners on how to effectively utilize cuteness in AI agents.

This essay charts an intellectual journey. Geoffrey M. Hodgson became an institutional economist in the 1980s. He explains how he discovered institutional economics and what strains of institutional thought were attractive for him. Another issue raised in this essay is how institutional researchers organize and move forward. Hodgson argues for an interdisciplinary approach, but this is not without its problems.

Hazel Kyrk, one of the first women economists at the Economic Department of the University of Chicago and author of A Theory of Consumption (1923), conducted groundbreaking research for the Bureau of Home Economics of the US Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kyrk made a considerable contribution to the development of standards for a “decent living,” the Consumer Price Index, and the conceptualization of what would later turn into the definition of the poverty line. This chapter evaluates Kyrk’s use of eugenic notions of gender and race that were widely used in Kyrk’s day. This chapter shows that eugenic reasoning impacts Kyrk’s theoretical work only superficially but does structure her research on consumption standards through her focus on the white middle-class family as the unit of analysis for consumer behavior. This chapter also makes clear that the American Institutionalist approach to consumer behavior, rather than marginalized and side-tracked due to a lack of theoretical progress, was relegated to the margins of economics science together with the research of women economists into Home Economics departments and policy research at government institutions.

This study aims to consider the role of emotions, especially those related to empathy, in promoting a more humane education that enables students to reach out across kinship chasms to promote the development of communities predicated on a shared value on mutual respect. This attention to empathy includes a review of the rational basis for much schooling, introduces skepticism about the façade of rational thinking, reviews the emotionally flat character of classrooms, attends to the emotional dimensions of literacy education, argues on behalf of taking emotions into account in developmental theories and links empathic connections with social justice efforts. The study’s main thrust is that empathy is a key emotional quality that does not come naturally or easily to many, yet is important to cultivate if social justice is a goal of education.

The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.

The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.

The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.

The paper challenges the rational emphasis of schooling and argues for more attention to the ways in which emotions shape thinking.

Performance management (PM) remains one of the fundamental human resource practices in organisations today and is a dominant strategy adopted in managing employees. This paper aims to analyse extant research on PM conducted globally to inform research and practices in an African context.

A systematic review of 43 articles published in 22 journals ranked by the Australian Business Deans Council and Chartered Association of Business Schools was undertaken. The papers selected were limited to the past two decades (2001–2021) to focus primarily on contemporary practices.

The findings of this review indicate that PM continues to gain attention from African scholars and practitioners, though not as prominently as indicated within the broader global context. The review also exposed significant gaps in current research, including PM issues, theoretical or conceptual development and methodological approaches, which, if addressed, could inform future practices and research foci.

The primary limitations of this study are a focus on the most recent two decades of research into PM and the intention to direct learnings from this review of scholarly insight towards a focus solely on an African context. Thus, as interpretations of insights are based upon the perspective of how these can inform PM practices in Africa, a direct extrapolation of the findings to other contexts may not be appropriate.

This review of research conducted into PM globally in the past two decades has identified limited contributions from within the African context. This lack of contextual understanding may well be affecting the adoption and creation of globally recognised PM practices in Africa. As such, there is an opportunity to understand better the complexities associated with PM by embracing theories and formulating, testing and refining existing models to consider performance issues at more profound levels of analysis within an African context.

This study presents insights into global trends in PM research and practices not previously explored, highlighting a need for more contextualised research to progress Africa beyond current theoretical, conceptual and methodological limitations.