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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore barriers and pathways to a whole-institution governance of sustainability within the working structures of universities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on multi-year interviews and hierarchical structure analysis of ten universities in Canada, the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil, the UK and The Netherlands. The paper addresses existing literature that championed further integration between the two organizational sides of universities (academic and operations) and suggests approaches for better embedding sustainability into four primary domains of activity (education, research, campus operations and community engagement).

Findings

This research found that effective sustainability governance needs to recognise and reconcile distinct cultures, diverging accountability structures and contrasting manifestations of central-coordination and distributed-agency approaches characteristic of the university’s operational and academic activities. The positionality of actors appointed to lead institution-wide embedding influenced which domain received most attention. The paper concludes that a whole-institution approach would require significant tailoring and adjustments on both the operational and academic sides to be successful.

Originality/value

Based on a review of sustainability activities at ten universities around the world, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the governance implications of integrating sustainability into the four domains of university activity. It discusses how best to work across the operational/academic divide and suggests principles for adopting a whole institution approach to sustainability.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 24 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2024

Marie Reumont, François Cooren and Claudia Déméné

Communicating a clear, precise, interpretable and unambiguous visual message usually relies on a cross-disciplinary team of professionals. Their complementary visions can uncover…

Abstract

Purpose

Communicating a clear, precise, interpretable and unambiguous visual message usually relies on a cross-disciplinary team of professionals. Their complementary visions can uncover which information matter and how it could be visually displayed to inform, sensitize and encourage people to act toward sustainability. While design studies generally claim that this team has to come to a shared vision, the authors question this assumption, which seems to contradict the benefits of cross-disciplinarity. The purpose of this study is to reveal how simple visual representations displayed in a PowerPoint actively participate in the expression of various and sometimes divergent visions. Recognizing the agency of visuals also leads this study to propose the notion of (un)shared professional vision, which shows that the richness of visual representations can only reveal itself through the capacity of professional visions to maintain their differences while confronting each other.

Design/methodology/approach

Over a 20-month ethnography, this study documented its own cross-disciplinary reflective design process, which aimed to design collectively an experimental environmental label, focusing on interactions occurring between professionals and visuals displayed on five key PowerPoint slides.

Findings

This study first demonstrates how, in practice, a cross-disciplinary reflective design conversation with visuals concretely unfolds through boundary-objects. This study shows how these visuals manage to ex-press themselves through the multiple visions represented in the discussions, revealing their complexity. Second, this study introduces the notion of (un)shared professional vision which underlines that unsharing a vision nurtures the team’s collective capacity to express the complexity of a design situation, while sharing a vision is also necessary to confront these respective expressions to allow the professional uncovering of what should be visually communicated.

Originality/value

The Communication as Constitutive of Organization lens the authors chose to understand the reflective design conversation illustrates that, even though each collaborator’s vision was “(un)shared,” their many voices expand the understanding of the situation and lead them to develop an unexpected and creative environmental information ecosystem that can positively transform society through visuals.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Business and Management Doctorates World-Wide: Developing the Next Generation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-500-0

Abstract

Details

Business and Management Doctorates World-Wide: Developing the Next Generation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-500-0

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines chronic illness, disability and social inequality within an exposure-vulnerabilities theoretical framework.

Methodology/Approach

Using the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a preeminent source of national behavioral health estimates of chronic medical illness, stress and disability, for selected sample years 2005–2014, we construct and analyze two foundational hypotheses underlying the exposure-vulnerabilities model: (1) greater exposure to stressors (i.e., chronic medical illness) among racial/ethnic minority populations yields higher levels of serious psychological distress, which in turn increases the likelihood of medical disability; (2) greater vulnerability among minority populations to stressors such as chronic medical illness exacerbates the impact of these conditions on mental health as well as the impact of mental health on medical disability.

Findings

Results of our analyses provided mixed support for the vulnerability (moderator) hypothesis, but not for the exposure (mediation) hypothesis. In the exposure models, while Blacks were more likely than Whites to have a long-term disability, the pathway to disability through chronic illness and serious psychological distress did not emerge. Rather, Whites were more likely than Blacks and Latinx to have a chronic illness and to have experienced severe psychological distress (both of which themselves were related to disability). In the vulnerability models, both Blacks and Latinx with chronic medical illness were more likely than Whites to experience serious psychological distress, although Whites with serious psychological distress were more likely than these groups to have a long-term disability.

Research Limitations

Several possibilities for understanding the failure to uncover an exposure dynamic in the model turn on the potential intersectional effects of age and gender, as well as several other covariates that seem to confound the linkages in the model (e.g., issues of stigma, social support, education).

Originality/Value

This study (1) extends the racial/ethnic disparities in exposure-vulnerability framework by including factors measuring chronic medical illness and disability which: (2) explicitly test exposure and vulnerability hypotheses in minority populations; (3) develop and test the causal linkages in the hypothesized processes, based on innovations in general structural equation models, and lastly; (4) use national population estimates of these conditions which are rarely, if ever, investigated in this kind of causal framework.

Details

Social Factors, Health Care Inequities and Vaccination
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-795-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 August 2023

Atsuko Kawakami, Subi Gandhi, Derek Lehman and Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld

The disparities of COVID-19 vaccination rates between the rural and urban areas have become apparent during this pandemic. There is a need to understand the root causes of vaccine…

Abstract

Purpose

The disparities of COVID-19 vaccination rates between the rural and urban areas have become apparent during this pandemic. There is a need to understand the root causes of vaccine hesitancy demonstrated by the rural population to increase coverage and to contain the disease spread throughout the United States. This study aimed to explore other factors influencing vaccine hesitancy among rural dwellers besides the geography-related barriers such as poor health care access and individuals having no or suboptimal insurance coverage.

Methodology/Approach

By reviewing existing data and literature about vaccination, health literacy, and behaviors, and prevailing ideologies, we discuss the potential causes of vaccine hesitancy in rural areas that could create barriers for successful public health efforts related to vaccine coverage and provide suggestions to ameliorate the situation.

Findings

Geography-related barriers, health literacy, and preconceived notions are key determinants of adopting healthy behaviors and complying with public health authorities' recommendations among rural individuals during a public-health crisis. We argue that ideology, which is much deeper than preconception or misconception on vaccination, should be incorporated as a key factor to redefine the term “vulnerable populations” in public health research.

Research Limitations/Implications

The limitation of our study is that we have not found an effective way to encourage the populations who hold conservative religious and political ideologies to join the efforts for public health. Even though geography-related barriers may strongly impact the rural dwellers in achieving optimal health, the various forms of ideologies they have toward certain health behaviors cannot be discounted to understand and address vaccine-related disparities in rural areas. There is a need to redefine the term “vulnerable population” particularly as it relates to rural areas in the United States. During large-scale public health disasters, scholars and public health authorities should consider the ideologies of individuals, in addition to other factors such as race/ethnicity, area of residence (rural vs. urban), and socioeconomic factors influencing the existing vulnerabilities and health disparities.

Details

Social Factors, Health Care Inequities and Vaccination
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-795-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 December 2022

Steven Barnes, Julie Prescott and Joseph Adams

This study aims to evaluate a novel mobile therapeutic videogame for adolescents with anxiety disorders (ADs), combining elements of cognitive-behavioural therapy and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate a novel mobile therapeutic videogame for adolescents with anxiety disorders (ADs), combining elements of cognitive-behavioural therapy and attention-bias modification, in terms of both its therapeutic efficacy over a controlled intervention and two-month follow-up, as well as the extent and implications of self-directed play.

Design/methodology/approach

A within-groups design with two parallel conditions [clinical anxiety (N = 16) and subclinical/at-risk (N = 15)] were measured on both self-reported anxiety and threat-detection bias (TDB) across three timepoints (pre- and post-intervention and two-month follow-up).

Findings

Significant reductions were observed in both self-reported state and trait anxiety and TDB over the course of the two-week intervention, which were maintained at follow-up. Engagement in self-directed play during the follow-up period significantly predicted outcomes at two-month follow-up for clinical participants.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first of its kind to evaluate a mobile therapeutic game designed with and solely for adolescents with ADs. This study also represents the first of its kind to examine the extent and implications of self-directed play for outcomes.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2023

Jenny Cleland, Claire Hutchinson, Candice McBain, Jyoti Khadka, Rachel Milte, Ian Cameron and Julie Ratcliffe

This paper aims to assess the face validity to inform content validity of the Quality of Life – Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC), a new measure for quality assessment and economic…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to assess the face validity to inform content validity of the Quality of Life – Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC), a new measure for quality assessment and economic evaluation in aged care.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older adults (66–100 years) receiving aged care services at home (n = 31) and in residential care (n = 28). Participants provided feedback on draft items to take forward to the next stage of psychometric assessment. Items were removed according to several decision criteria: ambiguity, sensitive wording, not easy to answer and/or least preferred by participants.

Findings

The initial candidate set was reduced from 34 items to 15 items to include in the next stage of the QOL-ACC development alongside the preferred response category. The reduced set reflected the views of older adults, increasing the measure’s acceptability, reliability and relevance.

Originality/value

Quality of life is a key person-centred quality indicator recommended by the recent Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Responding to this policy reform objective, this study documents a key stage in the development of the QOL-ACC measure, a new measure designed to assess aged care specific quality of life.

Details

Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, vol. 24 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-7794

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 26 April 2024

Abstract

Details

Special Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-467-8

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2022

Zhen Luo, Julie Callaert, Deming Zeng and Bart Van Looy

Shifting focus from innovation quantity to innovation quality becomes a priority in innovation study, business and policy. This paper aims to figure out whether and how knowledge…

Abstract

Purpose

Shifting focus from innovation quantity to innovation quality becomes a priority in innovation study, business and policy. This paper aims to figure out whether and how knowledge recombination (recombinant exploration/recombinant exploitation) affects firms' innovation quality (technological value/economic value) and how these relationships are moderated by environmental turbulence (technological turbulence/market turbulence) in the context of open innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

A panel data set is built on 373 Chinese pharmaceutical firms' patents and new product data from 1997 to 2020. And a negative binomial regression model is applied to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The analyses indicate that (1) recombinant exploration favors technological value but hinders economic value, while (2) recombinant exploitation benefits both. Regarding environmental turbulence's moderating effects, (3) technological turbulence has opposite moderating effects on the impacts of recombinant exploration versus exploitation on technological value, whereas (4) market turbulence benefits the impacts of both on economic value.

Practical implications

This research provides the answer to practitioners' question that “How to improve innovation quality?” That is “Think from a recombination logic, clarify your internal value preference and the external turbulence.”

Originality/value

From an emerging perspective of innovation, this research expands the innovation quality research to a recombination logic. A multi-dimensional research framework is developed to clarify the complex relationships between knowledge recombination and innovation quality. Finally, two moderators, technological versus market turbulence, formulate more targeted implications for firms' innovation management in open innovation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

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