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Certified and non-certified organisations must make strategic decisions regarding ISO 9001 adoption, maintenance, renewal and abandonment. However, the ISO 9001 literature lacks a typology of the strategic options available to these organisations. The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a framework of the alternative strategies for the stages of the ISO 9001 life cycle (implementation/certification, certification maintenance and recertification/decertification stages).

The research method is based on literature review, selection of relevant variables and synthesis of coherent alternative strategies.

Results include the main variables of relevance for the definition of the ISO 9001 strategies (e.g. life cycle stage, organisational motivations, barriers, benefits, internalisation degree and quality of the certification body), the main situations in which organisations can find themselves (in terms of ISO 9001 certification, maintenance and decertification), the strategic options for each situation (e.g.: certify, maintain certification, try harder, change certification body, intensify learning and experimentation with ISO 9001) and the implications and consequences of such options. Research results are integrated into a strategy framework, composed of three strategy matrices, one for each stage of the life cycle. The matrices present the strategic situations, available strategic alternatives and benefits of the strategies.

This study combines the results of previous research to develop an original strategy framework, which constitutes the main research contribution. As far as the author is aware, there is no such strategy framework in the literature. The framework has relevant implications for theory and practice and helps to identify future research directions.

This chapter delves into the impact of digital initiatives on firms and sheds light on how they can be explained through market reactions and the resource/capabilities mechanism. By providing a novel conceptual framework that reflects the potential impact of digital initiatives on the sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities of dynamic capabilities, this chapter reveals the tremendous potential of digital initiatives to help firms become more adaptive to their environment and create sustainable competitive advantages that elicit positive market responses. This conceptual framework represents an original contribution to the literature. It enhances the understanding of the resource-based view and efficient market hypothesis, providing a fresh perspective on the influence of digital initiatives on firm performance and the dynamic capabilities mechanism that has hitherto been overlooked. As a result, this chapter enables researchers to develop testable hypotheses that examine the causal relationships between digital initiatives, dynamic capabilities and market performance using robust quantitative research methods. Furthermore, this chapter offers valuable insights for managers seeking to develop a more focused approach to digital transformation and enhance their competitive advantage. By exploring the impact of digital initiatives on sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities, managers can gain a deeper understanding of how they can leverage digital initiatives to improve their organisational performance and respond more effectively to the demands of an ever-changing landscape.

This study aims to evaluate a method of building a biomedical knowledge graph (KG).

This research first constructs a COVID-19 KG on the COVID-19 Open Research Data Set, covering information over six categories (i.e. disease, drug, gene, species, therapy and symptom). The construction used open-source tools to extract entities, relations and triples. Then, the COVID-19 KG is evaluated on three data-quality dimensions: correctness, relatedness and comprehensiveness, using a semiautomatic approach. Finally, this study assesses the application of the KG by building a question answering (Q&A) system. Five queries regarding COVID-19 genomes, symptoms, transmissions and therapeutics were submitted to the system and the results were analyzed.

With current extraction tools, the quality of the KG is moderate and difficult to improve, unless more efforts are made to improve the tools for entity extraction, relation extraction and others. This study finds that comprehensiveness and relatedness positively correlate with the data size. Furthermore, the results indicate the performances of the Q&A systems built on the larger-scale KGs are better than the smaller ones for most queries, proving the importance of relatedness and comprehensiveness to ensure the usefulness of the KG.

The KG construction process, data-quality-based and application-based evaluations discussed in this paper provide valuable references for KG researchers and practitioners to build high-quality domain-specific knowledge discovery systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted 222 countries across the globe, with millions of people losing their lives. The threat from the virus may be assessed from the fact that most countries across the world have been forced to order partial or complete shutdown of their economies for a period of time to contain the spread of the virus. The fallout of this action manifested in loss of livelihood, migration of the labor force and severe impact on mental health due to the long duration of confinement to homes or residences.

The current study identifies the focus areas of the research conducted on the COVID-19 pandemic. Abstracts of papers on the subject were collated from the SCOPUS database for the period December 2019 to June 2020. The collected sample data (after preprocessing) was analyzed using Topic Modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation.

Based on the research papers published within the mentioned timeframe, the study identifies the 10 most prominent topics that formed the area of interest for the COVID-19 pandemic research.

While similar studies exist, no other work has used topic modeling to comprehensively analyze the COVID-19 literature by considering diverse fields and domains.

This study analyzes the evolution of topics related to COVID-19 on Chinese social media platforms with the aim of identifying changes in netizens' concerns during the different stages of the pandemic.

In total, 793,947 posts were collected from Zhihu, a Chinese Question and Answer website, and Dingxiangyuan, a Chinese online healthcare community, from 31 December, 2019, to 4 August, 2021. Topics were extracted during the prodromal and outbreak stages, and in the abatement–resurgence cycle.

Netizens' concerns varied in different stages. During the prodromal and outbreak stages, netizens showed greater concern about COVID-19 news, the impact of COVID-19 and the prevention and control of COVID-19. During the first round of the abatement and resurgence stage, netizens remained concerned about COVID-19 news and the prevention and control of the pandemic, however, less attention was paid to the impact of COVID-19. During later stages, popularity grew in topics concerning the impact of COVID-19, while netizens engaged more in discussions about international events and the raising of spirits to fight the global pandemic.

This study contributes to the practice by providing a way for the government and policy makers to retrospect the pandemic and thereby make a good preparation to take proper measures to communicate with citizens and address their demands in similar situations in the future.

This study contributes to the literature by applying an adapted version of Fink's (1986) crisis life cycle to create a five-stage evolution model to understand the repeated resurgence of COVID-19 in Mainland China.

This paper aims to discuss innovations in the training and development practices of companies and delineate a new approach to training and development in the context of the hybrid workplace using the ADDIE and Kirkpatrick training models.

This paper discusses innovations in training and development in modern times and builds on the instructional training design approach or the ADDIE Model and the Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation.

The paper presents new approaches to training and development in the context of the hybrid work model applying the ADDIE Model and the Kirkpatrick Model. These new approaches are both necessitated and also made possible due to the technological advancements of modern times.

With the rapid transition of companies to the hybrid model of work in recent times, several human resource management practices need to be transformed to suit the requirements of the new work model. Training and development is one function that needs to change in the hybrid work model to ensure its effectiveness. This paper analyses innovations in the training and development practices of companies and discusses new approaches while applying existing training models, the ADDIE and Kirkpatrick Models, to adapt to the changes associated with the hybrid work model.

The construction industry is widely recognized as one of the most hazardous sectors in the world. Despite extensive research on safety management, a critical issue remains that insufficient attention is devoted to safety practices in rural areas. Notably, accidents frequently occur during the construction of rural self-built houses (RSH) in China. Safety management tends to be overlooked due to the perceived simplicity of the construction process. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge that China currently lacks comprehensive laws and regulations governing safety management in RSH construction. This paper aims to analyze the behavior of key stakeholders (including households, workmen, rural village committee and the government) and propose recommendations to mitigate safety risks associated with RSH construction.

This paper applies evolutionary game theory to analyze the symbiotic evolution among households, workmen and rural village committee, in situations with or without government participation. Additionally, numerical simulation is utilized to examine the outcomes of various strategies implemented by the government.

Without government participation, households, workmen, and rural village committee tend to prioritize maximizing apparent benefits, often overlooking the potential safety risks. Numerical simulations reveal that while government involvement can guide these parties towards safer decisions, achieving the desired outcomes necessitates the adoption of reasonable and effective strategies. Thus, the government needs to offer targeted subsidies to these stakeholders.

Considering that during the construction phase, stakeholders are the main administrators accountable for safety management. However, there exists insufficient research examining the impact of stakeholder behavior on RSH construction safety. This study aims to analyze the behavior of stakeholders about how to reduce the safety risks in building RSH. Thus, the authors intend to contribute to knowledge in this area by establishing evolutionary game model. Firstly, this study carried out a theoretical by using tripartite evolutionary game to reveal the reasons for the high safety risk during building RSH. Practically, this research points out the important role of households, workmen and rural village committee in improving safety management in rural areas. Besides, some suggestions are proposed to the government about how to reduce construction safety risks in rural areas.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a research protocol for an initial investigation into the efficacy of an early-development gamified intervention (“Wellbeing Town”) designed with potential end-users with the aim of improving adult wellbeing. Rationale for the proposed research is discussed along with a summary of the planned methodological approach.

Preliminary evaluation of “Wellbeing Town” is proposed to begin using a quasi-experiment, pre- vs post-intervention repeated-measures design with follow-up. Evaluation of changes in self-reported wellbeing will be supplemented with an investigation into the extent of self-directed play between post-intervention and follow-up, and its implications for follow-up outcome.

As this paper represents a protocol for future evaluation, no data is reported presently. The authors present the protocol for data analysis.

Once concluded, this study represents an initial evaluation of a gamified tool for adult wellbeing designed in conjunction with potential end-users. Should the game elicit significant improvements to wellbeing when played, proposals for further evaluation and possible future scalability are presented.

There is widespread debate about the nationalistic top-down approach of citizenship education. By using the notion of cultural citizenship as a useful theoretical lens, citizenship education research tends to focus on the process of subjectivity construction among students’ citizenship learning process. The Communist Party of China plays a dominant role in cultivating citizens in the form of ideological and political education (IaPE) in Chinese universities. The research problem thus focuses on the dynamics and complexity of how Chinese university students construct their subjectivities regarding citizenship learning through IaPE. The main purpose of the study is to provide some research directions for understanding students’ citizenship learning today.

With the case study of one university in China and interview data from 25 students, this paper examines the ways in which students understand and respond to dominant discourses.

The findings revealed there is a deficit of citizenship learning in IaPE, and students felt ideologically pressurized. This study suggests students’ complex subjectivities of active participants but confused minds as a phenomenon in Chinese higher education, in which they must involve in IaPE for personal academic and career development, while they adopted covert strategies for self-conscious citizenship learning expectations. These strategies took the form ranging from obediently completing basic curriculum requirements and distancing away by studying abroad, to actively searching for learning opportunities from other courses and media society.

This paper contributes to citizenship education research by recognizing the complexities of how subjectivities are formed in formal university settings.

The research paper examines the complex relationship between gamification, student engagement and academic performance in educational environments. The study employed a structural equation model that highlights important connections among key constructs within the educational setting.

This research aims to explore the connection between gamification, student engagement and academic performance in educational settings. The study employs various statistical techniques such as factor analysis, Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO), Bartlett’s test, component transformation matrix, correlation and regression analysis, descriptive statistics, ANOVA, coefficients and coefficient correlations, residual statistics and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to analyze the data.

It was found that active participation by the instructor and good time management skills have a positive impact on student engagement levels (β = 0.380, p < 0.001; β = 0.433 and p < 0.001). However, peer interaction does not significantly predict student engagement (β = −0.068 and p = 0.352). Additionally, there is a positive correlation between student engagement and performance (β = 0.280 and p < 0.001).

The study highlights the importance of innovative design to fully utilize gamification. Future research should consider design, user characteristics and educational context. The findings can guide informed decisions about gamification in education, fostering motivation and learning objectives.

The study presents a reliable tool for assessing student engagement and performance in educational settings, demonstrating high Cronbach’s alpha and robust reliability. It identifies student engagement and time management as significant predictors of Global Learning Outcome. The findings can inform decisions on implementing gamification in educational settings, promoting intrinsic motivation and aligning with learning objectives.

The research highlights the transformative impact of gamification on educational practices, highlighting its potential to enhance student experiences, motivate, promote diversity and improve long-term academic performance, highlighting the trend of integrating technology into education.

In today’s ever-changing education landscape, it is essential to incorporate innovative techniques to keep students engaged and enthusiastic about learning. Gamification is one such approach that has become increasingly popular. It is a concept that takes inspiration from the immersive world of games to enhance the overall learning experience.