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Research dealing with earnings management in the public-sector context is expanding. This paper aims to review the existing literature to understand how research is developing and points out gaps deserving further investigation.

This study uses the structured literature methodology to investigate the state-of-the-art and future directions of the literature on earnings management in the public sector. In total, 78 articles were explored.

The critical analysis of the literature shows that different but related streams of literature are emerging, focused on both a macro- and a micro-level perspective (mainly local governments and state-owned enterprises).

This study is the first that offers a comprehensive review of the literature on the emerging topic of earnings management in the public-sector context. The structured literature review enables the identification of future directions for the literature in this field.

The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) in developing countries seems to be stuck in a pattern of successive pilot studies that struggle for mainstream implementation. This study addresses the research question: what existing health-related structures, properties and practices are presented by rural areas of developing countries that might inhibit the implementation of mHealth initiatives?

This study was conducted using a socio-material approach, based on an exploratory case study in West Africa. Interviews and participant observation were used to gather data. A thematic analysis identified important social and material agencies, practices and imbrications which may limit the effectiveness of mHealth apps in the region.

Findings show that, while urban healthcare is highly structured, best practice-led, rural healthcare relies on peer-based knowledge sharing, and community support. This has implications for the enacted materiality of mobile technologies. While urban actors see mHealth as a tool for automation and the enforcement of responsible healthcare best practice, rural actors see mHealth as a tool for greater interconnectivity and independent, decentralised care.

This study has two significant limitations. First, the study focussed on a region where technology-enabled guideline-driven treatment is the main mHealth concern. Second, consistent with the exploratory nature of this study, the qualitative methodology and the single-case design, the study makes no claim to statistical generalisability.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a socio-material view that considers existing structures and practices that may influence the widespread adoption and assimilation of a new mHealth app. This helps identify contextual challenges that are limiting the potential of mHealth to improve outcomes in rural areas of developing countries.

This paper aims to inform the promotion of sustainable modes of transport. For this purpose, it deploys a means-ends framework as a type of second-order cybernetics and uses it to explore cognitive transport mode choice structures.

The empirical study relies on a purposive sample and a qualitative research methodology known as laddering. It is aimed at the identification and comparative analysis of the cognitive means-ends structures of transport users.

The results reveal more positive and complex associations for the car than for public transport. Two main positive means-ends structures are identified for public transport, one related with the relaxation and the other with doing useful things while travelling. Dominant positive structures for the car are related with self-confidence, satisfaction and personal freedom. Negative means-ends structures in addition reveal important justifications and rationalizations for car use.

Based on the identified distinct means-ends elements and structures, this study holds important implications for developing a communications strategy and policy interventions seeking to promote public transport.

Means-ends theory is proposed as an integrative cybernetic framework for the study of stakeholders’ (customers’) mental models. The empirical study is the first to concurrently and comparatively examine positive and negative means-ends chains for the car and for the public transport modes.

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.

Katipuneros RPG: Bisperas ng Himagsikan (Katipuneros RPG: The Eve of the Revolution) is an immersive and gamified theater that engages its “audiences” in the initiation rites of a secret revolutionary movement in the Philippines in 1896. This descriptive qualitative research evaluates such experiential approach to learning history by investigating the experiences and insights of a group of students from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), who participated in Katipuneros RPG.

Textual data obtained from the participants' reflection papers and focus group discussion transcripts were analyzed using open and axial coding.

Three key themes summarized the participants' learning experiences as they went through the play, as follows: (1) Katipuneros RPG as an immersive, interactive and intrinsically motivating medium for learning history; (2) the knowledge, values and skills that served as facilitating factors for their learning and (3) the insights the participants gained about history and life in general.

The research argues that in Katipuneros RPG, learners take on a more active role in studying history as the “teacher” vanishes in lieu of a learning system the allows students to think critically, reflect and collaborate. The approach integrates elements of development theater, immersive play and gamified learning, as well as the principles of constructivist, play-based and multi-sensorial learning.

As an innovative learning tool, it is a viable medium to teach history in the current socio-political context of the Philippines.

The study hopes to contribute to literature on pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning history through immersive environments.

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the gradient discretisation method (GDM) to a system of reaction diffusion equations subject to non-homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Then, the authors show that the GDM provides a comprehensive convergence analysis of several numerical methods for the considered model. The convergence is established without non-physical regularity assumptions on the solutions.

In this paper, the authors use the GDM to discretise a system of reaction diffusion equations with non-homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions.

The authors provide a generic convergence analysis of a system of reaction diffusion equations. The authors introduce a specific example of numerical scheme that fits in the gradient discretisation method. The authors conduct a numerical test to measure the efficiency of the proposed method.

This work provides a unified convergence analysis of several numerical methods for a system of reaction diffusion equations. The generic convergence is proved under the classical assumptions on the solutions.

An appropriate equivalent model is the key to the effective analysis of the system and structure in which permanent magnet takes part. At present, there are several equivalent models for calculating the interacting magnetic force between permanent magnets including magnetizing current, magnetic charge and magnetic dipole–dipole model. How to choose the most appropriate and efficient model still needs further discussion.

This paper chooses cuboid, cylindrical and spherical permanent magnets as calculating objects to investigate the detailed calculation procedures based on three equivalent models, magnetizing current, magnetic charge and magnetic dipole–dipole model. By comparing the accuracies of those models with experiment measurement, the applicability of three equivalent models for describing permanent magnets with different shapes is analyzed.

Similar calculation accuracies of the equivalent magnetizing current model and magnetic charge model are verified by comparison between simulation and experiment results. However, the magnetic dipole–dipole model can only accurately calculate for spherical magnet instead of other nonellipsoid magnets, because dipole model cannot describe the specific characteristics of magnet's shape, only sphere can be treated as the topological form of a dipole, namely a filled dot.

This work provides reference basis for choosing a proper model to calculate magnetic force in the design of electromechanical structures with permanent magnets. The applicability of different equivalent models describing permanent magnets with different shapes is discussed and the equivalence between the models is also analyzed.

The advance in higher education in Asian countries is of major interest because it reveals increasing global political and cultural influence in recent years. The review explores the characteristics of publications from 2013–2018 concerned with the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. The study aims to analyse the current trajectory, including the size, growth trends, and regional networking of this domain, with a goal of identifying the influential journals, authors, and documents, as well exploring the thematic structure and topical issues and trends of this domain.

241 Scopus-indexed documents were selected and reviewed using a quantitative descriptive way. These documents were analysed by VOS viewer software.

The results show the most topical issues and trends concern about “Asian immigration and mobility”, “transnational education”, “international students and acculturation”, and “international branch campuses”. Seven main schools of thought were identified and are clearly explained herein, which provides a baseline for future research for new scholars.

The present study suggests that trans-regional cooperation is the future of internationalisation in higher education. Asian scholars are recommended to increase cooperation and exchanges with each other, expand channels of contact, further understand and optimise their own advantages, achieve win-win cooperation and make Asia's voice heard in the world in higher education field.

This bibliometric review can predict the main trends in higher education internationalisation in the future and encourage implication of interdisciplinary research in higher education internationalisation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how previous literature has analyzed the role of augmented reality and virtual reality in the field of tourism, distinguishing between studies focused on one technology or the other as both have characteristics that profoundly differentiate them.

This study carries out a critical review to assess and synthesize the literature on augmented reality and virtual reality in tourism. Literature searches are conducted using various keywords, resulting in a selection of 84 articles (19 on augmented reality and 65 on virtual reality) from 39 indexed journals.

The research findings demonstrate an increasing scholarly focus on exploring the application of virtual reality and augmented reality within the realm of tourism. These results highlight a noticeable progression in recent years with respect to different matters, such as methodologies, used theories or considered variables, among others. Based on these results, it is proposed a future research agenda that seeks to establish a cohesive framework and drive the development of both augmented reality and virtual reality research in tourism.

By conducting an individual and comparative review of the literature on the application of augmented reality and virtual reality in tourism, this research helps elucidate the specific lines of research for each technology while providing a better understanding of how each technology can be used to generate effective tourist experiences.

El objetivo de este artículo es investigar cómo la literatura previa ha analizado el papel de la realidad aumentada y la realidad virtual en el ámbito del turismo, distinguiendo entre estudios centrados en una u otra tecnología ya que ambas tienen características que las diferencian profundamente.

Este estudio realiza una revisión crítica para evaluar y sintetizar la literatura sobre realidad aumentada y realidad virtual en turismo. Se realizan búsquedas de literatura utilizando diversas palabras clave, que dan como resultado la selección de 84 artículos (19 sobre realidad aumentada y 65 sobre realidad virtual) procedentes de 39 revistas indexadas.

Los resultados de la investigación demuestran que existe un interés creciente en explorar la aplicación de la realidad virtual y la realidad aumentada en el ámbito del turismo. Asimismo, se pone de manifiesto una notable progresión en los últimos años con respecto a diferentes cuestiones, como las metodologías aplicadas, las teorías empleadas o las variables consideradas, entre otras. A partir de estos resultados, se propone una agenda de investigación futura que pretende establecer un marco cohesionado e impulsar el desarrollo de la investigación en el ámbito tanto de la realidad aumentada como de la realidad virtual en turismo.

Al realizar una revisión individual y comparativa de la literatura sobre la aplicación de la realidad aumentada y la realidad virtual en el turismo, esta investigación ayuda a esclarecer las líneas de investigación específicas de cada tecnología a la vez que proporciona una mejor comprensión de cómo cada tecnología puede ser utilizada para generar experiencias turísticas efectivas.

本文旨在研究以往的文献是如何分析增强现实和虚拟现实在旅游领域的作用的, 并对侧重于其中一种技术或另一种技术的研究加以区分, 因为这两种技术都有深刻区别于其他技术的特点。

本研究通过批判性综述来评估和归纳有关旅游业中增强现实和虚拟现实技术的文献。通过使用各种关键词进行文献检索, 从 39 种索引期刊中筛选出 84 篇文章（19 篇关于增强现实技术, 65 篇关于虚拟现实技术）。

研究结果表明, 学术界越来越重视探索虚拟现实和增强现实在旅游业中的应用。这些结果突显了近年来在方法论、采用的理论或考虑的变量等不同方面的明显进步。在这些成果的基础上, 提出了未来的研究议程, 旨在建立一个具有凝聚力的框架, 推动旅游业中增强现实和虚拟现实研究的发展。

本研究通过对增强现实和虚拟现实技术在旅游业中应用的文献进行单独和比较审查, 有助于阐明每种技术的具体研究方向, 同时让人们更好地了解如何使用每种技术来产生有效的旅游体验。

This paper examines the relationship between poison pills, real earnings management and initial public offering (IPO) failure.

The authors sampled 2,997 IPO firms that went public during 1993-2015.

The authors find that IPO firms manipulate earnings upward using real earnings management. The authors also find that IPO firms exhibiting a higher level of real earnings management have a higher probability of IPO failure. In addition, the authors find that weak shareholders' governance is positively associated with IPO failure.

These results suggest that poor governance structures in failed firms open the door to manipulating real activities and increasing operational risk.

The study findings are of most significant interest to potential investors and other stakeholders affiliated with a firm going public, an auditor, an underwriter, the lawyers who consult with the firm and employees or executives who might consider joining that firm.