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This paper considers the implications of reform efforts that rely on charter management organizations to assume operational control of underperforming neighborhood schools. The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which changes to the education sector place enormous pressure on these organizations to both manage instruction and their social environments.

The research presents the results from a longitudinal case study of two organizations operating within the Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD). Interviews, observations and document analysis provided insight into the perspectives of school operators, state officials and community leaders. The study design allowed researchers to observe the influence of the environment on school operators over a four-year period.

Results show that the environment that included a muscular state, market pressures, NGOs and local communities placed an extreme and contradictory set of demands on organizations operating schools, pressing them to develop robust systems of instruction, leadership and teacher development while actively working to ensure social legitimacy in the community. Neither a national network nor a small local startup began with a strategy aligned to these environmental demands, and both needed to make substantial revisions.

Research into contemporary educational reform should account for rapidly evolving environments that feature a complex mix of resources and incentives. Careful examination of the consequences of these environments for educational organizations will further our understanding of how markets, communities and governments are shaping the education sector.

The extraordinary challenges that confront organizations that operate in crowded and contested environments preclude fast or dramatic results. Policymakers and the public should assume an incremental process of organizational learning and improvement. Setting unrealistic expectations and focusing exclusively on impact risks delegitimizing organizations and policy initiatives before they have time to adapt.

This research reported here is among the few studies that have explored the experiences and implications of NGOs that have attempted to assume operational control of underperforming neighborhood schools. The popularity of this approach among a growing number of states highlights the importance of this topic.

Partially‐decoupled upwind‐based total‐variation‐diminishing (TVD) finite‐difference schemes for the solution of the conservation laws governing two‐dimensional non‐equilibrium vibrationally relaxing and chemically reacting flows of thermally‐perfect gaseous mixtures are presented. In these methods, a novel partially‐decoupled flux‐difference splitting approach is adopted. The fluid conservation laws and species concentration and vibrational energy equations are decoupled by means of a frozen flow approximation. The resulting partially‐decoupled gas‐dynamic and thermodynamic subsystems are then solved alternately in a lagged manner within a time marching procedure, thereby providing explicit coupling between the two equation sets. Both time‐split semi‐implicit and factored implicit flux‐limited TVD upwind schemes are described. The semi‐implicit formulation is more appropriate for unsteady applications whereas the factored implicit form is useful for obtaining steady‐state solutions. Extensions of Roe's approximate Riemann solvers, giving the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the fully coupled systems, are used to evaluate the numerical flux functions. Additional modifications to the Riemann solutions are also described which ensure that the approximate solutions are not aphysical. The proposed partially‐decoupled methods are shown to have several computational advantages over chemistry‐split and fully coupled techniques. Furthermore, numerical results for single, complex, and double Mach reflection flows, as well as corner‐expansion and blunt‐body flows, using a five‐species four‐temperature model for air demonstrate the capabilities of the methods.

This chapter describes the role of service employees’ motives for emotion regulation in interactions with customers. To date, there has been little research and theoretical work on motives for emotion regulation in service work. The reason for this may lie in the fact that there is an implicit general assumption that employees regulate their emotions in customer interactions because of display rules given by the organization. We argue that service employees have more motives for emotion regulation than adhering to display rules. We propose that three fundamental motive categories which are relevant for general emotion regulation are also relevant in the service work context. Moreover, we argue that the different motive categories are important antecedents for the further emotion regulation process. We propose that depending on the motive category different emotion regulation strategies are used as well as moderating effects of the motives with an impact on the consequences of emotion regulation such as well-being. The chapter concludes by pointing to practical implications.

An observable shift in food consumption motives for some German consumer segments has created new market potentials for high-priced food items. The purpose of this paper is to empirically show whether and to what extent financial, functional, individual and social dimensions as well as sustainability and authenticity contribute to consumers’ perception of the luxury value of food.

The effects of seven exploratory value dimensions on a perceived luxury value for foods were measured using a partial least squares structural equation analysis of a database generated by a survey done on 936 German consumers in summer 2014.

Luxury food was found to serve as a suitable setting to investigate both old and new motives for luxury consumption. The analyses revealed that all factors contribute significantly to luxury value, with functional and individual luxury facets having the strongest effects. Practical and methodological implications can be derived from the results.

Limitations are due to the applied methodology.

The definitional dimensions of a luxury food value correspond to those for a general luxury good. The significance of two new luxury values, sustainability and authenticity, was confirmed for luxury food. The functional and individual luxury values were found to be the most significant. This supports the previously postulated change in motives for luxury consumption and also mirrors the new emphasis on quality and self-identity in the German food sector. These findings can be utilised in practical food marketing.

Although there are major similarities between food and luxury good consumption patterns, how luxury can be defined in the context of food had not been previously investigated empirically. This paper is the first to study the factors that contribute to the luxury value of food.

For western companies pursuing, or considering pursuing competitive strategy through Keiretsus recent indications from Japan of problems between Keiretsu partners will provide food for thought.

People who experience mental illness often demonstrate limited help-seeking behaviours. There is evidence to suggest that media content can influence negative attitudes towards mental illness; less is known about how media impacts help-seeking behaviours. The purpose of this study is to identify if media plays a role in people’s decisions to seek help for their mental health.

The databases Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, Social Sciences Full Text [H.W. Wilson] and Soc Index were systemically searched for papers in the English language that investigated the link between media and help-seeking for mental illness.

Sixteen studies met eligibility criteria. There was some evidence to suggest that various forms of media – including video and online resources – can positively influence help-seeking for mental health. Print media had some limited effect on help-seeking behaviours but was weaker in comparison to other forms of media. There was no evidence to suggest that media discourages people from seeking help.

This review identified that, given the heterogeneity of the included papers, and the limited evidence available, there is a need for more focused research to determine how media impacts mental health-related help-seeking behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how information professionals in Scotland and in European national libraries perceive linked data (LD) as well as if and how they are implementing it.

The authors applied four data collection techniques: a literature review, semi-structured interviews (n=15), online resources analysis (n=26) and an online survey (n=113). They used constant comparative analysis to identify perceived benefits and challenges of LD implementation, reasons behind adoption or non-adoption of LD and the issues hindering its implementation in libraries.

Some projects demonstrate LD’s potential to augment the visibility and discoverability of library data, alongside with overcoming linguistic barriers, and supporting interoperability. However, a strong need remains to demonstrate the Semantic Web’s potential within libraries. Participants identified lack of expertise and lack of resources/time/staff as implementation barriers. Several other issues remain unsolved, such as licensing constraints, as well as difficulties with obtaining management buy-in for LD initiatives, even where open data are government-mandated.

Information professionals and vendors should collaborate to develop tools for implementation. Advocacy through disseminating and reviewing successful implementations can help to solve practical difficulties and to obtain management buy-in.

This is the first known study to present a multinational, comprehensive picture of library LD implementations and associated librarians’ perceptions of LD.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the special issue theme by exploring customer response to automated relationship management tactics on social media channels.

A total of 17 in-depth interviews of young adults, ranging from the age of 19 to 26, were conducted. From this, customer journey maps were compiled incorporating socialbots as a valuable touch point along the service delivery cycle.

The research frames the socialbot as a valued customer service agent to young adults with some favouring this over telephone and email communication methods. Younger consumers respond positively to the quick resolution offered by the socialbot mechanism with most acknowledging that the bot is only able to manage simplified requests. Human-to-human customer relationship management is preferential when the query reaches critical mass.

Socialbots on Facebook Messenger provided the research context for this study; therefore, other platforms and owned website bots should be considered in future studies.

This research identifies the younger generation as a key target market for the development of customer service-related bots.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the socialbot as an automated touch point in the customer journey and contributes knowledge to the growing body of literature focussed on artificial intelligence in customer service. Moreover, it provides valuable qualitative insights into how socialbots influence the customer experience and related outcome measures.

This paper seeks to provide perspectives of HR practitioners based on their experiences with mergers, acquisitions, and/or downsizings.

This qualitative study utilized interviews with 13 HR practitioners. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method.

HR practitioners were not involved in planning decisions related to downsizings, mergers, and/or acquisition. Neither the practitioners in this study nor other members of the HR team in their organizations had an upfront due diligence role in these change initiatives.

Additional research is needed to guide HRD practitioners in repositioning their roles so that they are more central to an organization's strategic decisions. Given the method of this study, the findings are not intended for generalization to larger populations. Future research should address the needs of HRD practitioners who are affected by downsizings, mergers, and/or acquisitions.

The primary role of HR practitioners need to be more than transitional activities after these change events are announced. Rather, these practitioners need opportunities during the planning stages to ensure that training and development supports the financial goals of these change events. After these change events occur, HRD practitioners need support for interventions to counter the impact of dismissed cultural artifacts and broken human links.

Study participants explained that failure to identify employee issues in the pre‐downsizing due diligence phase creates a chaotic workplace atmosphere and increases employee fears and stress levels. Participants explained how these change events affect career uncertainty, fear, and stress in employees.