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Article
Publication date: 30 October 2023

Sally Helen Stone and Laura Sanderson

This paper considers the exhibition: UnDoing. This research-through-curation project examined interactions within existing spaces and situations. This established links between…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper considers the exhibition: UnDoing. This research-through-curation project examined interactions within existing spaces and situations. This established links between the selected exhibits, the gallery, the city and with the continuum of the previous exhibition.

Design/methodology/approach

Carefully selected architects, designers and artists were invited to contribute—those who pursued a contextual approach; whose practice explored the way buildings, places and artefacts are reused, reinterpreted and remembered.

Findings

Through the act of curation, this research uncovered a series of different approaches to constructed sites and existing buildings, from layered juxtaposition, the refusal to undo, to interventions of new elements within architectural works.

Research limitations/implications

Curation offered the opportunity to consider works of architecture and of art through the same lens, for direct comparisons to be made and the influence of one upon the other to be comprehended.

Practical implications

The examination processes the architect employs is similar to that of the artist; the development of an understanding of place, and from this synthesis, creative interpretation. However, despite the similarities in the starting position, the elucidation developed by the artist can be vastly different to that of the architect.

Social implications

The juxtaposition and new classifications created by the exhibition encouraged visitors to look at art, architecture and the city in a different way; to grasp the direct link between the different subjects; and the possibilities created.

Originality/value

The two driving factors for UnDoing were places of previous occupation and the city of Manchester. The qualities of surrounding constructed environment combined were combined with attitudes towards existing structures and places.

Details

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 June 2023

Paolo Saona, Laura Muro, Pablo San Martín and Ryan McWay

This study aims to investigate how gender diversity and remuneration of boards of directors’ influence earnings quality for Spanish-listed firms.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how gender diversity and remuneration of boards of directors’ influence earnings quality for Spanish-listed firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample includes 105 nonfinancial Spanish firms from 2013 to 2018, corresponding to an unbalanced panel of 491 firm-year observations. The primary empirical method uses a Tobit semiparametric estimator with firm- and industry-level fixed effects and an innovative set of measures for earnings quality developed by StarMine.

Findings

Results exhibit a positive correlation between increased gender diversity and a firm’s earnings quality, suggesting that a gender-balanced board of directors is associated with more transparent financial reporting and informative earnings. We also find a nonmonotonic, concave relationship between board remuneration and earnings quality. This indicates that beyond a certain point, excessive board compensation leads to more opportunistic manipulation of financial reporting with subsequent degradation of earnings quality.

Research limitations/implications

This study only covers nonfinancial Spanish listed firms and is silent about how alternative board features’ influence earnings quality and their informativeness.

Originality/value

This study introduces measures of earnings quality developed by StarMine that have not been used in the empirical literature before as well as measures of board gender diversity applied to a suitable Tobit semiparametric estimator for fixed effects that improves the precision of results. In addition, while most of the literature focuses on Anglo-Saxon countries, this study discusses board gender diversity and board remuneration in the underexplored context of Spain. Moreover, the hand-collected data set comprising financial reports provides previously untested board features as well as a nonlinear relationship between remuneration and earnings quality that has not been thoroughly discussed before.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 January 2024

Débora Domingo-Calabuig, Javier Rivera-Linares, Laura Lizondo-Sevilla and José Luis Alapont-Ramón

City planning and construction have embraced circular economy principles, converting them into various indicators. Particularly in the European context, the question “what…

Abstract

Purpose

City planning and construction have embraced circular economy principles, converting them into various indicators. Particularly in the European context, the question “what architecture for circularity?” is answered with policies focusing on techniques, materials and disassembling construction. This paper analyzes a new approach to sustainable design and explores the concept of Km0 architecture. The objective is to demonstrate the design strategies of a contemporary architecture based on local resources and knowledge, an architecture that works with the shortest possible loop in circularity, i.e. with the cycle that consumes the least amount of energy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents two ways of understanding sustainability in architecture: the first as a result of policies and the second associated with the design and innovative-based New European Bauhaus initiative. Within the scope of this last understanding, the authors analyze three cases on the Spanish Mediterranean coast that have recently received media attention and prominence. The selection responds to a specific climate adaption through a certain typological and functional diversity of the works.

Findings

The studied cases exhibit a more equitable and cost-effective circularity based on the time factor, have long life-cycle designs and serve as repositories of cultural identity. Km0 architecture reduces emissions using local resources and mitigates environmental conditions by combining traditional and modern design strategies.

Originality/value

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the local understandings of the built environment that would ensure a more fair and inclusive European green transformation.

Details

Open House International, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 September 2023

Hazel Easthope, Laura Crommelin, Charles Gillon, Simon Pinnegar, Kristian Ruming and Sha Liu

High-density development requires large land parcels, but fragmented land ownership can impede redevelopment. While earlier compact city development in Sydney occurred on…

Abstract

Purpose

High-density development requires large land parcels, but fragmented land ownership can impede redevelopment. While earlier compact city development in Sydney occurred on large-scale brownfield sites, redeveloping and re-amalgamating older strata-titled properties is now integral to further densification. The purpose of this study is to examine collective sales activity in one Sydney suburb where multiple strata-titled redevelopments and re-amalgamations have been attempted. The authors explore how owners navigate the process of selling collectively, focusing on their experience of legislation introduced to facilitate this process, the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 [New South Wales (NSW)].

Design/methodology/approach

By reviewing sales listings, development applications and media coverage, and interviewing owners, lawyers and estate agents, the authors map out collective sale activity in a case study area in Sydney’s northwest.

Findings

Strata collective sales are slow and difficult to complete, even when planning and market drivers align. Owners find the Strata Scheme Development Act 2015 (NSW) difficult to navigate and it has not prevented strategic blocking attempts by competing developers. The long timelines required to organise collective sales can result in failure if the market shifts in the interim. Nonetheless, owners remain interested in selling collectively.

Originality/value

This case study is important for understanding the barriers to redevelopment to achieve a more compact city. It highlights lessons for other jurisdictions considering similar legislative changes. It also suggests that legislative change alone is insufficient to resolve the planning challenges created by hyper-fragmentation of land through strata-title development.

Details

Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9407

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 April 2022

Hung Duy Nguyen and Laura Macchion

Risks in implementing green building (GB) projects have emerged as a significant obstacle for GB development, especially in developing countries. In recent years, both academics…

2222

Abstract

Purpose

Risks in implementing green building (GB) projects have emerged as a significant obstacle for GB development, especially in developing countries. In recent years, both academics and construction practitioners have paid considerable attention to the risks associated with GB. In this study, the authors aimed to create a comprehensive risk assessment model that considers three crucial risk features: impact level, probability of occurrence and risk manageability.

Design/methodology/approach

In the research, authors adopted the mean scoring and fuzzy synthetic evaluation method to assess GB risks. Based on expert assessments, this model can determine the significance of risk factors, risk groups and overall risk. Notably, this research applied the proposed model to assess GB risks in Vietnam by surveying 58 GB experienced professionals.

Findings

The findings revealed that GB risks are relatively high in Vietnam, implying that risk management is essential for GB projects to succeed. The results also showed that “lack of experience of GB designers” is the most critical factor, and “human resources risk in the design phase” is the top crucial risk group.

Originality/value

This study contributes a novel and practical model to help practitioners assess risks in GB projects. In addition, this research offers detailed GB risk evaluations in Vietnam and thus could be a valuable reference for construction practitioners and future studies.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2024

Laura Lamb

This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this behavior has changed over time.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from Statistics Canada’s Surveys of Financial Security, probit models are used to examine the sociodemographic and financial indicators associated with payday loan use.

Findings

The analysis uncovers the sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan-user households with access to lower-cost short-term loans. The findings indicate that the likelihood of payday loan use has risen over time. Additional analysis reveals that indicators of financial instability are positively associated with payday loan use among this group.

Research limitations/implications

This research highlights the dichotomy of payday loan users and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

Practical implications

This research highlights the distinguishing sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan user households and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

Originality/value

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to focus analysis on payday loan use of those with access to lower-cost short-term credit alternatives in Canada and to include measures of financial instability in the analysis. This research is timely given the current economic environment of high interest rates and high levels of household debt.

Details

Journal of Financial Economic Policy, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-6385

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2023

Laura Korhonen and Erica Mattelin

The population of internationally forcibly displaced people, which includes refugees and asylum seekers, is large and heterogeneous. To determine the varying reasons for and…

Abstract

The population of internationally forcibly displaced people, which includes refugees and asylum seekers, is large and heterogeneous. To determine the varying reasons for and experiences during the migration journey, including exposure to violence and health- and integration-related needs, there is an urgent need to involve children with refugee backgrounds in research and development activities. This chapter describes a model for the child participatory approach developed at Barnafrid, a national competence centre on violence against children at Linköping University in Sweden. The model has been tested in the Long Journey to Shelter study, which investigated exposure to violence and its consequences on mental health and functional ability among forcibly displaced children and young adults. As part of this project, we conducted workshops with children (n = 36, aged 13–18 years) to design a questionnaire on exposure to community violence in the country of resettlement. Experiences recounted during the child participatory workshops indicated no problems involving newly arrived children with refugee backgrounds and Swedish-born adolescents in research activities. However, attention should be paid to proper preparatory work and the need for adjustments. We discuss the results in light of other studies on refugee child participation, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and diversity considerations.

Details

Participatory Research on Child Maltreatment with Children and Adult Survivors
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-529-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 August 2023

E.E. Lawrence

Librarianship’s dominant conception of the freedom to read is governed by a liberal principle of noninterference, wherein free readers are those who face no intentional…

Abstract

Purpose

Librarianship’s dominant conception of the freedom to read is governed by a liberal principle of noninterference, wherein free readers are those who face no intentional intervention in their choice of materials. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how this account fails to adequately capture systemic threats that impoverish people’s reading lives.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper deploys informal argumentation to expose a flaw in the dominant account of the freedom to read. The author uses a case study of comparative titles or comps, an editorial decision-making and justificatory convention that reproduces racial inequality in Anglophone trade publishing.

Findings

Comps present one example of how everyday norms and practices of literary production render people’s reading lives pervasively unfree, even absent some intent to interfere in them. The going account of the freedom to read calls, at best, for a greater diversity of book-commodities from which consumers may choose. However, the comp case suggests that this distributive remedy will be insufficient without relevant changes to the institutional arrangements that condition readers' choices in the first place.

Originality/value

This paper draws together insights from Library and Information Science, political philosophy and print culture studies to illuminate limitations in librarianship’s standard conception of the freedom to read. This reveals the need for an alternative, structural account of that freedom with significant implications for practice.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 80 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 April 2024

Laura Hoekx, Frank Lambrechts and Pieter Vandekerkhof

This study aims to unravel a potential determinant of employee engagement in family firms. In particular, we focus on the role of the CEO by studying the influence of CEO…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to unravel a potential determinant of employee engagement in family firms. In particular, we focus on the role of the CEO by studying the influence of CEO transformational leadership on employee engagement. Moreover, we look into the potential mediating psychological safety might play in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an extensive literature review, we propose that there will be a significant positive relationship between family firm CEOs’ transformational leadership and the level of employee engagement. We argue that psychological safety will serve as an underlying mechanism explaining this positive relationship. We empirically tested our research model using quantitative data collected through a questionnaire, completed by 508 employees from Belgian family firms.

Findings

The results confirm the positive relationship between CEOs’ transformational leadership and employee engagement. Moreover, these results show that the degree of psychological safety mediates this relationship.

Originality/value

This study forms a significant contribution to family firm literature. Until now, even though existing studies on employee engagement in general are numerous, we had little to no knowledge of the factors influencing employee engagement taking into account the unique context of family firms. With this study, we take an important step in this matter. In addition, this study also contributes to the general literature on employee engagement, since previous studies on the impact of leadership on employee engagement tended to focus on the role of the immediate supervisors and not the CEO.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Laura L. Lemon and Matthew S. VanDyke

The purpose of this research was to understand the role of interdisciplinarity in research and how communication structures and processes at universities facilitates such work.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to understand the role of interdisciplinarity in research and how communication structures and processes at universities facilitates such work.

Design/methodology/approach

Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff from US R-1 Carnegie-designated higher education institutions were conducted.

Findings

Institutional culture reportedly drives interdisciplinary research efforts and participants offered different values associated with pursuing interdisciplinary work. Participants also shared formal and informal incentives that motivate their pursuit of interdisciplinary collaborations. Participants seemed to prefer a blended centralized-decentralized approach for the communication function's support of interdisciplinary research efforts.

Originality/value

This research fills a gap in understanding of how organizational capacities, structures and processes support collaborative research work and public communication about such work.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

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