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While mention of his work is occasionally referred to in journals, readings, production and operations management and total quality management textbooks, there does not seem to be as much notoriety given to the contributions of Armand V. Feigenbaum as has been given the efforts of others to improvements in quality thinking and techniques in this and other countries. This paper explores some of his contributions, especially those which derive from his managerial years with the General Electric Company and his influence on the work of others of the “founders” of the total quality management movement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the competition between accounting sustainability assurance providers (ASAPs) and non-accounting sustainability assurance providers (NASAPs), and how this competition influences the institutionalization of the evolving field of sustainability assurance.

An interpretivist research methodology, guided by an institutional work perspective, is used to analyze interviews with 15 SAPs and 35 sustainability reporting managers (SRMs) in Australia and New Zealand.

ASAPs prefer to use International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (ISAE3000), because it is well recognized in the profession, adheres to ASAPs’ regulatory requirements, and mirrors their financial audit methodologies. This preference influences ASAPs’ institutional work as they compete against NASAPs and how they institutionalize sustainability assurance. ASAPs’ institutional works include presenting sustainability assurance as similar to a financial audit, arguing in support of a single provider for financial audits and sustainability assurance, and undermining NASAPs and their preferred sustainability assurance standard, AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS), by appealing to senior management. In comparison, NASAPs promote AA1000AS as a specialist standard among SRMs, emphasizing the standard’s sustainability enhancing qualities and its flexibility, while discrediting ASAPs and ISAE3000 as out of touch with sustainability objectives.

A new conceptual model is constructed that can be used in institutional work research.

The accounting profession is encouraged to consider more flexible, innovative methods in new assurance markets. This involves using new assurance standards as well as developing specialist standards for new forms of assurance. Regulation over sustainability assurance could be helpful, but regulators should be careful not to stifle competition in this evolving field.

This paper examines how competition between ASAPs and NASAPs influences the institutionalization of sustainability assurance. The paper offers a new model for the analysis of institutional work, which could be used by researchers, new insights into the emerging field of sustainability assurance, as well as a figure and discussion that clarifies the broader implications of the findings.

Women are underrepresented in most university entrepreneurship education (EE) programmes and less likely than men to pursue business venturing as a career. One reason may be the “entrepreneurial identity gap”, whereby female students do not see themselves as successful entrepreneurs. This paper aims to explore the nature of this identity gap and its relationship to entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurship education.

A set of contemporary, gender-inclusive entrepreneurial attributes was developed using entrepreneurial subject matter experts and tested with 591 university students to explore the nature of the gendered entrepreneurial identity gap.

While masculine stereotypes persist and the entrepreneurial identity gap is larger for female students, results suggest that a more gender-inclusive vocabulary of entrepreneurship is emerging among the student population and an androgynous perception of the idealized entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship education had a positive influence on entrepreneurial intent.

Study findings advance the conversation about entrepreneurial identity, the nature of the gendered identity gap and the role of education in closing that gap. The questionnaire and set of gender-inclusive attributes should continue to be tested beyond student samples.

Based on this study, entrepreneurship education could benefit from more gender-inclusive instructional practices and vocabulary and a broadened definition of what it means to be entrepreneurial. More students – both men and women – will see themselves as entrepreneurs and be inspired to participate in the innovation economy.

This study takes a novel approach to the study of entrepreneurial identity, developing a new set of attributes and contemporary vocabulary around business venturing.

State and local public pension plans cover a significant number of workers and represent a major component of the nation's retirement system. This study examined the size‐administrative cost relationship of public pension plans to ascertain whether cost savings can be realized by increasing pension plan size. The results indicated that while the consolidation of smaller plans will generate administrative cost savings, the consolidation of larger plans will generate savings only up to an optimal membership size at which point cost savings will end. In addition, optimal size was found to differ for active and beneficiary members indicating that membership composition needs to be considered when assessing the potential for cost savings.

This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA). The objectives are as follows: provide an overview of academic research; understand the nature of NFI assurance engagements by organising the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement; develop a framework for understanding NFI assurance; and provide directions for future research.

The study undertakes a structured literature review of 179 articles published from 1999 to 2023.

The review identified 324 researchers located in 35 different countries who published 179 articles on SRA and IRA. The researchers, their locations, journals, methods, theories and themes are examined. The literature is structured around the definition of an assurance engagement including a tripartite arrangement, subject matter, a suitable criterion, sufficient appropriate evidence and a written assurance report. A framework for understanding NFI assurance is offered. Avenues for future research, structured around the five elements of an assurance engagement, are presented.

Researchers will benefit from an overview of the literature and guidance on areas for future research. Lecturers can use the findings to develop content for their auditing courses. Reporting managers will benefit from a better understanding of this new form of assurance. Regulators can use this study’s insights to better inform the development of laws and corporate governance codes mandating NFI assurance. Standard setters can use these findings to guide the emergence of the new assurance standards. Assurance practitioners may use this research to inform practice.

The findings may prove useful in addressing capture, which deters NFI assurance from enhancing disclosure credibility and fulfilling its transparency and accountability role. This is to the detriment of the wider society.

The consolidation of the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement is unique. The framework devised offers useful insights into the dynamics of assurance generally and NFI assurance more specifically. The study is timely given the new European Union regulations on NFI reporting and assurance and the work of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board in developing a specialist NFI assurance standard.

Drawing on the overarching framework of social capital theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically examine networking behaviour and employability within the higher education context.

In a sample of 376 full-time business students the authors measured perceived employability, networking behaviour, access to information and resources and job-search learning goal orientation (JSLGO).

The authors found networking is related to increased internal and external perceived employability by boosting access to information and resources. The results also demonstrate that networking is positively related to access to information and resources for low and high JSLGO, the relationship being stronger for those with higher levels.

The results provide an enriched view of individual networking behaviour by offering an indirect model of networking outcomes and to the graduate employability and social capital literatures.

The findings may provide focus for individuals concerned with enhancing their employability and those involved in supporting career guidance.

Obvious beneficiaries are students, for whom employment is a key concern, and universities who face increasing pressure to enhance graduate employability whilst resources to do so are diminishing. To this end the authors highlight activities that may develop networking behaviours and JSLGO.

The purpose of this paper is to explore two of the paradoxes arising from different views about resource limits and sustainable development.

The paper identifies the implications for property rights and public participation in environmental decisions. The first paradox concerns the adoption of policies of exclusion and inclusion through property rights and collective action; the second looks at the new role of the city where concentration of activities, once the cause of environmental degradation is now seen as the route to sustainable development.

Although private property is capable of securing exclusion and resource protection – it is neither necessary nor sufficient for sustainable development. Cooperation and appropriate institutions are essential; in other words a system of stable and binding rules that under some circumstances can be more effective when they are social and local than when they are national and legal. Urban renaissance principles of mixed uses and compact cities obscure traditional density relationships and point to the need for new forms of measurement to replace outdated residential density measures.

The paper addresses issues relevant to institutional design including private and collective property rights, and discusses appropriate measures for residential densities in relation to sustainable development policies.

This is a comparative case study of how three high school history teachers in the U.S.A. use art in their practice. The following research question was investigated: How do secondary history teachers incorporate the arts—paintings, music, poems, novels, and films—in their teaching of history and why? Data were collected from three sources: interviews, observations, and classroom materials. Grounded theory was utilized to analyze the data. Findings suggest these teachers use the arts as historical evidence roughly for three purposes: First, to teach the spirit of an age; second, to teach the history of ordinary people invisible in official historical records; and third, to teach, both with and without art, the process of writing history. Two of the three teachers, however, failed to teach historical thinking skills through art.

A study of concept acquisition and development in children at 8 and 11 years using five assessment of performance unit (APU) science tests: 30 children from each age group completed the tests and 15 from each group were interviewed. The oral and written responses were analysed. It was found that the “languages of experience”, as opposed to the “language of schooling”, issues were a salient feature of the children′s oral responses. Misconceptions were evident in written and oral responses of both age groups. Results indicated that Piaget′s stage theory still has a significant contribution to make to science teaching. Oral testing must be given due stress in assessing pupil achievement.

This study aims to examine how an organization’s Web-based marketing communication strategies drive feelings of customer gratitude and desired behavioral responses. The study specifically examines how a key cultural characteristic, ethnic identity, works in conjunction with Web quality to influence customers’ gratitude perceptions, thereby driving increases in positive word of mouth, repeat purchase intentions and price tolerance.

A major soccer e-retailer based in the USA collected survey data for the study. The authors examined the direct and indirect effects of Web quality through conditional process analysis.

Study findings indicate that customers’ Web quality and ethnic identity perceptions significantly influence customer gratitude and performance outcomes. Study findings also demonstrate the central mediating role of gratitude on the main and interactive effects of Web quality and ethnic identity.

Study findings suggest that online strategies of cultural-adaptation should go beyond integration of native language to include all key dimensions of website quality, to drive consumer gratitude and ultimately favorable outcomes such as word of mouth, price tolerance and repurchase intentions.

This research demonstrates empirical support for the successful deployment of relationship marketing efforts that impact all three dimensions (affect, cognition and behavioral intention) of customer gratitude.