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To analyze and personally relate to an individual having faced a quarter-life crisis; to define how environmental factors influence the person’s career priorities; to analyze the causes of career-family conflicts; to comprehend another gender’s position and concerns; and to originate ideas for prospective career development.

The case study presents a career management dilemma of a PhD candidate, senior lecturer at the Almaty Management University, Kazakhstan and a married mother of two small children. Having faced a kind of quarter-life crisis and the pressures of a traditional society with gendered career trajectories, the protagonist (33) is challenging her initial plan of an academic career that sees gradual promotion and progress and has to make a difficult decision about her professional and personal identity amidst the realities of a newly emerging and transitional economy.

Master’s level

Teaching notes, company’s organizational charts, protagonist’s curriculum vitae, PowerPoint slides with the protagonist and her classmates’ pictures.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The health challenges that characterise most of the migrants' urban slums raises a lot of concern for their well-being. Health-seeking behaviour becomes an important step towards maintaining a healthy life. The importance of contextual issues is necessary to help meet specific community health needs and programmes. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the knowledge gap by investigating health-seeking behaviour disparity among rural–urban labour migrant's slum dwellers before and after migration to the urban slums of Madina in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana.

The author used explanatory sequential approach of research investigation. Questionnaire and interview guides were used to collect data from the respondents however, in the absence of an existing reliable sampling frame, the various communities were selected by the use of cluster sampling proportional to size. At the second stage, a simple random sampling was used to select the various household heads. A total of 241 questionnaires were retrieved from the respondents representing a response rate of 100%. The author used purposive sampling technique to conduct eight in-depth interviews and six key informants' interviews.

The author found various discrepancies in many of the activities that could fulfil substantial health-seeking behaviour in the slum as compared to migrant's places of origin. The reason for coming to the slum amidst many settlements needs and low education background are the factors that accounted for this. This study, therefore, contradicts the proposition held by the health belief model. It is, therefore, important to note that contextual issues are key, in this case, rural–urban migrant slums present a different dynamic that must be taken into account when designing health programmes for such settings.

Many, if not all the, studies on health-seeking behaviour have focused on urban slums without taking into account urban migrants' slums. Such a failure to take into account the variations of the health needs of migrants' urban slum settings can eventually lead to a mismatch of health programmes meant to address their challenges. Therefore, this study brings to the fore such variations that must be taken into account when designing health programmes. The study also indicates that even with the same people, there were disparities in terms of health-seeking behaviour in the slum and at places of origin.

Upon completion of the case, students will be able to reflect the forces, which may disrupt the art industry through Artientifique initiatives and the ability to apply Phoenix encounter method with proactive scanning to remain competitive; create various multi-functional roles as a youth entrepreneur in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) capacity and be able to understand the level and review the competition and business trends from an art industry perspective; analyze how innovation clubbed with sustainability will create a competitive advantage in a circular economy; determine the leadership style most appropriate for MSMEs to indulge in innovation and sustainability in the fine arts business; and design and discover opportunities to promote women’s entrepreneurship in the art industry, especially in emerging markets.

On a cold Friday morning in November 2020, Aisha Mir was in utter confusion written all over her face. She had to decide on a prosperous pathway. Should it be customization or standardization of artwork? Also, whether she should continue investing in the existing in-house supply chain or outsource this to a third party. Being practicing sustainability in her personal and professional life, she had designed her art studio herself by using upcycled materials. While enjoying the pigeons and sparrows chirping and eating grains on her wide windowpane, she looked at the world map with keen interest and imagined herself flying to each country along with her gray and white pigeons. While sitting in Madina city, Saudi Arabia, she was concerned about the expired makeup collection hub being set up in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The collection and the painting processes had to be monitored; the artworks needed auditing, framing and packing before they were shipped to a customer. Centralizing would add unnecessary hassle, and outsourcing needed distribution of authority. Keeping the challenges in mind, she was struggling to find a solution for efficient community engagement.

This case has been particularly focused on undergraduate and postgraduate early-stage level students pursuing business or commerce programs, particularly those studying entrepreneurial and management courses in innovation and sustainability.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The primary function of pavement is to distribute the concentrated loads so that supporting capacity of the sub-grade soil is not exceeded. Due to continuous application of impact loading, pavement surface is often subjected to various types of distresses. The study was conducted on a portion (Madina Market to Tuker Bazar) of Sylhet-Sunamganj road that acts as a very important link between two adjacent towns. Pavement condition ratings (PCR) of the pavement was obtained on the basis of severity and extent of different types of distresses such as alligator cracks, longitudinal cracks, potholes, rutting, raveling, patching etc. The PCR values of different segments of ‘Madina Market-Tuker Bazar’ were evaluated in this study most of which fall within the category of ‘Very Poor to Poor’ conditions. Such condition of PCR immediately recommends proper treatment of the pavement for usage convenience.

This study aims to develop and implement an initial framework for assessing progress in lean implementation within an higher education institution (HEI). It includes developing preliminary findings regarding the impacts of lean implementation in the HEI case organization and comparing outcomes from this assessment to outcomes from other published sources.

Existing literature on lean, particularly in an HEI context, was used to develop a preliminary lean assessment framework for HEIs. Quality and continuous improvement literature were also compared to the proposed assessment framework to further validate the approach. This assessment framework was then utilized to evaluate lean implementation at a large public university (LPU) in the U.S.

The paper presents the framework as well as the major findings from the Large Public University (LPU)’s assessment. The assessment findings are further compared to other HEI quality measures and lean assessments done in other industries. Overall, the findings suggest that the assessment framework provides valuable insight to HEI organizations implementing lean.

The research intends to support lean assessment standardization efforts by proposing a preliminary lean assessment framework for the HEI, grounded in research trends, research findings, identified gaps in the research, and case study outcomes. To the research team's knowledge, this is the first lean assessment framework proposed for HEIs and also contributes to research gaps related to service industry frameworks and those containing both practices and outcomes. The framework can be used by other researchers as a foundation for additional conceptual and empirical developments on the topic and by researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and assess lean implementation progress in the HEI.

Despite the efforts to improve the usage of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) among pregnant women in endemic malaria countries like Ghana, its usage still remains low. Therefore, this study aims to assess the intention to use ITNs and actual usage behaviour among pregnant women in Ghana using the integrated model of behaviour prediction (IMBP) and explore factors preventing its usage.

A structured questionnaire was administered to 310 respondents using a convenience sampling technique, and the data were analysed using multiple regression. Exploratory data collected through an interview guide was analysed using Kvale and Brinkman’s (2015) five-step approach.

The findings indicate a significantly positive association between intention to use ITN and actual usage of ITN among pregnant women in Ghana. Attitude and normative beliefs were the most significant predictors of intention to use ITNs among pregnant women. The result further shows that despite the generally positive perception of the effectiveness of the ITN in malaria prevention and positive intention to use it, its actual usage remains low because of discomfort (primarily associated with heat, irritation, heat rashes, suffocation and vomiting, size and design, reactions to ITN’s chemicals and misconceptions about ITNs causing cancer. In this study, the implications are discussed.

This study applied the IMBP to ITNs usage intention among pregnant women in a developing market context and found the model to predict ITN usage intention effectively.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand the internal processes that take place in social media influencers operations; to evaluate the role communication and planning in the social media marketing process; to discover the importance of social media as a pinnacle of new communication mix tool; to make strategic decisions in managing a social media account; and to highlight how the team internal interactions could determine the success and profitability of the social media influencer.

Case deals with the growth and managing issues faced by the social media influencers in Kazakhstan. The case shows the other side of social media marketing, where the main focus is shifted from the corporate clients, who use social media influencer, toward the influencers themselves and challenges faced by them. Hence, the case reveals the story of Jokeasses team, who are based in Kazakhstan with significant following both on Instagram and YouTube platforms. The decision-making dilemmas in the case focused upon not only the issues of brand formation but also how online brand could be transferred into profitable enterprise.

Bachelor

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan is much rewarded. Although the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting this event each year, studies that focus on exploring the Holy Mosque visitor segments are scarce. This study aims to explore and describe the marketing segments of Umrah performers relative to their Umrah experience inside the Holy Mosque of Makkah. Most specifically, this study aims to explore segments of Umrah performers based on their perception of servicescape, hedonic and convenience value and the visitors’ outcome behaviors [i.e. intention to revisit and positive word of mouth (PWOM)].

Mixed-method techniques of data collection [i.e. self-administered questionnaires (n = 278) and short discussions (n = 10)] were used.

Cluster analysis is used for data analysis. The findings revealed four clusters of Umrah performers: real, occasional, rational and passionate performers.

This study is a first attempt to target pilgrims based on their experience with the servicescape during the organized religious event; despite its exploratory nature, it reveals interesting insights that will be useful for managers and scholars. Although the study helps to enrich the existing knowledge on visitors’ experience and proposes some implications for practitioners, it does have some limitations. First, convenience sampling was used, and hence the findings cannot be generalized. Second, the limited period of observation did not allow the authors to provide a complete picture of the pilgrims’ behavior; for this reason, the study findings partially describe the phenomenon. Another limitation is related to the difficulty of approaching respondents from Asia or South East Asia although they constitute a significant percentage of the total Umrah performers every year; this is because of the language barrier as data was collected from only English and Arabic speakers. Hence, to overcome these limitations, it is suggested that future studies could be expanded to target Asian respondents and perhaps other nationalities; and could be undertaken in other religious contexts. Moreover, an interesting future study could be carried out to compare the same model during other religious events. Added to that, another growing area of research could be approached by researchers, such as the impact of pilgrims sharing their experiences on influencing E-PWOM.

The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders. The segmentation of Umrah performers assists destination managers, policymakers and local firms involved in managing this mass event to identify effective marketing decision-makers, business strategies and policymakers to satisfy the needs of these visitors (Disegna et al., 2011). Particularly, the identification of the key characteristics of these visitors can help destination marketers to develop a marketing mix that suits the needs of each cluster (Smith et al., 2014). Despite that the performers’ main motivation is the religious purpose, marketing strategists can attract the attention of these visitors to visit other religious, cultural and heritage sites in the country.

Encouraging the visit to other tourist spots in Saudi has several impacts on nourishing the economy and the community. Tourism in Saudi could encourage entrepreneurs to start new ventures to satisfy the need of visitors to the country. Small-medium enterprises could benefit from tourism as they could target market niches in which leader companies are not serving. For instance, hand-made souvenirs are one of these industries that could grow to satisfy the need of visitors.

The results contribute to the literature of event segmentation by identifying visitors’ profiles to rarely investigated destinations. The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders.

The Sudan Companies Act 1925 is outdated. There is a need for substantial revision to the Act either in accordance with, for example, current UK legislation, or a framework more directly suited to the economic and legal environment of the Sudan. At a general level this should include the preparation of a profit and loss account, specific formats for the profit and loss account and balance sheet, notes to the accounts and an auditor’s report stating whether or not the accounts give a true and fair view of the state of a company’s affairs.

The fight against corruption, which undermines the efficiency of the state apparatus and public confidence in public institutions, remains one of the critical present-day tasks. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the available possibilities and real practice of law enforcement of the norms on investigative prevention, the practical significance of this institution and its potential.

The study investigated theoretical materials on criminological prevention, legislative norms and available law enforcement practice.

It was discovered that, in general, the available statutory regulation is insufficient for the full-fledged practical implementation of the potential of investigative prevention. An exception is specialised prevention, assigned as one of the main tasks to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Combating Corruption. Proposals have been formulated to improve anti-corruption investigative prevention in other bodies of pre-trial investigation, considering the identified risks.

The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that the existence of the institution of investigative prevention, in fact, is limited to the post-Soviet space. The elimination of formalism in the approach to this method of crime prevention can contribute to greater efficiency in the fight against crime, including corruption.