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This paper explores the impact of contemporary calculative practices, termed “accountingisation”, on Australian accounting academics' values. Also, it seeks to understand the rationale underlying the development of various university performance measurement systems (PMSs), and their implementation and evaluation.

A case study approach uses accounting academics' responses to an online survey and also semi-structured interviews with senior research-related leaders in a group of Australian universities. This is supplemented by document analysis. A narrative story-telling approach explores and presents the combined data observations, over the period 2010–2018, of two characters: a “typical” accounting academic and a “typical” vice-chancellor.

The study contributes to the literature on PMSs in understanding “accountingisation”, the rationale behind the development, implementation and evaluation of performance metrics by senior management and its impact on accounting academics. It juxtaposes and unpacks the complexities and nuances of PMSs and provides empirical evidence by highlighting the perceptions of both the Australian accounting academics and senior university management. The findings demonstrate a level of discontent among accounting academics in reconciling the expectations of increased “accountingisation” within university PMSs. These are juxtaposed against the views of senior university leaders who are influential in determining PMSs.

This paper is novel in considering the implications of “accountingisation” in a contemporary setting, focusing on accounting academics, values and individual PMSs within business schools.

Purpose – The authors investigate the interpretations of senior university decision-makers on three questions: (1) What constitutes “relevant” research? (2) In what ways is the relevance of research typically measured? and (3) What alternative ways might be adopted in measuring the relevance of research?

Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study adopts an inductive approach, informed by data collected from semi-structured interviews with senior research-related university leaders and archival sources in five Australian and eight US universities.

Findings – There is considerable convergence in the conceptualization as well as the operationalization of the notion of relevance between the Australian and US universities participating in this study. The evidence supports a relational rather than currently prevailing transactional approaches in operationalizing the concept of research relevance. This relational approach emphasizes the importance of stakeholders, their needs and expectations, and their engagement in the articulation of measures that demonstrate the relevance of research in both the short and longer terms.

Research limitations/implications – The evidence is primarily based on the views of university senior management drawn from a relatively small number of universities leading to questions about the representativeness and generalizability of the findings. Moreover, the findings have been informed by leaders at the most senior hierarchical levels. Although consistent with the aim of the study, the views of university leaders provide only one view on our research questions.

Originality/value – The authors provide a conceptual view of research relevance from the perspective of one pivotal group – university senior management – that has been largely and surprisingly overlooked in discussions of the relevance of academic research.

The purpose of this paper is to study the case of Chile and identify the internal factors that lead to senior (+55 years old) entrepreneurship, either by necessity or opportunity, compared to that in other age groups.

The analysis is based on the adult population survey of the global entrepreneurship monitor between 2012 and 2016 and uses a logistic regression model that applies different variables to total early-stage entrepreneurial activity by necessity and opportunity.

Education, human and social capital development, gender and prior experience as an entrepreneur are internal factors that affect entrepreneurial activity with different weights and directions for people over 55 years old in Chile, either by necessity or opportunity. Further, certain factors exhibited by other age groups in the country explain entrepreneurship.

This study does not consider external perspectives on how context influences entrepreneurial intentions.

This paper represents a first step to understanding the factors that governments should consider when designing policies to support entrepreneurial activity in the senior demographic sector, considering differences in motivation by necessity or opportunity. In addition, this study contributes to the development of knowledge regarding senior entrepreneurship in Chile and to the identification of best practices that could be used in other regions.

This report is the first to focus on the motivations of senior entrepreneurs in Chile by quantifying the effects of different factors.

Within maternity hospitals midwives are expected to follow the protocol‐driven culture and orders issued by senior staff. Simultaneously, midwives are expected to follow social policy documents and the Midwives Rules and Standards that advocate choice provision for childbearing women. Quality assurors and auditors of clinical practice need to be aware that these two directives sometimes clash. Allegiance to a hierarchical system driven by protocols and orders from the top down, at the same time as providing “woman‐centred” care is often unattainable. In order for a midwife to action the woman's choice, resourceful thinking may be required. This paper aims to examine this issue.

A descriptive interview study set out to discover strategies which midwives use to resolve conflict produced from competing directives. An appraisal of 20 midwives' views were gained from semi‐structured interviews conducted in seven maternity units in the UK. Taking a post‐positivist approach, inductive thematic analysis was used to interpret the data.

Three main categories represented resourceful ways of pleasing both authority and the childbearing woman. Midwives occasionally: are economical with the truth; circumvent face‐to‐face confrontation with senior staff; and persuade women to refuse what they perceive are unnecessary and invasive interventions.

This paper offers unique insights into methods that midwives use to resolve conflicts in direction issued by management. It is important that auditors are aware that midwives sometimes struggle to support the preferences of healthy childbearing women. This reduces job satisfaction, delivery of care and consequently requires address.

Executives who are engaged in strategic planning for higher education generally complain about the process and the lack of clear outcomes from the strategic plan. They generally argue that the process is complex and sometimes confusing and the end result does not justify the time spent in preparing the plan. The extant literature on strategic planning in higher educational institutions (HEIs) is replete with these types of complaints. The work undertaken in this paper provides a solution to this problem. This paper proposes a simplified and efficient strategic planning model which executives can use to facilitate strategic planning in HEIs. This model takes into consideration, all the elements of previous models and synthesize them into a manageable, simplified framework that can be adapted to meet the planning needs of senior executives in any HEI.

The paper uses the action research framework to ground the solution to the problem identified. The action research framework is a sound research method that assists in resolving some of the practical problems executives in HEIs encounter as they move towards strategic planning. The researcher and a client in the higher educational sector, the UWI, engaged in collaborative problem-solving to develop a strategic plan for the client. To derive the solution, the researcher drew on the experience of the strategic planning process at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and also a number of selected universities in North American, Europe, Asia and Africa. The researcher then synthesized the outcomes from the deliberations and consultations with the client, the UWI and drew on theoretical knowledge in strategic management to derive the simplified model for strategic planning in higher education.

The research presented in this paper found that the existing strategic planning models used in higher education are generally complex, mostly designed specifically for an individual institution and lacks clarity regarding the implementation process. To overcome these problems for strategic planners in higher education, this paper proposes a simplified model that can be adapted by any HEI to assist with their strategic planning process. The Brainstoming- Visioning Action Results (B-VAR), the solution to the problem, presents the various elements of the strategic planning process that will need to be in place in order to develop a workable strategic plan and one that is implementable and will deliver tangible results for the HEI.

Besides adding to our knowledge in strategic management and specifically, strategic management in higher education, the greatest value from this paper is the solution it presents to solve the long-standing problem of having complex and ineffective planning models to lead strategic plan development in HEIs. The added value is that the model is integrative as it draws on elements of previous planning models but simplified them for their adaptation to any HEI.

Proposed changes in medical staffing levels and pressure for reduced hours of work by junior doctors have focused attention on out‐of‐hours work by junior doctors in the United Kingdom. Junior doctors are on average on duty for over 90 hours per week, and preregistration house officers typically spend almost 70 hours per week actually working. There has been a decline in contracted hours for junior doctors during the 1980s, but an increase in the number of hours on duty and, in the cases of paediatrics and general surgery, an increase in the number of hours worked. Current policy is for expansion in consultant numbers and reduction in junior staff. Critics argue that the planned expansion of consultant posts is inadequate and the absence of registrars in some specialties is dangerous. Previous attempts to reduce the number of hours on duty had little success: suggested solutions have not been implemented widely. One possible solution may be reducing and reallocating out‐of‐hours work. It has been suggested that many of the current tasks undertaken by junior hospital doctors could be performed by non‐medical staff. A thorough examination of the tasks actually undertaken by junior hospital doctors outside normal working hours is required.

The case includes theoretical references to family business, organizational culture, resource-based value and leadership.

The case combines primary and secondary data. There is ample public information about Martin Guitar including histories of the company and its instruments. These were used for background. Primary data were provided by the company in the form of customized data and interviews.. The case writer has served Martin Guitar as a consultant and also plays Martin instruments. The case writer had numerous opportunities to interview Chris and his key lieutenants.

In 2019, C.F. Martin IV (Chris) was in his fourth decade leading one of the America’s oldest family-owned companies, C.F. Martin & Co., Inc. Martin Guitar is a globally known maker of fine guitars that are prized by collectors, working musicians and amateur musicians. Chris was raised in the family business and took on the CEO’s position at the age of 30. The case describes the company’s management practices and the culture that has emerged from them. In 2019, at age 64, Chris confronted issues faced by his predecessors over multiple generations: how to prepare the company for succession, and maintain its strong performance as a family-owned company in a dynamic industry environment.

The case is designed for a management course for upper-level undergraduates.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a range of short‐ to medium‐term recession‐specific strategies designed to drive growth and ensure that a company survives this downturn and emerges from it competitively advantaged.

The paper examines recession‐specific strategies designed to drive growth and ensure that a company survives.

Even after the eventual economic recovery, heightened uncertainty and volatility will remain permanent features of the business environment. As a result, resilience – the ongoing ability to anticipate and adapt to critical strategic shifts – will become an increasingly important driver of future competitive advantage. Given the likelihood that the strategic environment will remain uncertain even after the recovery, the company must institutionalize the lessons learned during the downturn. And go further to adjust the customer offering and business practices (new services, new features, new pricing models, enter or exit markets, band with other businesses in cooperative relationships).

The consensus is growing among economists, business leaders, and governments that the world is in the midst of a prolonged slowdown of unpredictable duration and that even when the upturn comes, the post‐crisis strategic and operating environment will almost certainly be quite different.

The authors warn that some of the classic strategies for gaining competitive advantage – for instance, focusing on scale – have been losing their power. Senior managers need to heed these warnings when they review their growth and survival plans.

Social isolation and loneliness are global issues experienced by many seniors, especially immigrant and refugee seniors. Guided by the five-stage methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and more recently Levac, Colquhoun and O’Brien, the purpose of this paper is to explore the existing literature on social isolation and loneliness among immigrant and refugee seniors in Canada.

The authors conducted a literature search of several databases including: PubMed; MEDLINE; CINAHL; Web of Science; HealthStar Ovid; PschyInfo Ovid; Social Services Abstracts; AgeLine; Public Health Database, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library. In total, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria.

Based on the current literature five themes related to social isolation and loneliness emerged: loss; living arrangements; dependency; barriers and challenges; and family conflict.

Given the increasing demographic of aging immigrants in Canada, it is useful to highlight existing knowledge on social isolation and loneliness to facilitate research, policy and programs to support this growing population.

The population is aging around the world and it is also becoming increasingly diverse particularly in the high-income country context. Understanding and addressing social isolation is important for immigrant and refugee seniors, given the sociocultural and other differences.

Social isolation is a waste of human resource and value created by seniors in the communities.

The paper makes a unique contribution by focusing on immigrant and refugee seniors.

This article explores the values that local government senior managers assume in their day‐to‐day relationship with elected officials (councillors). The study is set in the state of Victoria, Australia which, along with the two other levels of Australian government, has a strong historical association with the Westminster system of public management. The findings demonstrate that local government senior managers practice the fundamental values and beliefs of public management neutrality.