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This paper aims to investigate the factors that influenced seven graduates in the creative and digital industries to start their own businesses in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK – an area with lack of employing establishments and locally registered businesses.

Questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews identified the constraining and enabling factors graduates may encounter when attempting to start a business, and explored the impact of support provided.

Perceived constraining factors were: lack of general business knowledge, contradictory advisory support from external agencies, lack of sector‐specific mentors, lack of finance, and experience of familial entrepreneurship. Perceived enabling factors were: co‐mentoring from business partners, course content, financial gain, creativity and innovative ideas, control and risk taking, and the overarching package of support. Linkages between internal and external support could be improved.

The study provided insights into constraints and enablers to self‐employment for a small cohort of recent graduates looking to start‐up in the creative and digital industries. Further studies are required to explore the suggested effect of the “creative identity”, and of sector‐specific family entrepreneurial background.

The support provided by universities can facilitate the transition from early stage ideas to actual graduate business start‐up. Issues such as provision of specialist advice and links with external parallel and follow‐on support need to be considered.

University start‐up units provide an important contribution to the development of graduate entrepreneurs and their role in the growth of national and global economy. Suggestions for improvements in performance, such as closer links with external business development agencies and support providers, are discussed.

This paper presents a novel approach for rapid prototyping based on the octree decomposition of 3D geometric models. The proposed method, referred as OcBlox, integrates an octree modeller, an assembly planning system, and a robotic assembly cell into an integrated system that builds approximate prototypes directly from 3D model data. Given an exact 3D model this system generates an octree decomposition of it, which approximates the shape cubic units referred as “Blox”. These cuboid units are automatically assembled to obtain an approximate physical prototype. This paper details the algorithms used to generate the octree's assembly sequence and demonstrates the feasibility of the OcBlox approach by describing a single resolution example of a prototype built with this automated system. An analysis of the potential of the approach to decrease the manufacturing time of physical components is detailed. Finally, the potential of OcBlox to support complex overhanging geometry is discussed.

The ability to economically and effectively service products provides an avenue for extending the product’s useful life. Quantifying approaches are needed to assist in the serviceability evaluation. In this study, the serviceability characteristics of a product are categorized into three groups: disassembly, reassembly, and handling. Often, many of the serviceability characteristics of a product cannot be defined completely or properly using crisp design data. Moreover, the serviceability analysis is an imprecise science characterized by ill‐structured and subjective evaluation criteria. A formal methodology for representing and processing the design information of an artifact using a hierarchical fuzzy neural network (FNN) model is presented. First, three FNNs are used to compute the disassembly, reassembly, and handling indices. Second, the output of the three FNNs is fed into a separate FNN to compute the serviceability index. The designer can use the proposed model to rank alternate designs by computing the serviceability indices of each candidate design. The working of the proposed model is demonstrated by using two designs for a steam iron.

The natural environment and the manufacturing function are becoming inextricably linked. As the new millennium approaches and progresses, profitability, productivity and environmental consciousness are increasingly viewed as integral goals of manufacturing organizations. The issues facing manufacturing organizations, in general, and the manufacturing function in particular, are discussed in this paper. Some of the current practices and future requirements for an environmentally sustainable manufacturing enterprise are included in this discussion. Even though the focus is on manufacturing strategy and operations, issues relevant to the overall organization and other functions are also included. In the final analysis, this field and topic is relatively novel to most organizations, ample room exists for both practitioners and researchers for making progress in the next millennium.

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has become an important subject of increasing interest among companies throughout the world. It is gaining global attention among risk management professionals and academics. However, little is known about the extent of ERM implementation in the Tunisian context. More importantly, there are limited studies in literature that examine the determinants of this implementation. The purpose of this study is threefold, to propose an index to measure the level of ERM implementation, to examine the level of ERM implementation in Tunisian companies and to propose a conceptual framework for the determinants of this implementation. From the review of literature, several factors are found to be determinants of ERM implementation. Such factors are the presence of a Chief Risk Officer, the appointment of an internal auditor, the type of industry and the firm size.

To further understand the relation between ERM implementation and its determinants, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2016 and administrated to 80 companies. Respondents were CRO and more often internal auditors or financial directors. Other data were collected from annual reports and notes to the financial statements. Along with this, the ordinal regression was applied to test the dependence between ERM implementation and its determinants.

Based on the data gathered, Tunisian companies have shown an increasing interest in risk management in the post-revolution context; however, an integrated approach of ERM implementation is still at an early stage. Descriptive statistics suggest that ERM is essentially developed in financial institutions, especially in banks and some large companies operating in non- financial industries. With regard to the multivariate regression results, the level of ERM implementation is positively related to the presence of a Chief Risk Officer, internal auditor, the type of industry and the firm size.

This study attempts to contribute to the risk management literature in two ways. Conceptually, this study proposes an ERM index to assess the level of ERM implementation. Empirically, it provides some empirical evidence that highlights factors which determine the level of ERM implementation. Therefore, this study will extend the scope of literature by providing novel empirical evidence by exploring the Tunisian context.

Family firms are the most prevalent type of firm worldwide. Nevertheless, the existent enterprise risk management (ERM) literature is silent on the adoption of ERM in family firms. Family firms exhibit specifics likely to influence the adoption of ERM. Most importantly, they often feature lower levels of agency conflicts, which should make them less prone to invest in mechanisms to control such problems. Consequently, it is expected that family firms are less prone to invest in ERM. This paper aims to explore this basic expectation.

This study is based on a survey of 430 firms from Austria and Germany.

It is observed that family firms show a lower adoption of ERM, especially in family firms where there is a family CEO.

The results suggest that future empirical ERM research should more closely analyze or at least control for family influence.

This study is among the first to analyze ERM adoption in family firms.

This study aims to investigate the association between organisational culture (OC) and the extent to which risk governance (RG) practices are implemented in Qatar.

It relies on the institutional theory and OC perspectives to generate testable hypotheses and explain the empirical findings, using data from 85 Qatari firms collected based on questionnaires. It also applies ordinary least squares regression to examine the associations between five OCs (innovation, outcome orientation, attention to detail, team orientation and tight versus loose control) and the level of implementing RG practices, whilst controlling for the presence of internal audit (IA), firm size, listing status, type (private/government) and sector (financial/non-financial).

An OC of “tight control”, the presence of an IA and being a private firm are significantly associated with implementing RG practices. An OC of teamwork is negatively associated with RG practices.

Policymakers and corporate managers are encouraged to set guidelines governing the formation of cohesive cooperative teams within organisations. They must develop strategies that promote the “risk culture” as a major component of OC. Policymakers should also monitor the culture and institutional forces behind the successful implementation of RG that involves the collaboration of employees at different organisational levels.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is novel because it empirically examines the OC–RG relationship in an emerging market economy (Qatar).