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Central to Martha Nussbaum's development of the capability approach into a theory of social and global justice is her addition of the notion of a capability threshold below which no dignified human life can be lived. This capability threshold identifies a standard for distributive justice that any decent political order must secure for all citizens. It is this threshold that is the intended focus of this paper.

Examining her most recent statement of the capability approach, Nussbaum's arguments that the threshold should be locally set by each nation in accordance with their history and traditions, and that all nations currently fail to satisfy the threshold condition, are assessed.

This paper shows that if Nussbaum's arguments are accepted, then the central function of a threshold as a tool of discrimination is undermined. If all nations fail to meet their locally set threshold, then there is no clear basis for the global redistribution that Nussbaum regards as necessary. Indeed, what basis there is could even justify counter‐intuitive redistribution from poorer to richer nations.

This paper concludes that if the capability approach is to be developed into a theory of social justice, then, rather than being set locally at different levels, the capability threshold may need to be a genuinely global one. Only then can the threshold discriminate between unjust political orders and those that are at least minimally just.

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how opportunity for control and firm capability interact to moderate the amount of risk that managers associate with various international entry‐mode strategies. A secondary goal is to investigate how managers perceive the need to retain control over three core functional areas (marketing, production, and R&D) when making entry‐mode decisions.

A field experiment design was implemented in a sample of US business owner/executives. Using an online data collection method, the study asked a sample of small‐business owners and managers to assess the amount of risk they associated with three modes of entering the Japanese market: non‐ownership (export), equal partnership (50/50 joint‐venture), and sole‐ownership. They were also asked how much control they needed to retain over R&D, production, and marketing for the venture to be successful.

Ownership‐provided control interacts with capability to influence managerial risk perceptions. Managers in lower‐capability firms see the least risk in the non‐ownership entry mode while those in higher‐capability firms see the least risk in the equal‐partnership entry mode. Managers believe that for a new venture in a foreign market to be successful, control should be retained over the R&D function, regardless of entry mode.

The findings appear to reconcile some of the conflicting predictions of the transaction cost and resource‐based theoretical perspectives, because it appears that international managers consider both control (internationalization theory) and capability (resource‐based theory) when judging the perceived risk of an entry strategy.

For firms that are incapable of managing in an international context, a low‐control no‐ownership entry mode is perceived as the least risky approach; for firms that have some capability for international management, then a partial‐ownership mode such as a 50/50 joint‐venture is perceived as having lower risk than no‐ownership. In non‐ownership and joint‐venture type entry modes, managers are more apt to outsource the marketing function to an agent/partner, but not R&D. In contrast, managers believe that marketing needs to be maintained in‐house when utilizing a sole‐ownership entry mode.

By illustrating the role of perceived risk in foreign‐market entry‐mode decisions and demonstrating how capabilities interact with ownership‐provided control to moderate these perceptions, the paper's findings suggest that managers' risk perceptions may mediate the effects of firm‐specific factors, and thus contributes significantly to both theory and practice.

When the augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) model (Lloyd et al., 1990) was proposed, these components of symbols were not considered, nor were they contemplated when superordinate (Lloyd and Fuller, 1986) and subordinate levels (Fuller et al., 1992) of AAC symbol taxonomy were developed. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the ACC model and propose a new symbol classification system called multidimensional quaternary symbol continuum (MQSC)

The field of AAC is evolving at a rapid rate in terms of its clinical, social, research and theoretical underpinnings. Advances in assessment and intervention methods, technology and social issues are all responsible to some degree for the significant changes that have occurred in the field of AAC over the last 30 years. For example, the number of aided symbol collections has increased almost exponentially over the past couple of decades. The proliferation of such a large variety of symbol collections represents a wide range of design attributes, physical attributes and linguistic characteristics for aided symbols and design attributes and linguistic characteristics for unaided symbols.

Therefore, it may be time to revisit the AAC model and more specifically, one of its transmission processes referred to as the means to represent.

The focus of this theoretical paper then, is on the current classification of symbols, issues with respect to the current classification of symbols in terms of ambiguity of terminology and the evolution of symbols, and a proposal for a new means of classifying the means to represent.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon10.1108/JET-04-2021-0024

This conceptual paper examines the Caribbean tourism sector, its growth, performance, importance and its vulnerability to climate change. The purpose of this paper is to serve as an introduction to the on-going conversation around climate change and the socioeconomic impacts likely to be experienced in tourism-dependent Caribbean territories.

The Caribbean is used as the context of this work. A broad perspective was adopted to paint a picture of the wider implications. The region is represented by a multiplicity of country profiles, both in physical and socio-economic characteristics; this warrants a broad assessment of the issues examined here.

This work shows that the Caribbean tourism sectors face significant future threats related to both competitiveness and climate change impacts. For a region so heavily dependent on coastal- and marine-related tourism attractions, adaptation and resilience are critical issues facing Caribbean tourism. An effective approach to building resilience to climate change requires extensive regional cooperation.

While there is much published on the matter of climate change implications in the general global context, there is considerably less published work specifically examining the likely effects climate change will have on the special socio-economic features of the Caribbean and on the tourism industry in particular.

The lack of extensive and ongoing research dedicated to climate change implications for Caribbean tourism, while limiting the scope of this work, does highlight a gap and open the door for future work that examines, in greater detail both collectively and on an individual country basis, the climate change implications for tourism industries throughout the region.

Climate change vulnerabilities in the region present a significant threat to economic development, employment and food security among others. Coastal flooding, infrastructural damage and the potential displacement of coastal communities present significant impediments to the quality of life of Caribbean nationals. The social implications necessitate further in-depth study to inform the development of adaptation strategies that may secure the tourism industry and the livelihoods and lifestyles of the people.

This work is original in its evaluation of the viewpoints of climate change vulnerability specific to the Caribbean tourism sector.

How can leaders adopt a mindset that maximizes learning, remains responsive to short-term emergent opportunities, and simultaneously strengthens longer-term dynamic capabilities of the organization? This chapter explores the organizational decisions and practices leaders can initiate to extend, strengthen, or transform “ordinary capabilities” (Winter, 2003) into enhanced improvisational competence and dynamic capabilities. We call this leadership logic the “jazz mindset.” We draw upon seven characteristics of jazz bands as outlined by Barrett (1998) to show that strategic leaders of business organizations can enhance dynamic capabilities by strengthening practices observed in improvising jazz bands.

Human resource capability is an important factor in determining institutional capacities in digital records preservation. This study aims to assess human resource capabilities in supporting digital records preservation in Tanzania, with special reference to the Records and Archives Management Department (RAMD) and Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA).

This study employed a descriptive case study design with multiple cases to generate insights into the topic under inquiry. Simple random and purposive sampling methods were used to select study respondents. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentary review. Qualitative data collected were subjected to content analysis, whereas quantitative data were analysed using international business machine-corporation-statistical packages and service solution.

RAMD and RITA have minimal human resource capabilities, as they contend with a shortage of qualified staff and technical personnel for digital records preservation. The shortage of funds, lack of management commitment to preserving digital records, lack of staff awareness on digital records preservation and inadequate participation of records practitioners in digital records preservation emerged as pressing challenges the two agencies contended with.

This study’s recommendations include finding alternative sources of funding, employing digital records specialists and provision of training on digital records preservation. Furthermore, this study proposes a framework that institutions can use in assessing human resource capabilities for digital records preservation.

This study contributes new knowledge and insights on the role of human resource capabilities in supporting digital records preservation in a resource-poor country.

The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of the requirements for public sector organizations to implement benefits realization practices. The research compares benefits realization practices as suggested by the literature with actual practice with the goal of identifying both insufficiencies in the current literature and challenges in practice that must be overcome to improve the current situation.

The case study approach is used to study benefits realization across national and local government organizations.

Five major challenges that are not dealt with by existing literature were identified: benefits realization requires not just organizational capabilities, but also inter-organizational capabilities; coordination of benefits realization across organizational units, local and central government and across internal organizational levels is both essential and very challenging; managing benefits realization includes much more than integrating benefits realization practices in IT projects; different benefits realization practices are needed at central government level, local management level and case worker level; and different uses of technology require different levels of benefits realization capabilities and different practices. The case also illustrates that under certain conditions, organization can actually realize significant improvements with limited benefits realization capabilities: When IT is used not to change but to fully automate processes, the reliance on formal benefits realization practices is decreased.

The findings are based on a single case.

There is only little empirical research studying benefits realization in a public sector context. Furthermore, the research studies benefits realization from an organizational process perspective, and not from the perspective of IT projects.

Several manuscripts are adopting knowledge-based dynamic capabilities (KBDCs) as their main theoretical lens. However, these manuscripts lack consistent conceptualization and systematization of the construct. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of KBDCs by clarifying the dominant concepts at the junction of knowledge management and dynamic capabilities domains, identifying which emerging themes are gaining traction with KBDCs scholars, demonstrating how the central thesis around KBDCs has evolved and explaining how can KBDCs scholars move towards finding a mutually agreed conceptualization of the field to advance empirical assessment.

The Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection database was used to extract 225 manuscripts that lie at the confluence of two promising management domains, namely, knowledge management and dynamic capabilities. A scientometric analysis including co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence network analysis and text mining was conducted and integrated with a systematic review of results to facilitate an unstructured ontological discovery in the field of KBDCs.

The co-citation analysis produced three clusters of research at the junction of knowledge management and dynamic capabilities, whereas the bibliographic coupling divulged five themes of research that are gaining traction with KBDCs scholars. The systematic literature review helped to clarify each clusters’ content. While scientific mapping analysis explained how the central thesis around KBDCs has evolved, text mining and keyword analysis established how KBDCs emerge from the combination of knowledge management process capabilities and dynamic capabilities.

Minimal attention has been paid to systematizing the literature on KBDCs. Accordingly, KBDCs view has been investigated through complementary scientometric methods involving machine-based algorithms to allow for a more robust, structured, comprehensive and unbiased mapping of this emerging field of research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of hybrid‐excitation solutions, using contemporaneously permanent magnets and field coils, for DC machines intended to operate as the core of high‐reliability drives in critical applications supplied by batteries (e.g. fire‐extinguishing pumps, smoke blowers, etc.) where a roughly constant speed is required and a minimal use of electronic devices is prescribed to improve overall dependability.

A high‐reliability hybrid‐excitation DC motor, initially designed basing on theoretical considerations, is then analyzed using purposely developed 2D and 3D finite element method (FEM) electromagnetic models under static, dynamic, healthy, and faulty conditions.

The simulation results confirm that properly designed drives employing hybrid‐excitation DC motors may constitute an effective solution for applications requiring a very high reliability under DC supply with limited speed regulation capability.

The methodology employed exhibits the usual limits concerning the accuracy of FEM analysis: hysteresis is neglected, 2D simulations neglect axial component of fields, in 2D dynamic analysis the electrically discontinuous laminated cores are modeled as orthotropic continuous parts, commutator operation is approximated by means of a position‐dependent resistors network, and the excitation current provided by choppers is approximately considered as constant.

Hybrid excitation DC motors, which may be easily manufactured using existing facilities and mature technologies, might provide an interesting solution for emergency drives requiring minimal regulation capabilities and very high reliability under direct DC supply.

Hybrid excitation is not much investigated in the literature especially for DC motors, although such solution may result potentially interesting especially when a limited flux adjustment capability is required.

Performing tasks in public spaces can be demanding due to task complexity. Systems that can keep track of the current task state may help their users to successfully fulfill a task. These systems, however, require major implementation effort. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if and how a mobile information assistant which has only basic task-tracking capabilities can support users by employing a least effort approach. This means, we are interested in whether such a system is able to have an impact on the way a workflow in public space is perceived.

The authors implement and test AIRBOT, a mobile chatbot application that can assist air passengers in successfully boarding a plane. The authors apply a three-tier approach and, first, conduct expert and passenger interviews to understand the workflow and the information needs occurring therein; second, the authors implement a mobile chatbot application providing minimum task-tracking capabilities to support travelers by providing boarding-relevant information in a proactive manner. Finally, the authors evaluate this application by means of an in situ study (n = 101 passengers) at a major European airport.

The authors provide evidence that basic task-tracking capabilities are sufficient to affect the users’ task perception. AIRBOT is able to decrease the perceived workload airport services impose on users. It has a negative impact on satisfaction with non-personalized information offered by the airport, though.

The study shows that the number of features is not the most important means to successfully provide assistance in public space workflows. The study can, moreover, serve as a blueprint to design task-based assistants for other contexts.