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Purpose – To argue for the use of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) proves far more useful in assessing arms makers’ limits of responsibility in a different way altogether. By focusing on the negative ‘externalities’ – that is impact on society – we are able to examine the practice in the context of constitutive and regulatory norms (i.e. the accepted rules), as opposed to norms that are merely evaluative (i.e. moral) or practical (i.e. what's possible).

Methodology/approach – This chapter examines the investment policies, practices and procedures of a handful of Australian pension and sovereign wealth funds in relation to investment in the development and production of cluster munitions – a class of weapon banned under international law since August 2010.

Findings – The chapter finds that the negative externalities inherent in armaments manufacturing demand that institutional investors view such firms through a ‘CSI lens’, especially when tasked with identifying and developing strategies to account for emerging social norms such as the prohibition of cluster munitions.

Practical implications – The investor is advantaged by having at its disposal a roadmap for managing – though not necessarily predicting – emerging social norms. This is so for ethical, responsible and mainstream investment approaches, although is most readily compatible with investors who have pre-established exclusionary policies as well as effective implementation procedures.

Social implications – A CSI approach to investment in cluster munitions as outlined in this chapter benefits society by inducing economic actors, such as pension and sovereign wealth funds, to direct their capital in such a way as to minimize humanitarian and environmental harm.

Originality/value of chapter – Proponents of the social responsibility of business and investment have seldom assessed the makers of conventional armaments such as machine guns, attack helicopters and battle tanks. Fewer still have attempted to devise and implement such programs within firms. Simply put, the prevailing argument is that arms makers and their financers are not capable of being socially responsible.

In view of the importance of finite element (FE) techniques in the design, analysis and validation of many engineering products, the National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards (NAFEMS) was established in 1983 to take an overview of the FE scene in the United Kingdom. NAFEMS is currently funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, but it is expected that it will eventually be self‐funding. Its headquarters is located at the National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow.

Recent advancements in the field of organizational psychology have transformed the employees’ perceptions related to the reactions of the employment relationship. The main aim of the study is to explore the consequences of psychological contracts among the nursing staff and how to provide better patient care and quality service in the health-care system as nurses play a pivotal role in the context of Pakistan. Significantly, this study attempts to bridge the research gap by exploring consequences of psychological contracts. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study examined the psychological contracts of nurses and their reactions to the perceived violation.

This research adopted a qualitative method and was based on an exploratory approach. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews from 21 nurses working in public, private and charity hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. The thematic content analysis is employed for the analysis of data by using NVivo software.

The study identified the relational and transactional elements related to the psychological contract of nurses who predominantly consisted of supervisor support, autonomy, tangible/intangible rewards and trust. The intrinsic motivation which relates to their devotion to work was found as an additional element to balance their psychological contract. This research also establishes that the psychological contract of nurses is being violated in their work settings.

By highlighting the importance of psychological contract breach, the findings demonstrate that health-care institutions should take measures to cope with psychological contract breach issues at the workplace.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring psychological contract breach. Substantially, there are rare studies conducted on psychological contract breach among nurses in developing country context (Pakistan). However, this study adds to the previous studies related to the psychological contract of nurses in the context of Pakistan by using social exchange theories. Finally, this study enables the management of healthcare to balance the psychological contract issues effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the school‐to‐work transition of graduates in different fields of study, as well as to study programmes in three subsequent generations of graduates in the 2007 to 2009 period. The paper focuses on graduates from the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes and investigates their early career outcomes by comparing them to those of graduates from pre‐harmonised programmes.

The authors apply a probit regression to calculate differences in the probability of employment for different fields of study and propensity score matching to investigate the effect of different study programmes in each field of education on early career outcomes, such as being employed within the first three months of graduation and the first nine months of graduation.

The authors find that graduating from a particular field of study affects the probability of employment in all three years. In general, regardless of the field, the authors observe decreasing probabilities of employment in 2008 and 2009. Using propensity score matching, the authors estimate the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes on the probability of employment and find a statistically significant negative effect compared to counterparts who finished pre‐Bologna programmes. The findings are robust to the use of different matching criteria.

In the institutional framework of a tuition‐free system in higher education and collective bargaining in the labour market, performance indicators such as employability can provide relevant information regarding student choice and a proxy measure for the quality of higher education in each participating university. In addition, this provides a rare insight into the employability of graduates from Bologna‐harmonised programmes, as well as for a post‐transition country such as Slovenia.

By covering entire populations of full‐time graduates in 2007, 2008 and 2009 who entered the labour market for the first time after graduation, the authors calculate the probability of employment within the first three and nine months of graduation. This allows the authors to infer about the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes as well as the impact of the recent financial crisis. The paper offers rare evidence of the school‐to‐work transition in a post‐transition and tuition‐free country.

Victoria Olufunmilayo Ajala (PhD) is Reader at Department of Human Communications, Bowen University, Nigeria, holds a BSc (1st Class honours), two MScs in Advertising and PR and PhD in Communication. She has published books and several research articles in local and international journals, and is Fellow of the NIPR, a member of the ACCE and the APRA.

The proposed structure consists of copper as a ground plane and 50 µm polyimide dielectric layer is placed in between the ground panel and top radiating patch. Octagon and pentagon shapes are combined to form a unit cell. This structure exhibits seven absorption peaks within the short frequency range 0.3–0.5 terahertz (THz) without any interference. Under normal incidence, this structure achieves the absorption of 96.9%, 95.3%, 98.7%, 91.7%, 96.5%, 95% and 97.8% at 0.3136 THz, 0.377 THz, 0.4060 THz, 0.4085 THz, 0.4240 THz, 0.4436 THz and 0.4648 THz, respectively. This study aims to provide a range of applications in THz dielectric sensing, thickness sensing, communications, wavelength selective radiation and detecting.

Multi-band THz metamaterial absorbers (MMA) from previous research are having a large unit size because of the presence of stacked layers and multiple resonators within a single unit cell. This leads to difficulty while implementing in practical applications. In this study, a new MMA has been presented at seven distinct frequencies without using stacked layers and multiple resonators.

This structure exhibits seven absorption peaks within the short frequency range 0.3–0.5 THz without any interference. Under normal incidence this structure achieves the absorption of 96.9%, 95.3%, 98.7%, 91.7%, 96.5%, 95% and 97.8% at 0.3136 THz, 0.377 THz, 0.4060 THz, 0.4085 THz, 0.4240 THz, 0.4436 THz and 0.4648 THz, respectively. The polarization and angle insensitivity of the design have been validated by numerical simulation up to 90° of oblique incidence. The effects of variation in geometrical parameters on absorption response are demonstrated. The physical mechanism of the structure is analysed by electric and magnetic field distributions. The resonant frequency ranges and the number of bands in this work are compared with previously reported papers. In THz range, this is the first time a single planar structure provides seven-band high-level absorption performance.

The highlights of the proposed seven-band THz MMA structure, in comparison with previous THz metamaterials, are as follows: this has a simple unit-cell structure and high resonant mechanism within the short frequency range 0.3–0.5 THz; this MMA can provide seven-band high-level absorption performance in a single planar structure for the first time in THz range; and this structure is polarization and incident angle independent in nature.

This paper investigates the linking between employees' working life (EWL) and job performance of ethnic minority Bangladeshi restaurants in Greater London.

The authors use in depth face-to-face interviews of 40 participants working in 20 Bangladeshi restaurants (BRs) following a convenience sampling method. A thematic analysis technique, with the help of QSR N10, developed two key themes related to EWL and performance.

These themes highlight several aspects of the relationship between EWL and performance. First, EWL is “beyond” the UK tradition; employers show a domineering attitude; however, employees continue to work due to lack of skills and competence. Second, employees perceive and present themselves as satisfied; however, this satisfaction is not reflected in the business performance of BRs. Third, the analysis shows that business owners “trap strategy” constrains employees to develop their skills for mobility to other industries. Hence, employees express satisfaction with their existing situation on the basis that it is the best they can hope for, given their specific skills and competence, and need for some security in the UK. Fourth, non-financial performance, for example, job autonomy, sense of fulfilment is related to EWL.

The paper provides a framework to promote a better understanding of the linking between employees' working life and performance of UK ethnic minority restaurants. Also, the paper makes recommendations for further research, including an examination of the applicability of the findings to SMEs operated by other ethnic groups in the UK.

This paper adds to the scarce literature on the working life of people in Bangladeshi restaurant businesses in the UK and the relationship between EWL and business performance.

Purpose – This chapter engages critically with the ideas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) in order to examine their utility for the purposes of realizing more socially just and environmentally sustainable social and economic practices.

Methodology/approach – The chapter develops Marx's understanding of the twin pressures of class struggle and inter-capitalist competition in setting the limits of agency for corporate actors. It is thus theoretical and discursive in nature.

Findings – The findings of the chapter suggest that the scope for corporate agency in relation to responsibility/irresponsibility is severely limited by inter-capitalist competition and capitalist social relations. It therefore argues that those interested in social justice and environmental sustainability should focus on these structural pressures rather than theorizing corporate agency.

Social implications – The research suggests that the focus of academic and government attention should be on resolving the contradictions and exploitative social relations inherent in capitalism. Without this emphasis activism, corporate agency and government action will not eradicate the types of problem that advocates of CSR/CSI are concerned about.

Originality/value of paper – The value of the paper is that it contests and engages critically with the utility of the notion of CSR and the emergent concept of CSI. It asks proponents of these concepts to think seriously about the structural pressures and constraints within which business and policy makers act.

This study aims to provide an overview of rapid prototyping (RP) and shows the potential of this technology in the field of medicine as reported in various journals and proceedings. This review article also reports three case studies from open literature where RP and associated technology have been successfully implemented in the medical field.

Key publications from the past two decades have been reviewed.

This study concludes that use of RP-built medical model facilitates the three-dimensional visualization of anatomical part, improves the quality of preoperative planning and assists in the selection of optimal surgical approach and prosthetic implants. Additionally, this technology makes the previously manual operations much faster, accurate and cheaper. The outcome based on literature review and three case studies strongly suggests that RP technology might become part of a standard protocol in the medical sector in the near future.

The article is beneficial to study the influence of RP and associated technology in the field of medicine.