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This chapter reviews research on age-related differences in how consumers process information. Specifically, it discusses many of the effects of aging on the quality and quantity of consumers' sensory, cognitive, and emotional functioning. Some studies suggest that the manner in which elderly (age 65 and over) consumers process information may render them more vulnerable than young and middle-aged consumers to malign persuasion attempts. This chapter reveals that age has selective effects on information processing such that elderly consumers are sometimes more susceptible to marketing influence and sometimes they are less susceptible.

This paper presents a case study of successful rural school leadership in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices were adapted to secure rural school success.

The author used the International Successful School Principalship Project research protocols to develop a multiple-perspective, mixed-method case study that investigated the principal's leadership at the school.

The findings illustrate how the leadership practices of the principal healed the fractured school–community relationships, which allowed the school community to work together towards a common school vision. A key factor in the school's success was the principal's personal connection to the local rural community of which he was a part. This notion of native connection could have practical implications for the recruitment and retention of rural principals in the future.

Whilst it is widely acknowledged that principals need to consider their school and community contexts when making leadership decisions, there have been few studies that have focussed on understanding how this can be achieved in the context of rural schools. This case provides a rich account of a principal's leadership practices in one successful school in rural Australia.

In January 2021, the state government of NSW, Australia, announced that all year 9 and 10 elective courses developed by schools will be phased out. This paper offers a brief historical account of school-developed board-endorsed courses (SDBECs) in NSW and a close analysis of the policy to phase them out.

I give an historical account of the meaning and place of SDBECs within the NSW school system, before situating the policy decision to phase them out within the broader historical and political context of curriculum reform in NSW. Finally, I offer an analysis of the discourses and framing of the policy both across curriculum review reports and in the government and public rhetoric, by examining policy documents, government media releases, news and blog articles at the time of the policy change.

This policy change and surrounding discourses are contextualised and analysed to show how the curriculum came to be blamed for a host of educational problems, and how the government arrived at their irrational yet politically expedient policy response by distorting the meaning of one metaphor: the crowded curriculum. I conclude with a reading of the policy as indicative of centralisation and de-legitimisation of teachers’ curriculum development work.

The convergence of state and federal discourse about curriculum as a site of cleaning up, reforming or re-organising should concern educators in Australia especially as authority over education is increasingly centralised and made vulnerable to political whim. Close studies of such minor policy decisions provide a window into how larger processes of centralisation are justified and enacted at the local level.

In a dual financial system where both conventional and Islamic financial institutions co-exist, the motives behind customers’ choices of financial products remain a crucial factor to comprehend. Thus, this paper aims to examine the influence of Islamic financial literacy (IFL) and motives (religious, ethical and economic) on the holdings of Islamic financial products (IFPs).

The sample consists of 234 bank customers in Klang Valley, Malaysia, with data obtained through a convenience sampling method. The instrument used was a digital survey that was electronically sent to respondents.

Findings reveal that IFL and religious motives positively influence IFPs, whereas economic motives negatively influence IFPs. Ethical motives have no significant impact on IFPs.

The findings imply that IFPs attract customers due to their adherence to Islamic teachings, indicating strong religious motives. However, the negative leanings of the economic motive suggest that customers may perceive IFPs as less favourable due to higher costs and risks relative to conventional products. Islamic financial institutions must widen their efforts in educating the public regarding IFPs on the benefits of adherence to Shariah principles and at the same time improve their products’ cost-benefits.

This study contributes to the literature by comprehensively examining IFPs in terms of both assets and financing products. In addition, IFL is measured in an all-inclusive way, covering different dimensions of knowledge related to Islamic savings, investments, protection and financing.

In modern societies, consumer well-being is dependent on choices regarding complex services, such as investments, health care, insurance and lending. However, evaluating costs of such services is often difficult for consumers due to a combination of limited cognitive resources and complexity of the service. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine to what extent three specific consequences of complexity influence consumer tendencies to make mistakes when evaluating the costs (or price) of complex services.

Three studies were conducted (survey: n = 153, experiment: n = 332 and conjoint analysis: n = 225), all focusing on how consumers evaluate costs in the complex mutual fund setting.

The authors find that consumers struggle with estimating and using cost information in decision-making in the complex services setting. Consumers of complex services frequently underestimate the costs over the long-term, may see costs as a signal of service quality and are susceptible to influence from presentation formats when evaluating costs.

The study investigates mutual funds, which is one example of a complex service. In order to get a full picture of how consumers deal with costs in complex setting, future research needs to expand this focus to other types of complex services.

The results have implications for both marketers of complex services and policymakers. For marketers, this paper highlights that competing with a low-cost strategy may be difficult in the complex services setting as consumers may lack the ability to actually evaluate what they pay over the long term. For policymakers, increased simplification of prices may be an attractive option. However, it is important that this simplification is done in a way that increases the possibility to compare prices.

As complexity influences several aspects of decision-making, an understanding of how consumers evaluate costs in complex settings is dependent on taking a multidimensional research approach. This paper makes a novel contribution to the literature on pricing by showing that consumers struggle with multiple aspects when evaluating costs in complex contexts. Understanding these effects is important to policy, as well as to research on the cognitive value of simplicity that is currently gaining traction in marketing research.

Colonial epistemes distort ideologies through power structures and control, perpetuating differences and the development of an inferior status. This study aims to serve dual purposes: Firstly, the authors advocate for Pacific and international business (IB) researchers to consider adopting inclusive research practices, particularly regarding Pacific and indigenous populations. Secondly, the authors argue that decolonization presents conflicting challenges, demonstrating that the authors still have a long way to go regarding the decolonization agenda within academia, the university, IB and broader society.

An essay style is adopted to introduce inclusive Pacific research practices specific to the Pacific context, what that looks like and the advantages of using culturally appropriate methods.

This paper highlights some examples that justify why Pacific methods should be used, such as spirituality and prayers underpinned by the va (i.e. relational spaces) – a concept well-known in Pacific cultures but missing in Western academic frameworks, models and approaches. Additionally, the authors found that the endeavours to be inclusive can paradoxically lead to exclusion and marginalization within academia, the university and popular mainstream media.

This paper enriches IB theory and pedagogy by advocating for the co-creation of inclusive research practices in collaboration with Pacific and indigenous communities. It contributes to the broader movement to restore indigenous knowledge and scholarship research spaces.

The originality and value of the viewpoint lie in its potential to stimulate conversations and reflections among IB researchers regarding inclusive research practices of decoloniality. Thereby strengthening the “trumpet-shell” call to decolonize the field and academia, which IB as a discipline should not be immune to.

Rural indigenous schools in Malaysia can be far from equipped with facilities and conducive learning environments, especially in schools serving a large and diverse community. SK RPS (Rancangan Penempatan Semula/Resettlement Programme) Banun is an all-indigenous school located in the interiors of Gerik, Perak in Malaysia. Being the only school in the vicinity of an Orang Asli settlement comprising 18 villages of the Je hai and Temiar tribes, this public school is said to be a one stop hub for the community. Despite the school's existence, there are several challenges which hinders children of the Orang Asli community to attain a quality education or in some cases to even go to school. This paper is written based on the lived experiences of three teachers from mid-2022 to mid-2023 and amplifies the day-to-day challenges of the school and its community. The paper also discusses the initiatives implemented to tackle some of the challenges, highlighting key successes and suggestions to improve some areas particularly in enhancing and reimagining pedagogical approaches as well as learning environments in Orang Asli schools in Malaysia.

Financial literacy, capability and behavior are crucial factors in personal financial management, which in turn plays a significant role in individual and societal financial well-being. The objective of this investigation is to explain critical factors and dimensions of personal financial management systems by employing a hybrid approach that encompasses a bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of the literature.

The research team carefully evaluated a selection of 606 scholarly articles from the Scopus database and studied the evolution of personal financial management behavior over 38 years (1986–2023). This research adopted several graphical representations and network structures to comprehend publishing tendencies, high-impact papers, theoretical frameworks, intellectual constructs as well as the current state of research collaboration.

Four major clusters were identified in the field of personal financial management behavior: the relationship between financial literacy and financial capability, factors influencing financial behavior, the impact of financial behavior on financial well-being and the financial behavior of different demographic groups. In addition, by performing content analysis on papers published within the last five years, new themes in personal financial management behavior were identified.

This investigation serves to equip financial advisors, policy architects and scholarly investigators with a deeper insight into the intricacies of personal financial management behavior and aids in pinpointing prospective domains for forthcoming research.

This study seeks to address a significant vacuum in the current body of research by providing a thorough bibliometric analysis that specifically examines financial literacy, ability and conduct. To the best of our knowledge, no previous research has conducted such a comprehensive investigation in this field. This research aims to identify important researchers and influential works in the subject by using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including content analysis. The purpose of doing this is to provide exclusive insights and expertise that can be highly valuable to scholars, practitioners, policymakers and other stakeholders who are interested in furthering the comprehension and encouragement of financial literacy and responsible financial behavior.

The purpose of this article is for three teacher educators to reflect on their use of mapping and mapping-adjacent activities in university courses vis-à-vis the development of their own critical praxis toward spatial justice. The authors focus on how the centering of geospatial literacies through spatial justice issues impacts the development of criticality for preservice teachers and their teacher educators.

The paper opted for collaborative reflections about our teacher educator praxis through self-study and critical friends. Three teacher educators wrote vignettes about their experiences with place-based mapping approaches in teacher education coursework.

The paper suggests that mapping activities (broadly defined) create space(s) for courageous conversations on difficult topics (e.g. race and social-economic status). These spaces are not only between teacher and student but also can be extended to teacher educators by focusing on critical and collaborative self-study.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to use critical and collaborative reflection to inform their own praxis.

The paper shares pedagogical approaches and reflections for highlighting geospatial literacies and critical place consciousness within teacher education.

This has significance as there is a relative dearth of literature detailing how critical teacher educators can learn with and from each other when working to focus place-based learning in the context of teacher preparation.

This paper analyzes the differential experiences of women in the Canadian labour market who hold lower-skilled jobs and have school-age children during two waves of Covid compared with more typical conditions pre-pandemic. The article seeks to test the hypothesis that workers at the intersection of womanhood, motherhood and precarious employment would endure even more disadvantageous labour market outcomes during the Covid pandemic than they did prior to it.

We employ a Gender-Based Plus (GBA+) and intersectionality lens to examine the differential effect of Covid on the effect of the trifecta of being a woman in a lower-skilled job and facing a motherhood penalty from school-age children. We use a Difference-in-Difference framework with Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to examine the differential effect of two waves of Covid on three labour market outcomes: employment, hours worked and hourly wages.

We find that being a woman in a lower-skilled job with school-age children is associated with lower employment, hours worked and wages in normal times compared to males in those same situations. Such women also face the most severe adjustment consequence from the Covid shock, with that adjustment concentrated on the margin of employment and restricted to the First Wave and not the subsequent Omicron Wave.

The paper studies a specific intersectional group, assesses pre-pandemic, peak-pandemic and late-pandemic differences in labour market outcomes and runs separate estimations for different job skill levels. We also study a more comprehensive list of labour market outcomes than most studies of a similar nature.