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Since June 2000, dot.com companies in Hong Kong have followed the same pattern of downsizing as their counterparts in the West. Explores the downsizing phenomenon in the Internet industry, the employees’ views on the experience of downsizing in the industry, their job orientation and work expectations. Questionnaires were distributed with the endorsement of an employees’ association to its members. Three sets of interviews were conducted to obtain background information on the labour department, the Internet industry and association, and the respondents’ views. The major findings include that the employees of this industry have high educational levels, are young in age and worked long hours. Those who have experienced downsizing and closure tend to feel the injustice of the practice regardless of the compensation provided. For job orientation and work expectations, the majority of respondents tend to feel that the industry offers good prospects and promotion opportunities, but, on the other hand, they tend not to be satisfied with their present working environment. Female respondents tend to look for intrinsic rewards and they are more likely to be the target for downsizing.

Strengths-based professional development has been associated with positive outcomes in academia and in the organizational workplace. Students pursuing their doctoral degrees in the biomedical sciences in the US are often on graduate assistantships, where they experience an academic component to their training integrated with an employee-like existence. The individual who serves as their academic and research advisor is often their supervisor, who pays their stipend. The traditional training structure poses unique challenges and may be accompanied by stress, burnout and imposter phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to utilize a strengths-based approach to equip students with essential personal and professional skills that build self-awareness and self-confidence further preparing them for their future in the scientific workforce.

The authors developed and implemented a novel strengths-based professional development cohort program for doctoral students in the biomedical sciences at a research-intensive (R1) institution. The program was designed to create a supportive and inclusive space for participants (n = 18) to explore their identity as a student and scientists and to develop and leverage their talents for more effective and strategic use. Program outcomes were evaluated through a mixed methods case study design using a post-program Likert-based survey (n = 10 participants) and participant interviews (n = 13). Explanatory sequential design was used in the interpretation of the findings.

The results show that the program had a positive impact on students’ perceptions of themselves as scientists, as well as on their self-efficacy, self-confidence and interpersonal interactions in the research setting.

This strengths-based professional development program demonstrates immense potential as a model to equip students with self-awareness and a new foundation of essential skills needed to supplement their technical and scientific training for their future careers in the team-based workplace.

This study demonstrates how professional development programming can complement scientific training by equipping students with self-awareness and other lifelong skills to navigate feelings of imposter phenomenon and interpersonal relationships in the team-based workplace.

People with cognitive disabilities have a right to an inclusive society, and to have access to services and products that meet their specific needs. Participatory design (PD) represents a potentially effective way to ensure these rights, because users become influencers of the technological development and design process, are actively involved in the customization of that technology and develop a relationship with the designers/developers. Literature suggests that user involvement in technology development produces better products and has shown that this process offers users a voice and the process is also conducive to mutual learning between researchers and participants. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Here the authors will present the development of a virtual world (VW) platform, having as a starting point a minimally viable initial version. This was followed by the creation of a networking framework to test each feature of the VW, which allowed connected users, most of whom on the autistic spectrum, to interact with each other in real time in the VW, and to see each other’s effects. Stress testing sessions were initiated with a mixed group of 15 users, 8 of whom with autism (7 male and 1 female). Ten of the participants were male and five were female (Figure 1).

Even though the platform is feature-complete, its code is still in development; features can be improved/expanded upon, which necessitates further testing. The most commonly flagged issues from the stress testing were requests for videos/text manuals, the camera controls and chat message errors. These were implemented/fixed or added to the feature roadmap. “Heavy avatar customization” was also suggested, which has conceptual merit, but is not a priority.

PD is an inclusive approach that addresses personal needs and preferences, matching up the person with the tools and environments to ensure equity and inclusion. The VW whose development is described in this paper has been used for communication skills training with autistic young adults. It could be used for other social, life, academic and vocational skills training. This type of training through VR/VW may help enhance the employment-related skills of neurodiverse populations (and thus empower independent living) and has the potential for broader implementation and wider access in terms of distance learning.

This paper adds to the rather limited literature on applying PD approaches in the development of products for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The authors will present such a process for the development of a VW with people with autism. Although literature suggests that user involvement produces better outcomes, adopting this approach is not straightforward. The paper will describe in detail not only the contribution the participants made in every phase but also the limitations of applying a PD approach with a neurodiverse population, in order for them to be equal partners in the process and be involved in a meaningful way.

This study aims to explore the lived experience of loneliness among a group of people diagnosed with the contested diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In so doing, it contributes to works offering dimensional conceptualisations of personality disorders and contributes to loneliness study more broadly which has seen a rise in interest since the Covid-19 epidemic and the subsequent enforced isolation and the resultant new phenomenon of sudden loneliness.

Participants with diagnoses of BPD were recruited through a combination of calls through online fora and announcements at self-help groups. A total of 25 people made contact, with interviews eventually being carried out with 14 of these. They were invited to take part in unstructured, recorded one-to-one interviews. Thematic analysis was used in this study, which used a narrative phenomenological approach using an Arendtian lens.

Through attending to the interwoven themes in the narratives of trauma, loss and loneliness, it emerged that the enduring loneliness experienced was compounded by repeated instances of testimonial injustice.

This study supports the need for a further deepening of our understanding of the complexity of experience at the interface of loneliness and mental ill health.

This study critiques the reductive assumptions behind websites, simplistic tool kits and training within the mental health arena dictating “what works” for loneliness. The paper argues for health professionals to develop a more nuanced listening to reported loneliness and that part of what may compound this complex experience among people diagnosed with personality disorder is epistemic injustice, rife within a climate of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism has been identified as a key driver of distinct shifts in mental health policy and the commodification of mental health. Its fixation with medicalisation and its drive to treat “mental illness” as a problem within the individual positions people as self-contained agents and downplays, or worse, ignores the social, cultural and economic dimensions that contribute to the person’s distress. Neoliberalism’s discourse of “responsibilization” for example, urges individuals that families, communities and workplaces rather than publicly funded services become the main resources to respond to in times of mental distress. This, however, assumes a concreteness to these institutions which may be illusory and leaves those in difficulty dependent on presumed immediate social circles. These circles, however, if they exist, may contain the very people who have failed individuals or subjected them to the testimonial injustices so often cited in the narratives of this research.

The Arendtian account of loneliness rests on the premise that the human being of contemporary society is afflicted with a sense of isolation and homelessness, further exacerbated in today’s neoliberal context. By drawing on this account, the enmeshed and complex nature of mental illness, loneliness and dislocation from society and the ways in which continued epistemic injustice negatively impact on mental well-being are laid bare. Phenomenology of loneliness goes some way to helping people without the devastating life experiences common to those diagnosed, rightly or not, with a personality disorder gain a sense of the experience, and this research argues for psychological practice to be more mindful of this literature and the value of closely heard first-person narratives.

Research on the socialization experiences, professional development, and success of students and faculty have generally emphasized the importance and role of advisors as the support mechanism for graduate or doctoral students (e.g., Baird, 1995; Bargar & Mayo-Chamberlain, 1983; Gardner, 2009; Golde, 2001; Lovitts, 2001; Tinto, 1993; Zhao, Golde, & McCormick, 2005), rather than the role that mentoring and support can have for undergraduate students. King (2003) defines mentoring as a relationship that “suggests a level of personal interaction, nurture, and guidance that exceeds the requirements of ‘good enough’ research advising” (p. 15). King further states that “rather than being concerned solely with the student's completing the dissertation or developing technical competence, the mentor is concerned with promoting a broader range of psychosocial, intellectual, and professional development” (p. 15). King's definition should not be confined to just students at a doctoral level. If we assume that the decision to attend college occurs for both personal and professional reasons, then it stands to reason that providing a different level of support and mentoring should also enhance both the personal and the professional aspects the academic experience for those involved, regardless of academic level. Thus, the one tool that could have lasting and profound effects for the academic success of African American women that clearly seems to be lacking is mentoring.

This study aims to investigate the adoption intention of artificial intelligence (AI) in family businesses through the perspectives of digital entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship orientation.

The study examines contributing factors explaining the adoption intention of AI in the context of family businesses. The developed research model is examined and validated using structural equation modelling based on 631 respondents' data. Purposeful sampling is used to collect the respondents' data.

The proposed model included two endogenous (i.e. business innovativeness and adoption intention) and six exogenous variables (i.e. affordances, culture and flexible design, entrepreneurial orientation, generativity, openness and technology orientation) through ten direct paths and three indirect paths. The results depicted the significant influence of all the exogenous variables on the endogenous variable reflecting support of all the hypotheses. The business innovativeness partially mediates the relationships of culture and flexible design, entrepreneurial orientation and technology orientation with adoption intention. Further, the results demonstrated a model variance of 24.6% for business innovativeness and 64.2% for adoption intention of artificial intelligence in the family business.

The study contributes to theoretical developments in entrepreneurship and family business research and AI's theoretical progress, especially to digital entrepreneurship.

Theoretically, it contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship, particularly digital entrepreneurship. Additionally, the research model adds to the role of entrepreneurial orientation and digital entrepreneurship in the emerging family entrepreneurship literature. Considering the scarcity of research in this field, the empirically validated model explaining critical antecedents of AI adoption intention in the family business is a foundation for discussion, critique and future research.

AFTER‐CONFERENCE time is the period of reflection, and this year one involving several interests. There was uttered on the platform a warning that the question of the government control of public libraries was in the air; and Mr. Jast rigidly deprecated the discussion of the matter as a bye‐product of another subject then being debated. Library authorities and librarians, however, are asking for a lead from the Library Association, the only body competent or authorized to give it, and no doubt this will form the cardinal “policy” question of the winter.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experience of loneliness amongst people who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

The research used a narrative phenomenological approach.

The study found that the loneliness experienced amongst this group of participants was perceived to have taken root in childhood and was not a transient state. Its endurance, however, had led participants to develop a number of strategies as means by which to manage what was felt to be a deep seated painful sense of emptiness; some of these strategies were, however, risky or harmful.

Limitations of the study include the absence of longitudinal data which would have offered the opportunity for the close study of how people manage the experience over time.

The study has practical implications for mental health professionals wishing to better understand the difficulties faced by individuals with the characteristics described, but it also highlights the resilience of sufferers who, while living with acute loneliness continue to explore ways of managing it.

The study brings to the attention that the connectivity and sociability required and expected in today’s society emphasise the lack of lonely individuals, further stigmatising loneliness as deficit and taboo.

The paper offers a welcome addition to loneliness studies in its adherence to the phenomenological experience and offers a small corrective to the bulk of existing loneliness studies which, while valuable have been more attentive to exploring the constituent elements of loneliness than the lived experience of it.