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The purpose of the paper is to propose an effective approach of artificial intelligence (AI) addressing social-humanitarian reality comprising non-formalizable representation. The new task is to describe processes of integration of AI and humans in the hybrid systems framework.

Social-humanitarian dynamics contradict traditional characteristics of AI. Suggested methodology embraces formalized and non-formalized parts as a whole. Holonic and special convergent approaches are combined to ensure purposefulness and sustainability of collective decision-making. Inverse problem solving on topology spaces, control thermodynamics and non-formalizable (considering quantum and relativistic) semantics include observers of eigenforms of reality.

Collective decision-making cannot be represented only by formal means. Thus, this paper suggests the equation of hybrid reality (HyR), which integrates formalizable and non-formalizable parts conveying and coalescing holonic approaches, thermodynamic theory, cognitive modeling and inverse problem solving. The special convergent approach makes the solution of this equation purposeful and sustainable.

The suggested approach is far reaching with respect of current state-of-the-art technology; medium-term limitations are expected in the creation of cognitive semantics.

Social-humanitarian events embrace all phenomena connected with individual and collective human behavior and decision-making. The paper will impact deeply networked experts, groups of crowds, rescue teams, researchers, professional communities, society and environment.

New possibilities for advanced AI to enable purposeful and sustainable social-humanitarian subjects. The special convergent information structuring during collective decision-making creates necessary conditions toward the goals.

The purpose of this paper is to open up new lines of research into the engagement of corporations during humanitarian crises. The paper provides an introduction to core concepts in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as a comprehensive overview of when, why, how, and to what effect corporations engage in humanitarian action.

Building on extant literature and policy reports, the paper synthesizes concepts and insights to map the interdisciplinary field of research on corporate engagement in humanitarian action.

The paper systematically reviews and describes different dimensions of corporate engagement for delivering humanitarian action and explains key complications that inspire new research questions. In particular, the paper highlights challenges associated with getting corporations to engage in humanitarian action; challenges associated with ensuring effective corporate engagement; and challenges associated with ensuring ethical engagement.

By raising new questions about corporate engagement in humanitarian action, this paper develops an original and positive research agenda for international business, management research, and related fields.

The notion that disasters are not natural is longstanding, leading to a growing number of campaigns aimed at countering the use of the term “natural disaster.” Whilst these efforts are crucial, critical perspectives regarding the potential risks associated with this process are lacking, particularly in places affected by violent conflict. This paper aims to present a critical analysis of these efforts, highlighting the need to approach them with care.

The author draws upon insights and discussions accumulated over a decade of research into the relationship between disasters and conflict. The article includes a critical literature review on the disaster–conflict relationship and literature specifically addressing the idea that disasters are not natural. The analysis of field notes led to a second literature review covering topics such as (de) politicisation, instrumentalisation, disaster diplomacy, ethics, humanitarian principles, disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding and conflict sensitivity.

This analysis underscores the importance of advocating that disasters are not natural, especially in conflict-affected areas. However, an uncritical approach could lead to unintended consequences, such as exacerbating social conflicts or obstructing disaster-related actions. The article also presents alternatives to advance the understanding that disasters are not natural whilst mitigating risks, such as embracing a “do-no-harm” approach or conflict-sensitive analyses.

The author offers an innovative critical approach to advancing the understanding that disasters are not natural but socio-political. This perspective is advocated, especially in conflict-affected contexts, to address the root causes of both disasters and conflicts. The author also invites their peers and practitioners to prioritise reflective scholarship and practices, aiming to prevent the unintentional exacerbation of suffering whilst working towards its reduction.

Outsourcing of logistics has great importance in disaster relief. Aid agencies spend several billion US dollars every year on logistics services. However, the concept of outsourcing has not been established adequately in literature on humanitarian logistics, leading to a fragmented view of the practice. This paper provides a holistic perspective of the concept by constructing a conceptual framework to analyze both practice and research of outsourcing in humanitarian operations. Based on this analysis, we explore future trends and identify research gaps.

The paper is based on a structured review of academic literature, a two-round Delphi study with 31 experts from aid agencies and a complementary full-day focus group with twelve experts from aid agencies and logistics service providers.

The paper systemizes the current practice of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics according to a conceptual framework of five dimensions: subject, object, partner, design and context. In addition, it reveals ten probable developments of the practice over the next years. Finally, it describes eight important research gaps and presents a research agenda for the field.

The literature review considered peer-reviewed academic papers. Practitioner papers could provide additional insights into the practice. Moreover, the Delphi study focused on the perspective of aid agencies. Capturing the views of logistics service providers in more detail would be a valuable addition.

The paper establishes the academic basis for the important practice of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics. It highlights essential research gaps and, thereby, opens up the field for future research.

This study aims to address the noted gap in comprehensive overviews detailing the developmental trajectory of Islamic finance (IF) as an interdisciplinary academic field.

The study introduces a unique approach using the combined methodologies of co-word analysis and main path analysis (MPA) by examining a broad collection of IF research articles.

The investigation identifies dominant themes and foundational works that have influenced the IF discipline. The data reveals prominent areas such as Shariah governance, financial resilience, ethical dimensions and customer-centric frameworks. The MPA offers detailed insights, narrating a journey from the foundational principles of IF to its current challenges and opportunities. This journey covers harmonizing religious beliefs with contemporary financial models, changes in regulatory landscapes and the continuous effort to align with broader socioeconomic aspirations. Emerging areas of interest include using new technologies in IF, standardizing global Islamic banking and assessing its socioeconomic effects on broader populations.

This study represents a pioneering effort to map out and deepen the understanding of the IF field, highlighting its dynamic evolution and suggesting potential avenues for future academic exploration.

This study aims to examine the scope and contribution of Forensic Clinical Psychology (FCP) advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) to criminal investigations in the UK to address the gap in current knowledge and research.

The 36 FCP reports reviewed were written between 2017 and 2021. They were analysed using Toulmin’s (1958) application of pertinent arguments to the evaluation process. The potential utility of the reports was analysed in terms of the advice provided.

Most of the reports involved murder and equivocal death. The reports focused primarily on understanding the offender’s psychopathology, actions, motivation and risk to self and others using a practitioner model of case study methodology. Out of the 539 claims, grounds were provided for 99% of the claims, 91% had designated modality, 62% of the claims were potentially verifiable and 57% of the claims were supported by a warrant and/or backing. Most of the reports provided either moderate or high insight into the offence/offender (92%) and potential for new leads (64%).

The advice provided relied heavily on extensive forensic clinical and investigative experience of offenders, guided by theory and research and was often performed under considerable time pressure. Flexibility, impartiality, rigour and resilience are essential prerequisites for this type of work.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically evaluate forensic clinical psychology reports from the NCA. It shows the pragmatic, dynamic and varied nature of FCP contributions to investigations and its potential utility.

This paper aims to investigate the relationships amongst career patterns, neutrality of the state civil apparatus, and organizational performance of the local government in South Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi Province in Indonesia.

Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the relationships between variables through direct and indirect influence testing.

The findings reveal that career patterns influence neutrality and organizational performance. Neutrality of the state civil apparatus in politics mediates career patterns and local government organizational performance. The findings indicate that, first, promotions most significantly influence the organization’s neutrality and performance. Second, demotions have the least influence on the organization’s robustness and performance.

This paper is among the first to examine the relationships amongst career patterns, neutrality, and organizational performance. Recommendations are provided to improve neutrality and organizational performance, that is, the need to increase promotions and reduce demotions.

The purpose of this paper is to map and analyse the literature from 1989 to 2016 on humanitarian supply chain management (SCM) responding to refugees. This literature review systematically assesses existing literature, thereby highlighting gaps, challenges and directions for future research.

The authors apply a structured content analysis method which has been recognised as a traceable, systematic and reproducible research tool to analyse qualitative and quantitative aspects of existing literature.

The relative scarcity of literature implies that the interface of the fields of Humanitarian SCM and refugees has been rarely addressed. More specifically, the quantitative content analysis highlights a dearth of research that focusses on both fields in a well-balanced manner. In particular, empirical, practice-led studies, as well as research on development aid operations are under-represented. The qualitative analysis finds that further research on logistics models as well as technological innovations is necessary to increase data availability, forecast accuracy and the efficiency of (local) supply network operations during disasters.

The review suggests a number of areas in need of future research, proposes possibilities of collaborations between different actors and provides a research agenda for Humanitarian SCM in the context of refugees.

This review is the first to analyse the literature on Humanitarian SCM related to refugees.

The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual framework that sets out the linkages that exist between digitalisation and active labour market policies (ALMPs).

Based on a narrative literature review, this article seeks to connect two research streams, namely that relating to ALMPs and that relating to digitalisation in the public sector. This exercise requires an understanding of both how the context of digitalisation in the public sector has evolved in relation to technological change and the identification of specific ALMPs that are more sensitive to digitalisation.

Starting from the identification of ideal-types of ALMPs, “employment assistance” can be considered the type of policies most sensitive to digitalisation, looking at main forms of interventions as career guidance, profiling and job-matching tools. The first tool is closer to a technological domain of “remotisation”, while the second is closer to that of “automatisation”.

Achieving an understanding of the different degrees of sensitivity to digitalisation for various types of ALMPs is relevant for policy-making purposes to identify potential priority areas of strategic investment to enhance this sector.

The authors present an understanding of the current state of the digitalisation of public employment services. The literature review itself allowed the authors to conclude that, despite the interests in the public and academic debate, the existing research relating to the digitalisation of public employment services remains scant. At the same time, the article points towards fertile areas for further analysis.

The aim of this study is to empirically explore and analyze the concrete tasks of output measurement and the inherent challenges related to these tasks in a traditional and autonomous professional public work setting – the judicial system.

The analysis of the tasks is based on a categorization of general performance measurement motives (control-motivate-learn) and main stakeholder levels (society-organization-professionals). The analysis is exploratory and conducted as an empirical content analysis on materials and reports produced in two performance improvement projects conducted in European justice organizations.

The identified main tasks in the different categories are related to managing resources, controlling performance deviations, and encouraging improvement and development of performance. Based on the results, key improvement areas connected to output measurement in professional public organizations are connected to the improvement of objectivity and fairness in budgeting and work allocation practices, improvement of output measures' versatility and informativeness to highlight motivational and learning purposes, improvement of professional self-management in setting output targets and producing outputs, as well as improvement of organizational learning from the output measurement.

The paper presents empirically founded practical examples of challenges and improvement opportunities related to the tasks of output measurement in professional public organization.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how general performance management motives realize as concrete tasks of output measurement in justice organizations.