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The purpose of this paper is to report research carried out by the Mixed Economy Group of colleges into the student experience of part time (PT) higher education (HE) delivered in English further education (FE) colleges.

An online survey was completed by 352 PT students. Their responses, including free comments, formed the basis of the report. The authors provide a context for the work by referring to research carried out by other national agencies.

The research illustrates the strengths of college-based HE, which largely derives from delivery by staff who are qualified teachers and, often, professionally active in their field of expertise. Whilst valuing this, students also seek recognition of the demands of work and family on their study time, as well as an identity as HE students within the greater FE environment.

PT HE can drive regional economic growth. By addressing the issues raised by students in the research, local colleges, partner universities, employers and national government can re-build local skill bases. Promoting PT HE develops a vocational ladder to HE, thus widening participation.

Relatively little publically available research exists into the experiences of students pursuing PT HE in colleges. This primary research begins an evidence-based debate about how colleges can improve their offer but also reminds Government of the need to give equal weight to the needs of PT students in future changes to the delivery of HE.

This paper aims to develop a procedure for preparing production transfers based on risk management principles. The procedure should help companies reduce the amount of supply chain disruptions during transfers and achieve their outsourcing/offshoring objectives.

The procedure was developed during a three-year Design Science study. First, a literature review and case studies were conducted to frame the research problem. Second, a preliminary procedure was developed based on preventive risk mitigation actions from the production transfer literature. Third, the procedure was implemented during an electronics-offshoring case and refined during workshops with the sender and receiver’s transfer personnel. Fourth, during a seminar, transfer practitioners verified the procedure by applying it to outsourcing/offshoring cases with which they had experience.

Most of the preventive actions were evaluated as relevant for the transfers the procedure was applied to, regardless of industry and relocation type. Moreover, the electronics-offshoring case showed that the success of a production transfer not only depends on the physical, knowledge and supply chain transfers, as presented in earlier research, but also on the administrative transfer and on the organisation, project and quality management actions. This paper also attempts to enhance the production transfer literature by clarifying transfer risk management.

The procedure can be used during the production transfer phase as a preparation procedure. Moreover, it informs the decision-making process during the relocation-decision and supplier-selection phases.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first production-transfer-preparation procedure based on risk management principles.

Higher education system has a critical role to play in educating environmentally aware and participant citizens about global climate change (CC). And, as shown by the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Climate Change – COP 21, held in Paris in December 2015, there is still a path to be followed regarding the role played by universities in the negotiations and in influencing decision-making on a matter of such global importance. The purpose of this first study conducted within Portuguese (Europe), Mexican (Spanish-speaking North America University) and Mozambican (Africa) universities is to investigate higher education system students’ perceptions on CC.

The data were collected through a questionnaire aiming at characterising students from the socio-demography, and from their perceptions, motivations, attitudes and knowledge relating to the topic of CC. Statistical analysis was used to compare and characterise the three national groups under study.

This study did not show significant perception differences among the analysed subsamples, although there was a tendency for Mexican students to express lesser belief that CC was happening, and for Mozambicans to show a greater belief in CC issues and motivation to mitigate its effects which may be related to the specifics contexts. The results show that relevant differences among nationalities mostly concerned the magnitude of choices (e.g. most respondents of each nationality expressed interest in CC issues, but the magnitude of this expression differed according to nationality). The principal component analysis (second and third components) clearly embodied nationality profiles (discussed in the context of different cultures, educational structures and CC impacts).

Further research is warranted to understand the integration of CC into higher education curriculum to improve and target educational efforts to suit students’ needs.

How CC perceptions vary cross-nationally and how research studies that examine the integration of CC into higher education curriculum are areas for which more research is needed.

The results highlight the importance of socio-cultural dimensions of each country in relation to the understanding or perception of CC issues, namely, in what concerns aspects related with gender roles, age, active learning and citizenship. This study’s data evidenced that despite the surveyed students being familiarized with CC phenomena, this knowledge does not translate necessarily into concrete mitigation practices and behaviours.

In the Foreword to the first Annual Report of the Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members, Mrs.Gill Rowlands says “As Commissioner I am able to provide material assistance to union members contemplating or taking certain proceedings in connection with … matters specified [in] … the 1988 Act. If assistance is granted, the applicant will know that he/she will not be placed at a disadvantage by a lack of ability to obtain legal advice or pay legal costs in connection with those proceedings.”

Recently, the Government of India has emphasized digital financial inclusion for promoting cashless transactions with a vision to transform India from a traditional cash-based economy into a cashless economy. Technology-driven payment apps are facilitated greater access to cashless financial services and improve the speed, efficiency, accuracy and effectiveness of financial transactions. This study aims to explore the determinants of quick response (QR) code mobile payment (m-payment) adoption intention among marginalized street vendors in India.

The proposed research model was tested using 320 responses from QR code m-payment users. An interview schedule was performed using the structured questionnaire from marginalized street vendors by adopting a purposive sampling technique. The proposed research framework of this study developed on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). In addition to the existing variables proposed in the UTAUT model, three more variables have been added, namely, digital financial literacy (DFL), personal innovativeness (PI) and perceived trust (PT). Besides, the study used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques to analyze the data.

This study confirms that factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, PT and customers’ DFL are significant determinants of street vendors’ intention to use QR code m-payment services. However, social influence and PI have shown an insignificant relationship with adopting a QR code m-payment system.

The results provide insights for policymakers and service providers. Specifically, government and bankers design promotional campaigns emphasizing the ease of use, perceived benefits, security and faster business transactions to accept and use the QR code m-payment system to encourage prospective users to achieve a cashless economy.

Many prior studies have widely concentrated on m-payment adoption intention in India. However, only a few studies have attempted to examine the factors influencing the adoption of QR code m-payment services among merchants from emerging economies. There is a dearth of studies on QR code adoption from an unorganized sector perspective, specifically marginalized street vendors. Therefore, this study explicitly examines the extent to which the determinants of adoption intention toward QR code-based m-payment services among marginalized street vendors within the framework of the extended UTAUT model by incorporating DFL, PI and PT. The findings of this study contribute, theoretically and practically, to the existing literature.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of behavioral intention and actual usage of mobile payment (m-payment) services during the COVID-19 pandemic among Indian consumers.

The proposed research model of this study is based on the extended framework of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) by using two additional variables, namely, perceived security (PS) and perceived trust (PT). In total, 436 sample respondents are chosen from Indian consumers with experience using m-payment services through the online survey method. The data analysis and proposed hypothetical relationships were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques.

The results confirm that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, PS, PT, habit and price value are antecedents of consumer intention toward adopting m-payment services. Furthermore, behavioral intention significantly influences the actual usage of m-payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the impact of COVID-19 has been observed during the research period in getting responses from m-payment service users, the constructs used in the study are confined to the UTAUT2 model, and dimensions related to COVID-19 are not directly included in the measurement scale. The study’s findings propose valuable insights for service providers and policymakers.

This study’s results offer valuable insights to the service providers and policymakers to achieve the Government of India digital India objective of “Faceless, Paperless and Cashless” transactions.

This study’s results contribute to extending the empirical research literature on m-payment as antecedents of behavioral intention toward the adoption of m-payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study assumes important interrelationships among UTAUT2 constructs with the additional incorporation of PS and PT.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how accountability practices can enable sociopolitical emancipation.

The authors explore the emancipatory potential of accountability from a Bourdieusian perspective. The study is informed by a two-month socio-ethnographic study of the participatory budgeting (PB) process in Porto Alegre (Brazil). The field study enabled us to observe accountability and participatory practices, conduct 18 semi-structured interviews with councillors, and analyze survey data gathered from budgeting participants.

The paper demonstrates how PB both strengthened the dominants in the Porto Alegrense political field and changed the game played in this field; was characterized by accountability practices favouring the election of councillors with distinctive capitals, who were “dominated-dominants dominating the dominated”; brought emancipatory perspectives to councillors and, by doing so, opened the path to social change but also widened the gap with ordinary participants.

The research supports Shenkin and Coulson’s (2007) thesis by demonstrating that accountability, when associated with participative democracy, can create substantial social change. Significantly, by investigating the emancipatory potential of accountability, the authors challenge the often taken-for-granted assumption in critical research that accountability reinforces asymmetrical power relations, and the authors explore alternative accountability practices. Doing so enables us to rethink the possibilities of accountability and their practical implications.

The authors study the most emblematic example of participatory democracy in South America; and the authors use Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to approach accountability at a community level.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which traditional field training incorporates community‐oriented policing and problem solving in its formal evaluation process. Can community policing be successfully integrated into the San Jose field training model as a formal component of training and evaluation of police recruits?

The paper analyzes formal field training evaluations and narratives in one police agency that uses the San Jose Field Training Officer Program. The agency endorses and practices community policing and problem solving.

Field training in this agency did not successfully integrate community policing and problem solving into the formal evaluation process.

Because field training occurs immediately after the academy, it is the best place to expose recruits to community policing and problem solving in practice, thus linking training with practice. If police agencies are truly committed to community policing, they must update their field training curricula to reflect the new philosophy and practice.

Though there has been considerable research in the area of community policing, little of it focuses on training, especially field training. Ironically, even though most agencies claim to practice community policing, they have failed to prepare their officers in the philosophies and skills necessary to perform the tasks well. Police academies are beginning to train recruits in community policing, but most agencies still use the San Jose FTO model, which was developed before contemporary community policing existed. Because field training is such an important part of police socialization, it must teach recruits the skills of community policing.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).