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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

SMEs in Canada account for around 90% of private sector jobs, and yet they are unable to invest in upskilling to counter the pervasive skilled labor shortages hitting the economy.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Active and transformative learning is a holistic strategy for the enhancement of the unique value proposition of education and learning. In Chapter 1 of this edited volume we introduced a unique value proposition on the impact of ATL in higher education and we communicated a five-tier value framework including pillars related to ATL, higher education, industry, entrepreneurship, research& development, and innovation. In this concluding chapter we move the discussion on another context. With emphasis on the robust and resilient strategy of the Vision 2030 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we comment on the capacity of the ATL to facilitate, to enable and to transform positively the added value of the Vision 2030 implementation. The chapter is organized as follows. At the beginning, we provide a short overview of the Vision 2030 mandate, and then based on the ATL metaphors we presented in Chapter 1 of this edited volume, we strategize the ATL framework towards the implementation and the resilience of the Vision 2030.

The purpose of this study is to investigate manufacturing industry leaders’ perspectives on the prevailing skills gap in the current Illinois workforce. The insights gained hold significant importance for the emerging generation of workers, helping them discern the essential proficiencies and plan their educational and career paths in response.

Guided by Becker’s (1962) human capital theory (HCT) framework, a qualitative study was conducted to identify the skills gap and explore the perspectives of manufacturing industry leaders. Fourteen industry leaders participated in this study, representing various occupational industries.

The findings underscore the prominence of the skills gap as perceived by manufacturing industry leaders, with notable aspects including limited durable skills and difficulty transitioning from content-based knowledge to practical skills.

The findings of this study can offer insights to researchers, scholars and practitioners in the field of human resource development, as well as to leaders in the manufacturing industry who aim to address the skills gap. Furthermore, this research can inform policy decisions and assist higher education institutions in preparing students for careers in the industry.

This study investigated two key aspects: (1) how a hospital bundles limited resources for preventive care performance and (2) how to develop IS capabilities to enhance preventive care performance.

A case study method was adopted to examine how a hospital integrates its limited resources which leads to the need for resource bundles and an understanding of IS capabilities development to understand how they contribute to the delivery of preventive care in a Malaysian hospital.

This research proposes a comprehensive framework outlining resource-bundling and IS capabilities development to improve preventive care.

We acknowledge that the problem of transferring and generalizing results has been a common criticism of a single case study. However, our objective was to enhance the reader’s understanding by including compelling, detailed narratives demonstrating how our research results offer practical examples that can be generalized theoretically. The findings also apply to similar-sized public hospitals in Malaysia and other developing countries, facing challenges like resource constraints, HIS adoption levels, healthcare workforce shortages, cultural and linguistic diversity, bureaucratic hurdles, and specific patient demographics and health issues. Further, lessons from this context can be usefully applied to non-healthcare service sector domains.

This study provides a succinct strategy for enhancing preventive care in Malaysian public hospitals, focusing on system integration and alignment with hospital strategy, workforce diversity through recruitment and mentorship, and continuous training for health equity and inclusivity. This approach aims to improve resource efficiency, communication, cultural competence, and healthcare outcomes.

Efficiently using limited resources through HIS investment is essential to improve preventive care and reduce chronic diseases, which cause approximately nine million deaths annually in Southeast Asia, according to WHO. This issue has significantly impacted the socioeconomic development of developing countries.

This research refines resource orchestration theory with new mechanisms for resource mobilization, extends IS literature by identifying how strategic bundling forms specialized healthcare IS capabilities, enriches preventive care literature through actionable resource-bundling activities, and adds to HIS literature by advocating for an integrated, preventive care focus from the alignment of HIS design, people and institutional policies to address concerns raised by other research regarding the utilization of HIS in improving the quality of preventive care.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain which competences are seen by employers as important for accounting students in an emerging economy, to triangulate this list with the experiences of working students and compare with those work competencies acquired during the period of study.

This study employs a novel mixed-method approach, with interviews of employers (n = 11) to identify key work competencies, and then with a quantitative study of working students (n = 184) to examine the work competency gap, using paired T-tests and mean weight discrepancy scores. The study was undertaken between September and December 2022.

The paper provides empirical insights into key work competencies in an emerging economy. There is a focus on technical skills at the university, whilst soft skills are preferred by employers. New key work competencies were uncovered relating to intuition, innovation and communicating in a foreign language. The key personal characteristics required for the job relate to change and uncertainty.

A qualitative assessment of key work competencies of employers and the use of mean weighted discrepancy scores is recommended in further studies in this field.

Practical approaches for educators, government and employers are offered to address the increasing demand for soft skills and other work competencies specific to an emerging economy.

The study is set in an emerging economy, which is underdeveloped in this field. The findings inform key stakeholders with a vested interest in reducing the work competency gap.

This study investigates the progress of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act 2003, and its associated Chartered Accountancy Profession Sector Code. In doing so, we explore why B-BBEE affirmative action has not yet achieved the Code's representational intentions, including systemic subtleties inhibiting this success.

Using semi-structured interviews, we explore the lived experiences of Black aspirant Chartered Accountants (CAs) undertaking articles in global audit firms. The experiences are thematically analysed, embracing a comprehensive theoretical approach that encompasses professional and social closure, as well as boundary work, to adequately understand why affirmative transformational endeavours persistently face uphill tasks. The utilisation of multifaceted theorisation is deemed essential for a more nuanced portrayal of the intricacies inherent in the CA profession in South Africa.

The narratives presented by Black aspiring CAs unveil a complex web of exclusionary practices entrenched in institutionalised historical, professional, and social contexts. The multifaceted nature of closures, symbolised by racial, cultural, and linguistic factors, significantly impacts the experiences of Black trainees. The findings furthermore show that deliberate intervention beyond compliance with the Government’s framework is necessary for meaningful transformation.

The paper brings to the fore the current lived experiences of underrepresented Black CAs in global auditing firms. In doing so, these firms are empowered with incremental knowledge of the prevailing challenges and can thus make tangible improvements towards authentic transformation. Additionally, the results help in tracking the advancements made through affirmative action, acting as a feedback loop for future developments in transformation policy.

Contributing to the critical accounting literature, our study extends scholarship on the barriers faced by CAs and the limitations in their capacity to challenge these obstacles within global audit firms. We offer practical policy-focused recommendations that, if implemented, can address the complex socio-political realities obstructing the success of affirmative action. By sharing first-hand accounts, our study aims to empower auditing firms and other related stakeholders with actionable insights, enabling them to improve genuine inclusivity and foster equitable representation in the accounting profession.

This study aims to provide a qualitative framework for satisfactory sustainable education for international accounting students using a meta-synthetic approach.

To determine the components and indicators of satisfactory sustainable education for international accounting students, a meta-synthesis allows for the attainment of the objectives of study. In the first phase of study, international related literature was reviewed (n = 2,176). After several screenings for measuring the quality of the related literature including Critical Appraisals Skills Program (CASP), the total number of selected papers was 48, and 2,128 were excluded.

The present research proposed a comprehensive conceptual model for sustainable education and international accounting students’ satisfaction, with seven components and 63 indicators. To assess the credibility of phases, the indicators were presented to five experts independently. The reliability of the proposed conceptual model was tested using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient and analyzed in SPSS. Kappa’s coefficient showed that the agreement level was high and the reliability was high too.

Sustainable education and student satisfaction are crucial for maintaining a competitive international education market. There are ongoing debates about accounting education, particularly accreditation challenges and the need for clear regulations on academic interaction with practice. Accounting education has also been criticized for being outdated, promoting surface-level learning and neglecting the development of broader skills in university graduates. Therefore, it is important to understand sustainable education for international accounting students. The present study aims to identify the aspects of accounting educational services that international accounting students perceive important for increasing satisfaction. This research provides empirical evidence and suggests potential avenues for future research in other countries.

The author proposed a mobile learning model of pervasive animated games which allows college students to learn via games accessed through a smartphone. It can develop the process of field observation and self-reflection to enhance learning effectiveness, and the motivation, and attitude of students towards learning.

The author proposed a model for teaching via pervasive animated games. The author used SPSS software and Pearson's correlation coefficients to explore different mobile learning strategies and their relationship with learning attitudes and achievement. Participants were vocational technology college students, who each experienced animated games in individual and group learning settings.

The results found that the learning performance of students in the individual learning group was better than that of the group learning group. A higher level of digital experience was associated with better learning performance, and a more positive attitude towards using mobile phones was associated with better learning performance.

The learning method still has its limitations, the learner's digital information level, learning mode, learning attitudes will have an impact on the student playing teaching pervasive animation games. Therefore, improving student information level is one of the important topics of teaching pervasive animation games and mobile learning.

The author proposed a mobile learning strategy based on pervasive animated games. The result in the strategy of mobile learning shows that the level of students' digital experience and the overall design of animated games are important criteria for successful implementation.

The authors illustrate that there are significant differences in the wage performance across companies in relation to the digital content of their production and training activities.

Using company-level data from three waves of the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (2005, 2010 and 2015), this paper provides an overview on European firms implementing training and the magnitude of their training effort.

The authors conduct a regression analysis documenting that a wage premium of 9% is associated with companies undertaking training and that an additional 8% is paid by firms arranging training for IT skills-intensive workers. The latter effect is pervasive across sectors and is not strictly related to industry exposure to the digital transformation.

The authors assess the wage effect of training, in relation to the digital content of firm production or job tasks, using a large set of European companies (112,000), from countries with different degree of specialisation and institutional setting. The analysis covers a significant period of time of the last wave of digitalisation (2005, 2010, 2015).

The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the dynamics of overall wage and income inequality in the past decades. The authors focus on three employer-level features that can be associated with asymmetries in the employment relation orientation adopted for college and non-college-educated employees: (1) size, (2) the share of standard employment and (3) the pervasiveness of incentive pay schemes.

The authors' establishment-level analysis (data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS), 2005–2018) focusses on Japan, an economy characterised by many unique economic and institutional features relevant to the aims of the authors' analysis. The authors use an adjusted measure of firm-specific college wage premium, which is not biased by confounding individual and establishment-level factors and reflects unobservable characteristics of employees that determine the payment of a premium. The authors' empirical methods account for the complexity of the relationships they investigate, and the authors test their baseline outcomes with econometric approaches (propensity score methods) able to address crucial identification issues related to endogeneity and reverse causality.

The authors' findings indicate that larger establishment size, a larger share of regular workers and more pervasive implementation of IPSs for college workers tend to increase the college wage gap once all observable workers, job and establishment characteristics are controlled for. This evidence corroborates the authors' hypotheses that a larger establishment size, a higher share of regular workers and a more developed set-up of performance pay schemes for college workers are associated with a better capacity of employers to attract and keep highly educated employees with unobservable characteristics that justify a wage premium above average market levels. The authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.

The authors' contribution to the existing knowledge is threefold. First, the authors combine the economics and management/organisation literature to develop new insights that underpin the authors' testable empirical hypotheses. This enables the authors to shed light on employer-level drivers of wage differentials (size, workforce composition, implementation of performance-pay schemes) related to many structural, institutional and strategic dimensions. The second contribution lies in the authors' measure of the “adjusted” college wage gap, which is calculated on the component of individual wages that differs between observationally identical workers in the same establishment. As such, the metric captures unobservable workers' characteristics that can generate a wage premium/penalty. Third, the authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.