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To cope successfully with the pressures imposed by a devastating pandemic and other challenges, companies and policymakers need to look at how they conceptualize, define, measure and operationalize “value”. This paper aims to support this conversation.

This study presents a historical review of how the value construct has been conceptualized over time, demonstrating that its history is one of tension and debate with conceptualizations swinging between objective (i.e. the value of something exists independent of the observers) and subjective (i.e. the value of something depends on the personal response of the observer to what is being considered) views over time.

This paper outlines the implications to researchers of value’s low construct clarity, offering suggestions designed to exploit rather than ignore the duality of the value construct. Instead of thinking of the value construct as being subjective or objective, this study recommends that scholars consider value’s objectivity and subjectivity as being interrelated and complementary. The paper recommends that researchers use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in studying this construct.

A major limitation of this paper is the word count limitation restricting the extent to which this paper could explore a more comprehensive list of the conceptualizations of value throughout history.

This paper presents practitioners with a nuanced understanding of value that should assist those interested in examining the worth of investments with observable expenses but less quantifiable outputs.

The authors have not found a similar analysis of the various conceptualizations of value.

Environmental philosophies have guided cultures throughout history and continue to do so. This paper uses a framework of environmental philosophies drawn from history and the present, to analyse contemporary corporate environmental reporting. The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the philosophical underpinnings of corporate reporting allows for a nuanced understanding of the relationship between corporate activities and nature, and in so doing demonstrates the moral practices of accounting for nature.

Three themes are extracted from a historical review of western environmental philosophy: dualism, transcendence and interconnectivity. These themes are applied to a sample of corporate environmental reports through discourse analysis, enabling the illustration of otherwise obscured moral characteristics of the corporate relationship with the natural environment.

This paper uses environmental philosophies to better understand some of the implicit messaging of corporate environmental reporting. Evidence of each of the three themes is found in a sample of environmental reports, predominantly dualism and interconnectivity.

Understanding that accounting is not just a technical, but also a social and moral practice expands the way the authors can interpret the outcomes of accounting. By presenting an exemplar of how accounting practice such as the corporate sustainability report can be analysed through a moral lens, this paper offers new insights intentioned to inform a more meaningful approach to environmental reporting.

A novel framework to explore the corporate sector’s relationship with the natural environment is presented. In light of current and predicted environmental changes, much of which has been attributed to the impact of corporate activities, the importance of a detailed explication of this relationship – such as the one proposed here – becomes imperative.

We have come to a point where the common way to characterise what is taking place presently, or, better yet, for the past almost two years, is with the term ‘pandemic’. The task of this chapter is to bring to awareness certain critical reflections with the hope of disturbing the normalised discourse which excepts the authentic meaning of pandemic, a meaning which affects the totality of the human existence. Following the thoughts of Agamben, Baudrillard, and Heidegger, the hypothesis that this chapter is advancing revolves around the idea that the term ‘pandemic’ has been appropriated by biological thinking excepting its authentic meaning, that is, the ultimate reality of the human existence which is death.

This study aims to investigate the impact of leader’s religiosity on teachers’ organizational commitment and leaders’ virtuous behaviors. Second, it is intended to examine the significant influence of Al-Ghazali’s fundamental virtues – wisdom, justice, temperance and courage – on the level of commitment displayed by teachers in K12 schools.

To analyze this connection, a total of 335 surveys were collected from K12 private schools situated in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The data were then evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

It has been found that leaders’ virtuous behaviors have significant positive effects on teachers’ commitment. Furthermore, while religiosity did not directly influence teachers’ commitment, the virtuous behaviors of leaders played a significant mediating role in this relationship.

This research fills a gap in the literature by exploring the impact of Islamic ethical principles on employee commitment, specifically within the context of K12 education in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It emphasizes the critical role of leaders’ virtuous behaviors in improving employee commitment.

Any credible agenda that seeks to eradicate global poverty must seek to correct the structural injustices and inequities that cause and perpetuate endemic poverty. Such an agenda must aim not merely to aid the poor with grants, welfare, and subsidies (that indirectly perpetuate poverty) but seek to enhance self-sufficiency and productive skills of the poor by ensuring them comparable access to opportunities of the market economies to participate, on more equitable terms, in the dynamic process of overall economic growth. In this context, we apply critical thinking to identify and recognize the structured injustices of the market system, which not only cause poverty but also compromise human dignity via social inequalities and inequities arguably caused by the free market and corporate capital systems of the world. Global poverty that affects more than a quarter of the human population is a pernicious self-serving system connected to the injustices of the business and political systems of the world. The persistent nature of poverty is in direct proportion to our inability to eradicate it as a whole in the cosmic system. Eradication of global desperate poverty and its unjust structural causes can be achieved, we submit, by tracing the roots of global poverty to corporate and free enterprise capital systems and their unexamined structures of social injustice and social inequalities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the character traits and challenges of women leaders in Myanmar within the context of responsible leadership (RL) and aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of RL in this specific cultural and social setting. Furthermore, the paper seeks to highlight the unique challenges faced by women leaders, both within organizations and in society at large. Ultimately, the paper intends to advocate for increased awareness and actions that promote gender equality in leadership positions, fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment for women leaders in Myanmar.

This study uses an exploratory qualitative research design to comprehensively investigate the character traits and challenges experienced by women leaders in Myanmar concerning RL. It involves semi-structured interviews with five women leaders selected through convenient sampling. These participants hold leadership positions in various fields, including societal welfare, nongovernmental organizations and social businesses. The interview protocol is designed to elicit rich insights into the participants’ leadership experiences, responsibilities, challenges and perspectives on RL. Data collection involves recording and transcribing interviews, ensuring accuracy and reliability. To maintain participant confidentiality, identities remain anonymous. Ethical considerations are adhered to, emphasizing voluntary participation and the right to withdraw at any point without consequences. Thematic analysis is used to identify recurring patterns and themes in the interview data. Themes related to character traits, challenges faced within organizations and society and potential solutions are derived through an iterative process of data coding, categorization and interpretation.

The study’s findings indicate that women-responsible leaders possess character traits similar to their male counterparts. However, they face unique challenges at the organizational and societal levels in Myanmar. To address these issues and foster the growth of women leaders, spreading awareness is crucial. Awareness programs can educate individuals, organizations and society about the significance of RL and gender equality in leadership roles. Such initiatives create an inclusive environment that supports the development of responsible women leaders in Myanmar.

The original value of this study lies in its contribution to the existing body of knowledge on women’s leadership and the specific context of Myanmar. By examining the character traits of women-responsible leaders and the challenges they face within organizational and societal contexts, this study sheds light on the unique experiences and barriers encountered by women in leadership positions. Furthermore, this study’s original value lies in its emphasis on the need for awareness and action to foster more women leaders in Myanmar. By bringing attention to the organizational and societal challenges faced by women and advocating for change, this study encourages stakeholders, including policymakers, organizations and communities, to address these issues and create a more supportive and inclusive environment for women leaders.

Young consumers are increasingly using online reviews and celebrity influence to make purchase decisions. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the influence of online customer reviews, celebrity influencer’s attractiveness, celebrity influencer’s credibility on female millennials’ purchase intention of beauty products.

To validate the research questions and hypotheses, data were obtained from young female consumers using an electronic self-administered survey questionnaire that was close ended. A total of 203 valid responses were obtained from which data were analysed by making use of structural equation modelling Mplus and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 28.

The obtained results showed that the seven hypotheses of the study were positive. However, two hypotheses were negative, namely, celebrity influencer attractiveness did not have a significant influence on the attitude of consumers; and brand loyalty was not significantly correlating with young female consumers’ purchase intention of beauty products.

Given that millennials are known to be active users of social media and often consult online peer product reviews, marketers and practitioners of beauty industry should improve the effectiveness and usability of beauty influencers and online reviews to attract female millennial consumers.

This research contributes to understanding young female consumers’ attitudes towards purchasing beauty products, especially the combined influence of group influence (online reviews) and media influence (celebrity beauty influencers) on such attitudes.

This research paper investigates the theoretical frameworks encompassing a nuanced analysis of the digital divide in the Indian educational context, recognising that it is not merely a matter of technology access but also the ability to effectively use the resource for enhancing learning outcomes. This research provides valuable insights for fostering a more equitable and digitally inclusive learning environment by integrating conceptual insights with empirical evidence. The New Education Policy (NEP), India 2020 firmly emphasises the appropriate integration of technology into the teaching-learning process to develop relevant competencies. The pertinent question is, for India to conquer the second digital divide challenge, is the pace of technology accessibility and skill development sufficient?

The paper is a desk research, using secondary data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+), the Indian Government database of schools. A structured dataset has been created for all years, where states are grouped in descending ranking order of availability of infrastructure and teachers trained. A colour key segregates the States into three zones demonstrating their different levels of performance – high (green), moderate (blue) and low (yellow). The purpose is to identify state/s that have moved from one zone to another and, thereafter, analyse the reasons behind the movement.

Almost all states remained in the same digital resource availability zone for the four years studied, except for a limited few. Despite government interventions through higher budget allocation and targeted policies, growth rates of teacher training in computer usage slowed down post-COVID-19. A high positive correlation between Teachers' training in computer usage and the availability of computer and Internet facilities in schools indicates that an increase in digital infrastructure in schools is highly linked to teachers' training in computer usage and would ultimately translate into better use of digital resources to impart equitable education opportunities.

Primary data collection through interviews might have added to the critical findings. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further on a case-by-case basis for any state under consideration.

Enhancing digital infrastructure in schools and building digital competence in teachers must be understood in the context of the learning organisation and the beneficiaries' attitudes at the meso-level to expand stakeholder motivation towards digital internalisation. This requires continuous engagement with education institutions as professional learning organisations, which will thereby help develop a decentralised context for teacher competency building. Collaboration, continuous monitoring of the outcomes of professional development programs, and sharing best practices are crucial in improving teacher readiness for digital education.

Access to tangible resources, such as computers, Internet connectivity and educational software, and developing intangible resources, such as teacher digital competencies, will play a pivotal role in shaping students' learning experiences. By studying the discrepancies in digital resource accessibility and teacher technology adoption, this research endeavours to add to the efforts towards enhancing the educational landscape.

This paper seeks to address a critical issue in the Indian education system and contribute to the ongoing effort to prevent the widening of the second and third digital divide in schools, and help achieve UN SDG Goals 4 and 10.

Thus far, we have treated critical thinking descriptively and analytically in previous chapters. In this, the epilogue, as a closing chapter, we intend to consider critical thinking normatively – what it should be, ideally and holistically. We do this in four stages. First, recapitulating the essential concepts, theories, and paradigms of social welfare, social well-being, and social progress, we suggest that critical thinking should ultimately understand and further social progress and social well-being for all humanity. Second, we submit that the great wealth of corporate and free-market capitalism should – as spiritual capital – benefit all, especially the poor and the marginalized. Third, in order to realize the first two objectives, we posit that critical thinking should be repositioned as the art of aesthetic reasoning and aesthetic rationality such that, fourth, it is best realized within the framework of social mindfulness. We discuss major theories grounding these four parts and reflect on their managerial implications and propose future directions for critical thinking research and development.