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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implementation of the service profit chain as an entrepreneurial marketing initiative within a defined franchise system. An objective is also to evaluate these initiatives against service quality dimensions. Despite recognition of the merits and advantages of service profit chain initiatives of retention, related sales and referrals, little research has empirically addressed the perceptions of franchisees regarding these initiatives.

Methodology includes the empirical analysis of evaluating the effectiveness of service profit chain implementation, primarily based on initiatives of retention, related sales and referrals. Research methodology comprises the survey approach, using electronic media and Surveypro analysis. This is facilitated by descriptive and inferential statistical techniques using SPSS version 11.0 data analysis. Inferential significance tests include the ANOVA Kruskal‐Wallis hypothesis test; and the Cronbach's coefficient alpha.

Hypothesis tests highlight the significance of a positive association between service profit chain initiatives and service quality. All service profit chain initiatives were deemed appropriate. Item analysis highlights specific dominant service profit chain initiatives, linking key relationship marketing and service quality themes.

Findings are indicative of implementation opportunities, including measurement of loyalty within the system, developing customer feedback and complaint systems, and communicating the value of service profit chain enhancement within the franchise system.

Originality includes cognizance of entrepreneurial orientation, relationships and service quality when implementing service profit chain initiatives. Concurrent research opportunities include the implementation of other entrepreneurial marketing initiatives, including relationship marketing and benchmarking for best practice.

Based on a detailed analysis of the reports on unsatisfactory education and provision otherwise subject to reassessment, which have been the outcome of the English quality assessment system since 1993. Analysis is based on the full text of the reports and not simply on a scrutiny of the conclusions and recommendations of the assessors. Examines both the original report and that on the subsequent re‐assessment. Wider than any previous analysis, therefore, and able to comment in some detail on the action taken to address assessors’ concerns and to redress problems of quality. Builds on earlier research by focusing on the action taken by higher education institutions to redress problems identified by assessors, and the extent to which the assessment method as operated by HEFCE has been effective in securing improvements in provision. Analyses the action taken by institutions in response to assessors’ judgements of unsatisfactory provision, reviews briefly the extent of unsatisfactory provision and its characteristics by subject and institution type before turning to a consideration of the evidence of remedial action and enhancement.

Current trends and recommendations regarding one-to-one (1:1) educational initiatives suggest that they are efficacious ways to achieve innovative change in education, namely through the promotion of active and innovative teaching practices. From a constructivist point of view, tablet devices offer teachers the potential to adopt interactive student-centred activities and to facilitate a process of learning in which students are actively involved and encouraged to be responsible and autonomous. This chapter describes a 1:1 tablet initiative that aims to promote changes in education by broadening and diversifying the activities in which students are involved and learn. It examines tablet use and teaching practices as experienced by 42 students from two lower secondary schools in Portugal. Data collection involved a questionnaire and two focus groups conducted a year after the implementation of the initiative. Results suggest tablet use to support innovative teaching practices, which fostered students’ engagement and deeper understanding of topics. Results also evidence tablet use to maintain traditional teaching practices, which undermined students’ expectations and prevented them to become more active learners.

This chapter investigates how international trade affects pollution using annual data from 34 Asian countries for the period 1970–2019. Following the work of Antweiler, Copeland, and Taylor (2001), the authors divide the impact into three effects – scale, technique, and composition effects. The scale of economic activity drives pollution demand. The technique effect reflects increased willingness to bear the costs of abating pollution as a country gets more prosperous because of increased international trade. International trade changes the composition of output in a country and therefore the level of pollution as different goods are produced with different pollution intensities. This is called the composition effect. This chapter measures pollution using carbon dioxide emissions (metric tons per capita) obtained from the United States Energy Information Administration. This study estimates a regression model that provides estimates of the magnitudes of trade’s impact on pollution as per the aforesaid three effects. The authors find that the scale and the composition effects of pollution are positive, but the technique effect is negative, and that the net effect is negative (international trade leads to a lower level of emission) when the underlying model is linear, but it is positive (international trade leads to a higher level of emission when non-linearities are considered).

This chapter uses the structural and relational dimension of social capital theory (SCT) as a lens for examining the impact of the supervisor–subordinate relationship on nurses' perceptions of the usefulness of their workplace networks, sociability, and affective commitment. A survey was used to collect data from 1,064 Australian nurses.

The findings suggest that nurses rely on very small workplace networks (typically only one other person) with which they have strong ties. Further, in over half of the cases, the supervisor (the Nurse Unit Manager (NUM)) holds the centric position. Moreover, for those nurses who did not include the NUM in their workplace network, their position appears even worse. For example, the usual reason given by nurses for not including the NUM was that the NUM was unavailable. This is a concern for health care management because the past two decades have delivered many changes to the nursing profession, including a reduction in the number of nursing positions and subsequent higher workloads. The consequences suggest that without effective workplace networks, nurses are working under conditions where solving problems is more difficult.

Carbon emission is one of the most important problems of today. In this framework, it is important for countries to take the necessary actions to solve this problem. Energy use is one of the most important causes of carbon emissions. Choosing fossil fuels in this process increases the carbon emission problem. Therefore, it is understood that countries should be more sensitive about energy types. In this context, renewable energy (RE) sources are recommended by experts. However, due to some problems of these energy types, it does not seem possible to meet all energy needs from these sources. It is thought that nuclear energy will produce a permanent solution to the carbon emission problem. In this context, it is recommended that the use of nuclear energy be put on the agenda by countries.

To discover the key elements of the use of the mechanism of public–private partnership for sustainable development, which are studied using the game approach.

Employed methods were as follows: trends method, regression analysis method, and game situation analysis method.

We discovered the key elements of the use of the mechanism of public–private partnership for sustainable development and determined the trends of the dependence of the sustainable development level on the mechanism of a public–private partnership at the level of countries that are leaders in this form of interaction (Denmark, Netherlands, Singapore, China, Switzerland and Finland). We reveal a positive dependence of the influence with China in 2017–2018 and with Finland in 2020–2021. The characteristics and strategies of implementing public–private partnerships are determined, and the spheres of influence of this form of interaction within the indicator of sustainable development are distinguished. We evaluate the perspectives of sustainable development under the influence of the public–private partnership mechanism. Based on the analysis results, it has been revealed that achievement of direct relation between the improved indicator of implementing the public–private partnership mechanisms and sustainable development could be realised within the orientation towards the effective strategic management of the interaction.

The scientific novelty of this research consists in the development of the theoretical and practical specifics of the use of the public–private partnership mechanism for sustainable development which determined using the game approach.

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyse the fiscal revenue implications for oil-dependent African countries in the face of low-carbon energy transition (LET).

The study combined the novel fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares and canonical cointegrating regressions estimators to analyse secondary data between 1990 and 2020 for the three major oil-dependent African Countries (Algeria, Angola and Nigeria).

The result shows that LET reduces oil revenue and non-revenue for specific countries (Algeria, Angola and Nigeria) and the panel, suggesting that low-carbon energy transiting is lowering the fiscal revenue of oil-dependent African nations.

The seeming weakness of this study is its inability to broaden the scope to include all oil-producing African economies. However, since the study selected Africa’s top three oil-producing states, the sample can serve as a model for others with lesser crude oil outputs.

Oil-dependent African countries must urgently engage in sincere economic diversification in sectors like industry and manufacturing, the service sector and human capital development to promote economic transformation that will enhance fiscal revenue.

With the pace of energy transition towards low-carbon energy, it is not business as usual for oil-rich African countries (Algeria, Angola and Nigeria) due to fluctuating demand and price. As a result, it becomes worthy to examine how the transition is affecting oil-dependent economies in Africa. Also, this study’s method is unique as it has not been used in a similar study for Africa.

Over the past decades, the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market has experienced an unprecedented development associated with a substantial decline in solar PV module prices. A body of literature has attempted to identify and evaluate the different sources of price variation. However, the impact of international trade on the price of solar PV modules has not yet been empirically examined. This paper contributes to filling this gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive empirical examination on the relationship between international trade and solar PV module prices.

The author uses a sample of 15 countries over the period 2006–2015 and proposes a linear dynamic panel data model based on a new specification, including a number of relevant factors influencing solar PV module prices.

The empirical analysis reveals that an increase in imports of solar PV cells and modules is associated with a decline in solar PV module prices. This finding suggests that international trade could lead to further price reductions, thus fostering the deployment of solar PV technology. The study reveals several other important findings. Market and technological development are key factors explaining the decline in solar PV module prices. Moreover, government policies such as public budget for R&D in PV and feed-in tariff for solar PV are effective in reducing the price of solar PV modules.

This paper examines the influence of international trade, government policies, market development and technological development on solar PV module prices. The results may be of interest to both academic research and policy analysis.