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Research in the discipline of antitrust economics, which encompasses legal as well as economic aspects, reveals a young and expanding area that has established its own literature within the past twenty years. The citations in this bibliographic essay were selected for their particular relevance to the subject and represent a core collection of materials that would be most useful to the study of American antitrust economics.

COVID-19 pandemic deepens structures of division and inequality in a fractured world. Responses to the pandemic demonstrate that fundamental change to time-honoured social organisation and practices is not only possible, but it is also essential for survival. Social distancing has prompted the discovery that connection is essential for good mental health and wellbeing. This chapter suggests that claims of the success of universal schooling not only warrant the critical scrutiny they have attracted, but there is also the case that reforms remain chimeric for excluded population cohorts. A radical rethinking of the purpose and structure of education is overdue. Pandemic tells us that such rethinking is possible.

This study builds on the extant research of the authors on illegal rural enterprise (IRE). However, instead of taking a single or micro case approach within specific sections of the farming and food industries we examine the concept holistically from a macro case perspective. Many IRE crimes simply could not be committed without insider knowledge and complicity, making it essential to appreciate this when researching or investigating such crimes.

Using data from published studies, we introduce the theoretical concept of “Shadow infrastructure” to analyse and explain the prevalence and endurance of such criminal enterprises. Using a multiple case approach, we examine data across the cases to provide an analysis of several industry wide crimes—the illicit halal meat trade; the theft of sheep; the theft of tractors and plant; and the supply of illicit veterinary medicines.

We examine IRE crimes across various sectors to identify commonalities in practice and in relation to business models drawing from a multidisciplinary literature spanning business and criminology. Such enterprises can be are inter-linked. We also provide suggestions on investigating such structures.

We identify academic and practical implications in relation to the investigation of IRE crime and from an academic perspective in relation to researching the phenomenon.

This study combines data from numerous individual studies from a macro perspective to provide practical solutions to a multifaceted problem.

This study aims to evaluate the impact the introduction of Microsoft Teams has had on team performance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic within a National Health Service (NHS) Community Service.

Microsoft Teams was rolled out across the NHS over a period of four days, partly in response to the need for social distancing. This case study reviews how becoming a virtual team affected team performance, the role Microsoft Teams had played in supporting staff to work in higher virtuality, understand what elements underpin a successful virtual team and how these results correlate to the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1985).

The findings indicate that Teams made a positive impact to the team at a time of heightened clinical pressures and working in unfamiliar environments without the supportive benefits of face-to-face contact with colleagues in terms of incidental knowledge sharing and health and well-being.

Further developments were needed to make virtual meetings more accessible for introverted colleagues, support asynchronous communication, address training needs and support leaders to adapt and operate in higher virtuality.

This services marketing research provides a theoretical framework for experiential and relationship marketing and extends the theory of transcendent customer experience (TCE). Specifically, this paper aims to identify how the drivers (emotional intelligence [EI]), outcomes (customer loyalty, willingness to pay and word of mouth [WOM] intentions) and influences (openness to experience) of TCE are integrated. The research contributes to the theoretical debate regarding ability-based and self-reported EI measures by examining their influence on TCE.

Students and general consumers provided data through structured online surveys in three survey-based experiments. Linear and multiple regressions, mediation analyses and simple effects tests were used for data analysis.

Findings suggest that self-reported and ability-based measures of EI influence TCE differently. Participants who had high self-reported EI evaluated positive service encounters as more transcendent than they evaluated negative service encounters. Participants who had high ability-based EI evaluated positive service encounters as less transcendent than they evaluated negative service encounters. TCE experiences evoked higher loyalty, willingness to pay (WTP) and WOM recommendations. Furthermore, dispositional factors were significant in forming TCE: participants who were highly open to experience and had high ability-based EI interpreted their service encounter as less transcendent than did participants who were more closed to experience and had low ability-based EI.

TCE, a relatively new concept, offers theoretical advancement in context and constructs. The student-provided data gave high internal validity; the general consumer-provided data gave external validity. Ideally, a future field study in an actual consumption setting should replicate the findings. A self-reported questionnaire used to measure constructs may have introduced common method variance that biased the results.

By understanding that EI affects perceptions of transcendence in positive/negative service encounters, marketers can better implement consumer-oriented marketing strategies that will enhance TCE, customer loyalty, WTP and WOM.

Despite considerable research in experiential and relationship marketing, room remains for theoretical and practical enhancement in the under-researched concept of TCE. This research is the first attempt to extend TCE theory to marketing by identifying the drivers, outcomes and moderators of TCE in service encounters. The research also provides theoretical advancement in EI research. The results contradict previous research claiming that ability-based and self-reported measures are equally valid. Instead, using the two EI scales interchangeably leads to potentially different outcomes.

Since the rise of rationalism (Bond, 1935) the imagination has often been considered too subjective, and at times regarded with scholarly skepticism (Burke, 2008). Yet, imagination seems to provide basic psychological functions for the human intellect and our understanding particularly of large problems (Hillman, 1975), (Winnicott, 1971). More than the mere ‘fancy’ criticized by Dr Johnson (Havens, 1943), the imagination serves both speculative and interpretive functions, displaying distinct use of cerebral imagery to solve complex environmental and interpersonal challenges. Yorke (2013) argues that humans experience the world dialectically, interpreting everything as cause and effect. Imagination plays a vital role in these universal narratives, shaping our cultural heritage, expression and experience (Zittoun & Gläveanu, 2018). Our oldest tales feature monsters, creatures who are often more interesting and memorable than the heroes who fight them. Halberstam (1995) theorises that monsters are meaning machines. Monsters serve an admonitionary role, and their transgressive nature defines them while displaying a distinct visuality. Like imagination, monsters enable us to analyse and approach difficult topics in innovative ways.

H. P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential horror writers of the twentieth century (King, 1985). Imagination, the visual and the monstrous find a unique balance in his works. Using Lovecraft's copious correspondence, his drawings and his 1927 short story The Call of Cthulhu as a lens, the relationships between imagination, the visual and the monstrous are examined. These postulate an underlying mutual interdependence between the normative and the monstrous and suggest Lovecraft's imaginative use of the visual and monstrous to transgress the bounds of conventional epistemologies and experiences, thereby displacing the anthropocentric focus of conventional narratives.

The study aims to explore the conditional relationships between product modularization and new product development (NPD) efficiency. It is postulated that R&D outsourcing plays an important mediating role. Furthermore, the level of competency trust is considered an essential factor in moderating the indirect effect of product modularization on NPD efficiency via R&D outsourcing practices.

Drawing on transaction cost economics theory, this study suggests a moderated mediation model that addresses how product modularization effectively promotes NPD efficiency via outsourcing practices. The hierarchical regression and PROCESS macro model were conducted to test the hypotheses based on survey data from 273 manufacturing firms in China.

Product modularization enhances NPD efficiency directly and indirectly through the external collaboration of R&D outsourcing. Furthermore, the role of product modularization in R&D outsourcing practices is more effective when the competency trust in R&D outsourcing partners is high.

By showing the critical role of external collaboration, this study provides valuable insights into how manufacturing firms utilize product modularization to achieve desired NPD performance more effectively.

Sustainability and competitiveness have received extensive attentions. Despite a large number of studies on sustainability and competitiveness in the construction industry, little research has been conducted to holistically explore the interactions between these two concepts. From a dynamic transition perspective, the purpose of this paper is to link sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms by developing a Sustainability-Competitiveness Dynamic Interaction Framework (SCDIF).

Conceptual theory-building approach was adopted to develop the conceptual framework. It is an iterative analysis and synthesis process, which involves reading literature, identifying commonalities and differences, synthesizing, proposing an initial framework, collecting additional literature, and revisiting and revising the framework.

There are complex interactions between sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms. This leads to uncertain relationships between sustainability and competitiveness, which is context dependent. Under evolving economic and socio-political environments, sustainability and competitiveness of construction firms could transition from mutually exclusive to mutually supportive, and finally merge into “sustainable competitiveness.”

A SCDIF proposed in this study demonstrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies, and thus the relationships and interactions between sustainability and competitiveness are context dependent. This framework helps corporate managers to understand how corporate sustainability and competitiveness interact with each other, thereby informing their decision-making of sustainability strategy. Similarly, the framework provides useful references for policymakers to understand the mechanisms of transitioning industries toward sustainable competitiveness.

The proposed framework offers a new perspective for understanding sustainability and competitiveness. From the dynamic transition perspective, this study effectively illustrates that the interactions between sustainability and competitiveness evolves according to the evolving economic and socio-political environments and firms’ strategies. Compared to existing approaches, the dynamic and holistic approach proposed in this paper provides the capacity to capture the complexity of sustainability and competitiveness.