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This study aims to provide insight into the current incorporation of corporate culture in national corporate governance codes. The authors identify three levels of incorporation for each of the following three dimensions: layers of corporate culture (the “what”), the alignment of corporate culture in the organization (the “for whom”) and the board’s roles regarding corporate culture (the “how”).

To assess the extent to which national codes have incorporated corporate culture, the authors used a sample of 88 national corporate governance codes. The authors performed a content analysis of these codes using a computer-aided text analysis program. The first step involved the identification of dimensions of corporate culture per national code. These dimensions were then assessed based on three levels of incorporation. Finally, the authors ranked national codes with similar levels of incorporation per dimension and aggregated the dimensions.

The data show that five of the 88 national corporate governance codes that the authors analysed scored the highest level in all three dimensions of corporate culture.

This is the first study to provide an overview of what national corporate governance codes say about corporate culture. The authors address two gaps in the existing literature. First, the authors develop and use a richer conceptualization of how corporate culture can be addressed in national corporate governance codes. Second, the authors analyse these corporate governance codes worldwide.

Using real-time support systems may help operators in road construction to improve paving and compaction operations. Nowadays, these systems transform from descriptive to prescriptive systems. Prescriptive or operator guidance systems propose operators actionable compaction strategies and guidance, based on the data collected. It is investigated how these systems mediate the perceptions and actions of operators in road pavement practice.

A case study is conducted on the specific application of an operator guidance system in a road pavement project. In this case study, comprehensive information is presented regarding the process of converting input in the form of data from cameras and sensors into useful output. The ways in which the operator guidance systems translate data into actionable guidance for operators are analyzed from the technological mediation perspective.

Operator guidance systems mediate actions of operators physically, cognitively and contextually. These different types of action mediation are related to preconditions for successful implementation and use of these systems. Coercive interventions only succeed if there is widespread agreement among the operators. Persuasive interventions are most effective when collective and individual interests align. Contextual influence relates to designs of the operator guidance systems that determine human-technology interactions when using them.

This is the first study that analyzes the functioning of an operator guidance system using the technological mediation approach. It adds a new perspective on the interaction between this system and its users in road pavement practice.

The reality of domestic violence does not disappear when people enter the digital world, as abusers may use technology to stalk, exploit, and control their victims. In this chapter, we discuss three unique types of technological abuse: (1) financial abuse via banking websites and apps; (2) abuse via smart home devices (i.e., “Internet of Things” abuse); and (3) stalking via geo-location or GPS. We also argue pregnancy and wellness apps provide an opportunity for meaningful intervention for pregnant victims of domestic violence.

While there is no way to ensure users' safety in all situations, we argue thoughtful considerations while designing and building digital products can result in meaningful contributions to victims' safety. This chapter concludes with PenzeyMoog's (2020) “Framework for Inclusive Safety,” which is a roadmap for building technology that increases the safety of domestic violence survivors. This framework includes three key points: (1) the importance of educating technologists about domestic violence; (2) the importance of identifying possible abuse situations and designing against them; and (3) identifying user interactions that might signal abuse and offering safe interventions.

This paper aims to examine empirically the impact of gender diversity on corporate performance by both comparing different positions occupied by female directors on the boards and their personal-specific characteristics.

The paper examines a sample of Italian listed companies during 2006–2015. To deal with endogeneity issues, the authors use a generalized method of moments as an empirical methodology.

The empirical findings show that the positive effect of both independent and executive women directors on firm performance is moderated by the specific characteristics of female directors. Specifically, the analyses show that foreign and busy females negatively impact on performance. Conversely, graduate female directors strengthen the positive link between executive women and firm performance.

The paper sheds light on the consequences of appointing different types of female directors (i.e. independent, executive, graduate, foreign and busy) on firm performance. Our empirical research that investigates the association between gender diversity and performance in the Italian context based on a longitudinal study, which involves a period of ten years, allowing consideration both of the years before and after the introduction of the gender quota law (Golfo–Mosca law).

This study extends the current literature in the context of European countries by showing that women's participation on the board can enhance the financial performance of a company while moderated by many cultural factors.

This study examines 19 European countries throughout the period 2010–2020. The time-invariant or individual fixed-effect models are used.

The authors found that high power distance and masculinity undermine the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. The gender-diverse board reports a statistically significant negative impact on return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) while moderated by the power distance index.

This research will be of significant value to the board directors, practitioners and the concerned authority who desire to polish up the firm performance of European countries that are governed by cultural norms.

English instructors' pragmatic competence (PC) is an aspect of the overall communicative competence forming the basis of language instructors' knowledge. Their knowledge of pragmatics should not be overlooked when seeking to understand foreign language learners' communicative ability. This study aims to investigate the pragmatic awareness and teaching practices of non-native EFL instructors with different qualifications and from various cultural backgrounds in Saudi Arabia.

To obtain a broader perspective, this study adopted a quantitative research design. An online questionnaire, developed from Ivanova (2018) and Tulgar (2016), was accessed by 320 instructors at one English teaching institute in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire consisted of demographic information about participants and 12 closed Likert-type questions.

The data analysis showed that most of the language instructors were aware of PC. However, some variations were evident in their views of the importance of pragmatics in teaching and learning and in their actual pragmatic teaching practices.

This study emphasizes the importance of pragmatic awareness for EFL instructors. It indicates that while non-native English instructors' academic levels and cumulative experience in teaching English play a major role in teaching, instructors have several challenges in teaching pragmatics and promoting students' awareness of pragmatics in this context. For effective second language teaching of pragmatics, instructors, managers and policymakers need to recognize the importance of pragmatics and competencies that students need to develop in EFL contexts.

This paper aims to describe the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) for the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on board the ESA/Roscosmos 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft. The KMS collects knowledge acquired during the engineering process that involved over 30 project partners. In addition to the documentation and technical data (explicit knowledge), a dedicated effort was made to collect the gained experience (tacit knowledge) that is crucial for the operational phase of the TGO mission and also for future projects. The system is now in service and provides valuable information for the scientists and engineers working with NOMAD.

The NOMAD KMS was built around six areas: official documentation, technical specifications and test results, lessons learned, management data (proposals, deliverables, progress reports and minutes of meetings), picture files and movie files. Today, the KMS contains 110 GB of data spread over 11,000 documents and more than 13,000 media files. A computer-aided design (CAD) library contains a model of the full instrument as well as exported sub-parts in different formats. A context search engine for both documents and media files was implemented.

The conceived KMS design is basic, flexible and very robust. It can be adapted to future projects of a similar size.

The paper provides practical guidelines on how to retain the knowledge from a larger aerospace project. The KMS tool presented here works offline, requires no maintenance and conforms to data protection standards.

This paper shows how knowledge management requirements for space missions can be fulfilled. The paper demonstrates how to transform the large collection of project data into a useful tool and how to address usability aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of workplace support measures offered by employers on the academic performance and satisfaction of distance-taught paramedic students.

Using a combination of quantitative, qualitative and open text data, the authors identified factors important for student success.

Dedicated study time was not a significant predictor of student pass rate, but was related to the quality of achievement as measured by pass grade. More important for success were less tangible factors such as relationship with a mentor and being part of a supportive peer group.

The number of respondents to the survey of graduates in the second part of the investigation was small (n=30; 8.9 per cent) and limited to one profession (Emergency care).

The support measures the authors have identified should be overtly built into new course design. Placements undertaken away from the primary workplace should be well organised, and students proactively supported while undertaking them.

The value of these findings is that they inform, and can be used to enhance, the experience of students on work-based learning programmes and also on degree apprenticeships.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the female participation in top management team (TMT) and the growth performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Chinese economic environment.

Adopting resource dependence theory, this paper tests the hypotheses using panel data from 469 Chinese-listed SMEs during the period of 2011 to 2013.

The results show that female participation in TMT significantly promotes the growth performance of SMEs, and there is significantly inverted U-shaped relationship between these two variables.

This paper finds that education level weakens the inverted U-shaped relationship between the female’s participation in TMT and the growth performance of SMEs.