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International human resource management (IHRM) is becoming increasingly fundamental to organisational success, as globalisation forces demand organisations to design and implement a global strategy. One of the most critical choices faced by IHRM practitioners is whether and when an organisation should adapt its human resource policies and practices to the local context (localisation). A typology of International Human Resource Management Orientations (IHRMO) that clarifies what IHRMO’s are and what they entail is developed from a review of the literature on localisation and globalisation, convergence and divergence and Perlmutter’s management typology. Additionally, two theoretical models are developed that predict which IHRM orientation identified in the typology should be adopted. The article takes a step towards elucidating effective IHRM strategy and practice decision‐making by showing that culture and institutional pressures, amongst other tings, do make a difference.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that the level of individuals' intercultural competencies has on their satisfaction, trust and affective commitment and assessment of their work team.

An intercultural competencies classification system is developed in which the cognitive, affective and behavioural intercultural competencies predicted to impact upon individuals' responses toward, and assessments of, their work team are identified. The results of quantitative survey research providing support for the classification system are subsequently described.

Competencies identified as being related to individuals' responses toward, and assessments of, their work team include cognitive complexity, goal orientation, dissimilarity openness, tolerance for ambiguity and emotion, and conflict management skills.

The research provides sound evidence for the important role that intercultural competence plays in facilitating positive individual level outcomes which it is theorised will lead to positive team level outcomes.

The key contribution of the research is the development of an intercultural competencies classification system which ties together in a single but multifaceted framework the intercultural competencies required for employees working in culturally diverse teams.

Entrepreneurs prioritise and act on purposeful endeavours instigated to actions by the visions of profits and benefits in the perceived opportunities. In the state of maximum entropy, with disorderliness and disequilibrium, entrepreneurs select the preferred pathway, through the profit-sensing mechanism, with the best probability of success to bet on. Therefore, this paper unpacks the forces at work in the mechanism to explain how entrepreneurs respond to opportunity and interpret the signals to coalesce into organised actions.

This research is primarily a conceptual paper on entrepreneurial action and the mechanism leading to that action. It refers to thermodynamic principles and biological cases to explain the forces at work using mostly analogical comparisons and similarities.

This paper aims to present an alternative theoretical scaffolding for entrepreneurship researchers to explore non-rational entrepreneurial behaviours and actions in uncertain, unstable and non-equilibrium environments, thereby creating new and competing hypotheses under the backdrop of adaptive evolution and thermodynamics phenomena.

The discussion featuring instinctively and naturally forming responses cannot fully explain the real entrepreneurial action as there is an element of free will and choices that are not discussed. While strategic choice and free-will shape decisions, they are preceded first by the attraction of the gradients and the biased motion in the direction of profit-attractant.

There remain essential links and issues not addressed in this “natural science”, constituting life science and physical science, oriented entrepreneurship research and exploration. Conceptualising opportunity-as-artefact and entrepreneurship as design, significant incidences of entrepreneurial actions can be explained by the presence of gradients stimulating entrepreneurial actions.

This viewpoint of information causality in opportunity-as-artefact casts a new look at the venerable question of what causes entrepreneurial actions. Shane and Venkataraman brought into focus this conversation, initiating the conceptual definition of opportunity. To have entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities must come first. Figuring the signals arising from these opportunities and cueing entrepreneurs to action is the main focus of this study.

Considering the “mechanism” at work and the thermodynamical forces at play, the entrepreneurial design process appears to hold considerable promise for future research development.

The purpose of this paper is to present research assessing the level of qualitative adequacy of newly constructed public housing in urban centres in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study followed a quantitative research strategy. A survey of 517 housing units constructed through four different strategies and selected based on quota of their existence in nine public housing estates was conducted with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five‐point Likert scale was used in measuring the level of qualitative adequacy of four key housing sub‐components. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Residents found the overall housing to be inadequate; they indicated that housing unit attributes were the most adequate and thus contributed most, while neighbourhood facilities were the least inadequate and contributed the least to qualitative housing adequacy.

The sample population comprised mainly house heads in public housing constructed between 2003 and 2009 therefore, the findings may not be considered to be applicable to all the public housing in the study area. However, the findings can form the basis for judging the performance of public housing in the current democratic dispensation in the study area.

The findings imply that giving adequate attention to the provision of infrastructural facilities and maintenance of existing ones can enhance the qualitative adequacy of public housing.

This paper is a pioneering effort at evaluating the qualitative adequacy of most recently constructed public housing in the study area.

The background is that clinical governance is a new mechanism for improving patient care within primary care organisations. The aim is to investigate the ability of practices in a single Primary Care Trust to improve influenza and pneumococcal vaccination uptake in high risk groups as a component of a clinical governance programme. A descriptive before and after study was undertaken at West Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust. Concludes that clinically, important improvements in influenza vaccination uptake occurred in patients over 65 years, and for influenza and pneumococcal vaccination in coronary heart disease and diabetic patients between the two audit cycles demonstrating the ability of participating practices to achieve and exceed national targets for influenza immunisation of these high‐risk groups.

The involvement of parents in schools and their contribution towards their children’s academic learning have been a focal point in educational research. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence parental involvement in secondary schools and subsequently proposed a comprehensive parental involvement model.

Research articles, reports and dissertations on the factors that influence parental involvement were reviewed to obtain related empirical evidence for the development of a workable model.

A conceptual framework was proposed to understand the factors that influence parental involvement. The role of creativity in principals’ leadership practices and parental involvement in secondary schools were found to be related. Additionally, this relationship was found to be mediated by school practices and school climate.

A framework on the factors that influence parental involvement guided by literature review and three main hypotheses for testing were proposed, which require further empirical assessment.

The school–parent partnership shares a common understanding of the educational needs and social development of the children. The school administrators, school community, stakeholders and related policymakers can effectively leverage the findings of this study in the effort to enhance parental involvement within the school context.

Only a handful of research-based studies probed into the factors that influence parental involvement in secondary schools within the Malaysian context. This study identified several significant factors that enhance parental involvement in secondary schools.

States Canadian governments have, after a decade of health care downsizing, started to focus on issues of health human resources. Posits that nurses in particular experience higher rates of absenteeism and injury than other types of Canadian workers. Advocates that this study’s findings offers numerous ideas to managers of the system, unions, nurses, government and other parties on how to manage the system better for all involved and the improvement of the health care system.

Since 2000, the value of aircraft assets imported to – and exported from – the Irish economy has increased significantly. In each case, these figures represent a marked rise over a 17-year period. This gives rise to some simple questions: what are the dynamics that give rise to a small, open economy's demand for aircraft assets on this scale? Indeed, is it merely a reflection of our island location or is there something more at play? And can we comment on the role of the air cargo industry in this demand? Ireland's growing aircraft leasing industry is internationally orientated with Ireland emerging as an important hub for this industry. A recent industry estimate noted that nine of the world's 10 largest aircraft leasing companies are located in Ireland with the number of aircraft managed in Ireland at 3,500 (or 50%) of the entire global fleet of leased aircraft. This, in part, is an important contributor to this demand for aircraft assets. The objective of this research is to examine the flow of imports and exports of aircrafts to, and through, Ireland using Eurostat's International Trade in Goods Statistics (ITGS) dataset. The authors also use the International Trade in Services series in the Balance of Payments in order to consider the value, and relative scale, of the services provided by air freight operators in order to provide some context to the role of the air cargo sector.