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Economists are divided about population growth: the pessimism of neo‐Malthusians contrasts strongly with the optimism of cornucopians. Despite their differences, however, both schools of thought reject economic orthodoxy and prefer evolutionary forms of theory. Their interpretations of evolution are different: the neo‐Malthusians appeal to the entropy law, whereas the cornucopians emphasize human creativity expressed through markets. Argues that both schools are right to adopt an evolutionary outlook, but that they are too restrictive in their conception of evolution. A more complete evolutionary view, which allows properly for social institutions, could give a more balanced account of population growth.

This paper aims to explore the gendered narratives of change management at Marks and Spencer (M&S) and uses them as a lens to consider the gendered nature of the change process itself.

Two extant stories: Sleeping Beauty and the Trojan War are taken, along with the cultural archetype of the American West gunslinger to explore the gender aspects of change. The Marks and Spencer case is analysed using the corollary patriarchal narrative of Sleeping Beauty, a story whose organising logic is revealed as one of concern for patriarchal lineage, and legitimate succession. The paper, draws on the Marks and Spencer principals' memoirs and biographies.

Sleeping Beauty is shown as a narrative saturated in misogyny, aggression and violence. This violence, which is shown to characterise the Marks and Spencer case, is amplified in the second narrative, the Trojan War, in the highly personalised battles of the über‐warriors of The Iliad. The paper concludes that violent, hyper‐masculine behaviour creates and maintains a destructive cycle of leadership lionisation and failure at the company which precludes a more feminine and possibly more effective construction of change management.

Demonstrates how M&S, gendered from its birth, its development through the golden years, the crisis, its changes in leadership and its recent change management has attempted to respond to its changing environment.

This study aims to understand the experiences of professional paid carers providing community support to people with intellectual disability “at risk of admission”. This study explores factors that were helpful or lacking in terms of the support the carers received from NHS health services during this time.

This study conducted semi-structured interview with eight participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Three main themes and ten subthemes were identified. The first main theme was “support systems” that were available or lacking for the client and their carers. The second main theme was “training and supervision” available to the carers and their team when the individual they supported needed additional support. The third theme was “change” clients encountered which included changes in the environment as well as changes because of COVID-19 pandemic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on experiences of carers during specifically high stress periods, such as when the clients they are supporting are at risk of hospital admission.

The purpose of this paper is to explore possible changes in national culture for generations X and Y members from selected Asian national cultures and the impact on cross‐cultural negotiations.

An interpretivist epistemology is combined with an ontology of subjectivism for this exploratory study which does not seek generalization. Emphasis is placed on the development of new survey items by members of generations X and Y for Hofstede's dimensions. An online survey yielded n=224 responses. Data were collected from members of generations X and Y, but also Baby Boomers as the control group, to test differences.

For national culture dimensions, only individualism/collectivism tests for significant differences between Asian GenY and Baby Boomers. GenX and GenY show little interest in pre‐opening relationship building and focus on positioning and compromising.

The study is exploratory in nature and future studies should revisit this topic. The items developed to measure national culture might be biased by the 39 focus group participants. Future studies should consider differentiating Asian groups.

Western negotiators need to prepare for multiple scenarios when entering negotiations with Asian partners. Depending on the age of the Asian negotiator, emphasis on different phases of the negotiation process needs to be reevaluated.

This research holds immediate lessons for cross‐cultural negotiations. Results support that generations X and Y members in some Asian cultures do not differ from their elders across all Hofstede dimensions, however they display different negotiation behaviors.

Considers the structure of grocery retailing in Australia and, in particular, presents and contrasts the development strategies being pursued by the three major retailers in this highly concentrated market. Woolworth’s, the market leader, is a classic corporate recovery story and is emerging as one of the most impressive food retailers in the world. By contrast, the grocery businesses of Coles Myer, Australia’s leading retailer and one of the largest retailers in the world, are under intense pressure from both a rejuvenated Woolworth’s and the company’s own internal weaknesses, many of which are a legacy of a long period of unchallenged market dominance. Coles now faces the challenge of reinventing itself and is taking an approach quite different to that of Woolworth’s. Franklins is number three in Australian grocery retailing and its origins are as a price aggressive discounter. However, as Franklins’ own market position has come under pressure, the company is responding by moving towards more direct competition with Coles and Woolworth’s.

This paper analyses the radical reorganisation of English school sport by the coalition government, a move that led to the emergence of a significant discourse of dissatisfaction amongst school sport advocacy coalition groups.

This paper utilises Sabatier’s (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1999) Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to identify how the coalition government’s decision to abolish the successful Physical Education School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) programme has specifically weakened the power of formerly influential advocacy coalitions within the school sport arena. Weber’s (1947) conceptualisation of charisma, in particular, the concept of charismatic rhetoric, is used to explain how these historically extensive policy changes were communicated by the coalition government, and particularly, by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State.

Locating the government’s rhetoric within the charismatic literature allowed the exploration of how a disempowerment of advocacy coalition groups and centralisation of power towards the state might have been partly achieved via the use of charismatic rhetoric (Weber, 1947).

Javidan and Waldman (2003) identified a lack of rigorous empirical study of the role of charismatic leadership and its consequences in public sector leadership, a critique that has been addressed by this paper.

When a successful policy intervention for small firm growth is ending, a continuation decision may be relevant. However, immediately after program termination, solid analysis of the growth of the treated firms in comparison with similar firms cannot be produced, so decision makers rely on less valid data. Moreover, the decision process is challenging because many players, alternative programs, decision levels and financial sources tend to be part of the process. In such a complex and volatile policy environment, successful programs may well be discontinued despite a clear continuation need. The purpose of the paper is to explore this weakness.

The paper identifies four fundamental principles that are conducive for a rational continuation choice: “additionality,” “substitution,” “need” and “success”. It argues that if these principles are fulfilled, the rational choice would be to continue the program. To demonstrate that this rational outcome does not always happen in practice, an extreme case fulfilling the four principles well was selected.

The program aimed to enhance growth in small firms through manager training. It encompassed about 700 growth-oriented small firms in three years and was comprehensively evaluated after program termination. This evaluation demonstrated a high success rate of the program in all respects, including in terms of achieved growth compared to a control group of similar firms.

This discontinuation case suggests that non-rational reasoning plays a significant role in contemporary complex and volatile policy environments, which again points to a need for reform in this policy area.

India is a fast-growing economy, that has a majority share in the global information technology industry (IT). Rapid urbanisation and modernisation in India have strained its energy sector, which is being reformed to cope. Despite being the global IT heart and having above average research output in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), India has not yet managed to leverage its benefits to the full. This study aims to address the role of AI and information management (IM) in India’s energy transition to highlight the challenges and barriers to its development and use in the energy sector.

The study, through analysis of proposed strategies, current policies, available literature and reports, discusses the role of AI and IM in the energy transition in India, highlighting the current situation and challenges.

The results show dispersed research and development incentives for IT in the Indian energy sector; however, the needed holistic top-down approach is lacking, calling for due attention in this matter. Adaptive and swift actions from policymakers towards AI and IM are warranted in India.

The ongoing transition of the Indian energy sector with the integration of smart technologies would result in increased access to big data. Extracting the maximum benefits from this would require a comprehensive AI and IM policy.

The revolution in AI and robotics must be carried out in line with sustainable development goals, to support climate action and to consider privacy issues – both areas in India must be strengthened.

The paper offers an original discussion on certain applicable solutions regarding the energy transition of AI coming from the Global South; they are based on lessons learned from the Indian case studies presented in this study.

The notion of worker vulnerability is often seen as synonymous with disadvantage in discussions of nonstandard work. The purpose of this paper is to separate and examine these two notions by considering economic, social and psychological perspectives and exploring the reality as experienced by agency workers.

In total, 178 Australian clerical agency workers employed by eight agencies completed a mail questionnaire. Personalised responses were subjected to computer-assisted template analysis.

Sample characteristics revealed a gendered and heterogeneous workforce. Findings showed evidence of economic, psychological and social vulnerabilities although favourable features were also reported. This apparent contradiction suggests linkages between the features of nonstandard work, worker preferences, individual characteristics and the experience of worker vulnerability.

The notion of varying degrees of worker vulnerability offers a new lens to investigate agency work. The relatively small sample size, focus on clerical work and features of the Australian context may limit generalisability.

Findings demonstrate the nature and extent of agency worker vulnerability which allows us to offer policy interventions for governments, agencies and user organisations and insights for prospective agency workers.

The widespread use of agency workers provides an imperative for frameworks to assess the nuances of the agency work experience. This study presents the reality of agency work as experienced by the workers and reveals the good and bad aspects of agency work.