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The senior seminar is a seminar that places emphasis on small problem‐solving groups as an effective approach to executive development. It concentrates on combining management knowledge and skill development in an intense two‐week experience. Small groups have been a part of management development programmes for some time but they are not always used effectively or appropriately. Using the change process of unfreezing, changing and refreezing as a frame of reference, it is demonstrated how small groups play an important role in climate building for peer learning, integration of content and process, and providing for practice in using new skills. Guidelines are offered for applying and adapting the senior seminar approach.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of EFL learners’ cohesion after the implementation of small group flipped instruction model through WhatsApp with small group writing activities compared with individual flipped instruction model through WhatsApp with individual writing activities.

A quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control group and a pre-test/post-test design was implemented to find any significant difference between the two combinations. The small group was treated using small group flipped instruction model through WhatsApp with small group writing activities, and an individual class was exposed to individual group flipped instruction model through WhatsApp with individual writing activities as well. The instrument of this study was a writing test.

The findings revealed that the mean score from the small group flipped instruction model through WhatsApp with small group writing activities at 66.17 was higher than the mean score individual flipped model via WhatsApp with individual writing activities at50.19 with a level of significance < 0.05. He meant that the small group flipped classroom instruction model through WhatsApp with small group writing activities performed better than teaching cohesion with individual flipped instruction through WhatsApp with individual writing activities. The results suggested small group flipped teaching–learning cohesion with WhatsApp in writing served as one of the alternatives flipped group discussion to improve learners’ cohesion in writing.

Flipped classroom innovation has attracted English language teaching researchers’ attention to scrutinize its effectiveness. This inquiry, therefore, elaborated the effect off-lipping individual and small group classroom instruction with WhatsApp on EFL learners’ cohesion as part of EFL writing skills.

The purpose of the current application paper is to integrate previous literature with recent results from practitioners on effective practices for utilizing small groups in the leadership classroom.

We use these integrated findings to innovate practice on maximizing the role of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) by matching their tasks to signature pedagogies in leadership education.

The integrated findings revealed three practice themes: (1) match UTAs to pedagogical approach, (2) create small groups by design and (3) providing training and reflection practice for UTAs.

In sum, leadership education can and should challenge historical practices in higher education whereby UTAs are used purely for grading and course logistics management.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This paper has two purposes. First, to provide insight into the formation of completely online small groups, paying special attention to how their work practices develop, and how they form identity. Second, to pursue conceptual development of a more multi‐level view of completely online group experience, which can be made visible through analysis of the unique interaction logging system used in this study.

The authors conduct a mixed methods study that integrates interviews, grounded theory analysis, case study methods and social network analysis to build a multi‐layered view of completely online group and community development.

Completely online group formation is explicated as a socio‐technical system. The paper identifies themes of tool uptake and use, and patterns of interaction that accompany group formation and development of completely online group practices. These patterns show little respect for the boundaries of space and time. It then shows how groups who are paired together for two non‐sequential activities develop a common internal structural arrangement in the second activity, and are viewable as groups in the larger course context in four of six cases.

The time bounded nature of the group and community, combined with the educational context limit the generalizability of these findings.

The study shows how completely online group development can be made visible. Managers of work teams and teachers who work with classrooms in completely online contexts need to recognize the dynamic structure and interaction practices of completely online teams.

First, little research has been conducted on completely online group formation. Second, a conceptual understanding of how group members relate to one another and how groups interact with other groups in the same socio‐technical context is not explored in prior work. Third, the paper performs this analysis including data from rich, contextualized usage logs, which enables greater insight into online group interactivity than prior research.

In the digital age, enterprise social media (ESM) use is becoming more prevalent in the workplace. The “group” function is a very important part in the use of ESM. This paper explores how the characteristics of employees' task requirements affect their group participation behaviors on the ESM.

Based on information processing theory, the authors establish a two-stage research model to explore the impact of task characteristics on employees' online group participation behavior in the context of ESM. Data were collected using a survey of 341 Chinese employees.

The results indicate that (1) task interdependence was positively correlated with participation in small closed groups; (2) task complexity was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups and (3) task non-routineness was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups.

This study builds on the literature on task characteristics, information processing theory and employees' online group participation behavior, contributing to the research on ESM in the field of information systems and providing guidance for enterprise practice.

One result of the recent upsurge of national, and indeed international, political interest in the small firm sector of the economy has been a focus on the role of management training and development in the small firm and on the wider, but related, issue of education and training for entrepreneurship. The basis for this renewed government attention seems to lie in recognition of the employment potential of small firms rather than in the contribution that training and education might make to productivity and efficiency. Added to the weight of official concern is pressure from individuals who, without the early possibility of becoming an employee, are being forced to look to their own resources and initiative. It is, therefore, scarcely surprising that much of the recent stimulus to small firms training has come from government training schemes and, in the UK, from local community‐based ventures aimed at improving local job prospects. The accent in the UK has been on encouraging the new small business start up.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention under group service failures.

Based on two main laboratory experiments, through two 10×2 scenario simulation experiments, the authors examine the role of group size in customer's complaining intention.

Results show that: (1) the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention follows an inverted “U” type trend; (2) evaluation apprehension mediates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention; (3) relational distance can change threshold values and (4) relational distance moderates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention.

Managers should judge the threshold of group size through experience so as to have a preliminary understanding of customer evaluation concerns and complaint intention. In the face of service failure groups smaller than the threshold range, managers should divided the group into several small groups. For service failure groups larger than the threshold range, the opinion leaders in the group should be given more attention, so as to control the whole group.

This paper is helpful to deeply understand the key role of group size in the process of customer complaints, and also provides decision-making basis for service enterprises to deal with group customer complaints.

There has been little research about the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention. The previous studies on customer's complaining intention focus on its influences on group size, and draw a single common conclusion that the customer's intention to complain will increase with the growing number of groups increases. However, few studies are explored on the threshold of group size. Therefore, this paper will focus on the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention to fill the gap.

Correct registration for the value-added tax (VAT) is a key aspect of tax compliance; it is vital in ensuring adequate tax revenue collection in all countries but particularly in developing countries such as South Africa. Non-registration hinders sufficient tax revenue collection, stifles economic growth and causes unfair competition with formal businesses. The purpose of this study is to determine whether changes in the VAT rate affect the registration decisions of businesses, ultimately impacting upon tax compliance behaviour and tax revenue collection.

An online 2 × 2 between-subjects field experiment was conducted, as part of a broader study, to consider compliance with registration requirements by small business entities in South Africa, specifically when there are changes in the VAT rate.

Although the study establishes that changes in the VAT rate tend not to have a significant impact on the registration decisions of such taxpayers, it nonetheless indicates that the magnitude of the change in the VAT rate may be influential on registration decisions, whether relating to compulsory or voluntary registration. More particularly, the greater the magnitude of the VAT rate decrease (increase), the more likely it is that taxpayers will register (deregister) for VAT purposes, indicating that the magnitude of changes in the VAT rate do have an impact on VAT registration decisions and therefore on tax compliance more generally.

Not only does the study add to the limited knowledge available on registration decisions of small businesses, but also gives valuable guidance to policymakers in terms of determining the VAT rate for the country.

Not only does the study add to the limited knowledge available on registration decisions of small businesses, but it also gives valuable guidance to policymakers in terms of determining the VAT rate for the country.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of financial distress (FD) on investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of Indian firms.

The study uses the system generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to investigate the effect of FD on ICFS of Indian firms during the period from 2001 to 2019.

Using FD measures like Ohlson's bankruptcy method, Altman's Z-score model and financial-distress ratio, the researchers find that FD increases ICFS and negatively affects corporate investment. The researchers’ findings explain that FD increases restrictions on external financing, which makes cash flow more important for corporate investment. Additionally, the researchers find that the effects of FD on ICFS are weak (strong) for bigger and group affiliated (smaller and standalone) firms. The study’s findings are robust to several measures of FD, group affiliation and firm size.

First, the researchers find that FD affects the ICFS, therefore, financially distressed firms should have sufficient internal funds or external funds for investment. Second, lending agencies should also consider the firms' FD condition before providing funds to secure their money. Third, investors should be very careful while investing in a financially distressed firm as we find that financially distressed firms face a decline in their investment which might reduce firm profitability.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence by analyzing the impact of FD on ICFS in the context of India. As per the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever attempt to examine the effect of FD on ICFS.