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We illustrate the potential of diaries for advancing scholarship on organization studies and grand challenges. Writing personal diaries is a time-honored and culturally sanctioned way of animating innermost thoughts and feelings, and embodying experiences through self-talk with famous examples, such as the diaries written by Anne Frank, Andy Warhol, or Thomas Mann. However, the use of diaries has long been neglected in organization studies, despite their historical and societal importance. We illustrate how different forms of analyzing diaries enable a “deep analysis of individuals’ internal processes and practices” (Radcliffe, 2018) which cannot be gleaned from other sources of data such as interviews and observations. Diaries exist in different forms, such as “unsolicited diaries” and “solicited diaries” and have different purposes. We evaluate how analyzing diaries can be a valuable source to illuminate the innermost thoughts and feelings of people at the forefront of grand challenges. To exemplify our arguments, we draw on diaries written by medical professionals working for Doctors Without Borders as part of our empirical research project conducted in extreme contexts. We show the value of unsolicited diaries in revealing people’s thought world that is not apprehensible from other modes of communication, and offer a set of practical guidelines on working with data from diaries. Diaries serve to enrich our methodological toolkit by capturing what people think and feel behind the scenes but may not express nor display in public.

This study aims at investigating the impact of using Lego Serious Play (LSP) on the effectiveness of teaching supply chain (SC) 4.0 in higher education by going from a traditional 2D approach to a 3D one. LSP in this study is explored as a gamification pedagogical approach that taps into the connection between hands and brain to inspire and engage students to build 3D models using metaphors and storytelling.

An empirical study was conducted among 50 students (over two terms) who were enrolled in a SC 4.0 course and used LSP in their final project that focused on digital SC design. Two questionnaires were designed (one after the standard LSP workshop and the other upon completion of the project) to solicit feedback with respect to how LSP helped students to better understand SC 4.0 topics and fulfill their project. The results were analyzed using Bloom’s taxonomy as well as other pedagogical framework to understand the positive impact of LSP at the cognitive, motivation and social levels.

Results showed that using LSP can enhance the teaching of various SC principles and technologies beyond the abstract point of view (2D) through offering the students an opportunity to apply these principles and technologies in a futuristic project using a hands-on 3D approach. The LSP approach demonstrated its ability to help students navigate through both lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in a meaningful and playful manner. Finally, improving the design skills for students was clear using LSP as it unleashes imagination and taps into internal knowledge together with collective inputs.

The reliance on one case study can be a limitation regarding the generalization of the proposed results. This limitation is attenuated by the representativeness of the case study analyzed. Furthermore, the presented work should encourage future analyses as well as expanding the implementation of LSP to other SC 4.0 teaching contexts and applications.

This paper contributes to the very few literatures regarding using gamification in SC education and specifically how LSP methodology can be adopted in teaching SCM 4.0.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the pandemic affects tenants’ response to their lease obligations. This paper commences with examining the adopted tenant selection criteria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, this paper statistically tests if there is a relationship between selection criteria and response on whether the pandemic has effects or not. Then, this paper investigates the specific areas of impact on tenants’ ability to adequately keep to lease agreements in the Nigerian rental market. Finally, this paper proceeds to confirm if there is a relationship between selection criteria and the aspects of tenants’ deficiencies in rental obligations because of COVID-19.

Survey data, backed with interviews, is elicited from practicing estate surveyors and valuers and licensed property managers in Lagos, the largest property market in Nigeria and sub-Sahara Africa. Policy solutions and implications were solicited from personnel at the ministry of housing and senior professionals in the property sector. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis and computer-aided qualitative data analysis, Atlas.ti.

Tenant’s health status is now accorded a priority together with others. Numbers of tenants are challenged with keeping to the prompt-rent-payment rule. Other areas of slight breaches included livestock rearing, subletting, alteration and repair covenants. Except for tenant reputation and tenant family size, there was no significant relationship between tenant’s health status consideration and the COVID-19 effect on tenant non-compliance with lease obligation. Tenants’ non-compliance with tenancy obligations has a connection with the tenants’ affordability, reputation, ability to sign an undertaking and health conditions during the pandemic. This paper recommends rental housing policy review.

It is recommended that the rental policy should be reviewed to give room for rental allowance or palliatives, private rental market regulation, exploration of the national housing fund and, if possible, social housing adoption policy in Nigeria.

This paper draws policymakers’ attention to the need to prepare for the future safety net that caters to citizenry welfare in challenging times.

A maintenance budget is an element of maintenance management (MM) that deals with financial planning for maintenance operations and execution within a maintenance organisation. Developed countries have standardised MM structures which guides maintenance activities. This, however, cannot be said of developing countries, as there are few or no MM standards adopted. Given this contextual setting, the study aims to validate the relevance of maintenance budget (MB) elements utilised in developed countries for developing countries – using Nigeria as a case study exemplar. Also, the study further examines the effectiveness of the validated maintenance budget elements.

The research adopts qualitative techniques and employs the Delphi survey to collect and analyse primary data from an operational perception through structured questionnaires to solicit views from panellists on the subject being assessed. A relative importance index (RII) was used in measuring consensus for the Delphi study outcomes, while a Cronbach Alpha test was carried out on all the MB elements to determine their level of reliability.

The key finding from the study reveals that of the 21 elements that influence the implementation of MB, 10 elements have a very high influence on the MM of buildings (VHI: 9.00–10.00), 5 elements had a high influence (HI: 7.00–8.99) and 6 other elements scored medium impact (MI: 5.00–6.99). The elements of MB that recorded very high influence on prompt MM effectiveness include MB implementation, corruption-free maintenance process, reduction in maintenance expenditure, maintenance financial plan, cost implication of maintained asset, cash flow indexing, prioritisation of maintenance financing, maintenance funding, incorporation of financial indicators and audit of operational maintenance cost.

On a practical note, these elements will guide the built environment professionals in organising maintenance activities to best use limited resources.

Cumulatively, the research presented shows that these elements are similar to those of other countries. Effective MM of buildings is assured when these elements are integral to developing a MB.

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate students’ perception of blended learning instructional design in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in the Sultanate of Oman. A course in a bachelor degree was offered using blended learning instructional mode, and students’ feedback was obtained on the impact of blended learning. The study was conducted in Ibra College of Technology, one of the seven colleges under the Ministry of Manpower in the Sultanate of Oman. A course in Business Strategy and HR Management was offered during Summer 2016 using a combination of traditional and online instructional design. A structured questionnaire was administered at the end of the semester to solicit feedback from students. The results of the study highlighted a positive attitude among students towards blended learning courses. The research stressed the requirements for proper infrastructure, training and development initiatives for staff and students, shift to a more focused practical assessment methods to measure the graduate attributes. Student engagement, learner autonomy, connection of learning to real life environments and flexibility all appeared to benefit from the blended learning course.

E-tourism is instilling in the tourism industry with the advancement in the technological infrastructure all over the world and fetching tremendous tourists’ attention. The dynamic changes in the technological aspects unveil varied developments in the tourism industry. This paper attempts to reveal the developments in the field of e-tourism by a systematic review of the literature using bibliometric analysis.

In total,146 research articles were retrieved from the Web of Science data during the period of 2004 – 2020, for further analysis using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny package of R Studio.

Useful insights resulted in the form of most cited papers, contribution in e-tourism research by different authors, countries, institutions, journals and so on, co-occurrence analysis and cluster analysis for major trends or themes of e-tourism. This study solicits an elaborated review of e-tourism research and unveils the future directions for the researchers.

This study adds substantial value to the research of e-tourism by analysing the bibliometric data of the last 16 years, that is, from 2004 – 2020, procured from the Scopus by analysing the significant trends developed in the e-tourism research. It also adds value by indicating the emerging areas of e-tourism.

The methods and procedures in which teachers are trained and supported are rapidly changing. While the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly disrupted education and exacerbated a growing teacher shortage, these problems are not new, they stretch back decades and are the result of underfunding and political machinations among many other factors. This paper is a case study of a small private university and how it transitioned to supporting employed interns and providing on-the-job-training and support for these types of interns in this volatile time for teacher education and preparation.

This paper is a case study. The paper chronicles how the initial certification department within a larger school of education was able to transition to meeting the needs of employed interns and supporting them.

The most important findings for this case study/examination of practice, while not necessarily generalizable, were the creation of a culture, attention to implementation and the fostering of a learning organization.

The teacher shortage forced the university in this paper to change its offerings, assumptions and culture with regard to interns and their needs. While this was unique to one institution, other institutions are most likely in similar situations.

The young members of Generation Z, who are hyperconnected and addicted to social media, are thought to be particularly sensitive to environmental and social concerns. This study aims to draw on a conceptual model that is based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm. Exposure to sustainability content on social media is considered to be a stimulus that affects the development of sustainability advocacy among GenZers, who modify their lifestyles. Five hypotheses are developed and tested. The goal is to define the antecedents of sustainability advocacy.

A Web survey was distributed to 660 Italian members from Generation Z (aged between 14 and 25) to detect the frequencies of exposure to sustainability content on social media, sustainable habits, sustainable consumption behaviours and actions that are related to sustainability advocacy on social media. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between these factors.

The results show that exposure to sustainability content on social media affects both sustainable habits and sustainable consumption behaviour. These three factors influence the propensity to promote sustainability-related issues on social media and should, therefore, be considered to be antecedents of sustainability advocacy.

The study, which takes the social responsibilities of large companies into account, is conducive to understanding how brands can intervene in the soliciting processes of sustainability advocacy through social media to gain legitimacy and increase brand awareness.

This study is among the first to consider the use of social media for advocating sustainability among Generation Z, thus enriching academic research on this cohort.

To endure and cope in the rapidly changing environment, it is required of firms to gain a deeper acquisition of knowledge on market dynamics and subsequently concentrate on corporations' capacity to create, restructure and integrate their internal and external competences. Hence, the objective of this study is to investigate the influence of eco-dynamic capability (EDC) on the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Structured questionnaires were used to obtain primary data. The data were solicited from 500 employees and owner-managers of SMEs. The study’s hypotheses were tested using standard multiple regression through IBM SPSS Statistics (version 24).

The study revealed that EDC has a substantial positive effect on the economic, social and environmental sustainability performance dimensions.

The focus of this study is on EDC. Thus, although dynamic capability has been the subject of substantial study, little is known regarding the effect of EDC on the economic sustainability performance (ESP) (financial), environmental sustainability performance (ENSP) and social sustainability performance (SSP) of SMEs, predominantly amongst SMEs in emerging economies.

The article applies the citizen science phenomenon – i.e. lay people involvement in research endeavours aimed at pushing forward scientific knowledge – to healthcare. Attention is paid to initiatives intended to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustrative case to exemplify the contribution of citizen science to system-wide innovation in healthcare.

A mixed methodology consisting of three sequential steps was developed. Firstly, a realist literature review was carried out to contextualize citizen science to healthcare. Then, an account of successfully completed large-scale, online citizen science projects dealing with healthcare and medicine has been conducted in order to obtain preliminary information about distinguishing features of citizen science in healthcare. Thirdly, a broad search of citizen science initiatives targeted to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has been performed. A comparative case study approach has been undertaken to examine the attributes of such projects and to unravel their peculiarities.

Citizen science enacts the development of a lively healthcare ecosystem, which takes its nourishment from the voluntary contribution of lay people. Citizen scientists play different roles in accomplishing citizen science initiatives, ranging from data collectors to data analysts. Alongside enabling big data management, citizen science contributes to lay people's education and empowerment, soliciting their active involvement in service co-production and value co-creation.

Citizen science is still underexplored in healthcare. Even though further evidence is needed to emphasize the value of lay people's involvement in scientific research applied to healthcare, citizen science is expected to revolutionize the way innovation is pursued and achieved in the healthcare ecosystem. Engaging lay people in a co-creating partnership with expert scientist can help us to address unprecedented health-related challenges and to shape the future of healthcare. Tailored health policy and management interventions are required to empower lay people and to stimulate their active engagement in value co-creation.

Citizen science relies on the wisdom of the crowd to address major issues faced by healthcare organizations. The article comes up with a state of the art investigation of citizen science in healthcare, shedding light on its attributes and envisioning avenues for further development.