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Generally, theory and research investigating the effectiveness of mentoring has offered little resounding evidence to attest to mentoring programmes being a strategic initiative that make a real difference in reducing the educational inequities many minority students endure. In contrast to this existing research base, the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) has often been cited as one of the most successful mentoring initiatives within Australia. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine how AIME may impact on the educational aspirations and school self-concept of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

A series of multi-group analyses were centred around Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling techniques that sought not only to explore the psychometric validity of the measures utilized within this study, but also to identify how the measures may be related after accounting for background variables (e.g. gender, parental education).

The results found that the measures utilized held strong psychometric properties allowing an increased level of confidence in the measures used and the conclusion that may be drawn from their use in analyses. Overall, the results suggested that AIME is an effective tool for increasing not only the educational aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but also their levels (and utility) of School Self-concept and School Enjoyment.

The implications suggest that not only is AIME an essential tool for closing the educational gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal students, but also our understanding of mentoring must be extended well beyond simplistic notions of role-modelling.

This chapter discusses the significance of Sally Tomlinson’s article, The Irresistible Rise of Special Education and of her sociological thinking more generally. The paradox highlighted in the Tomlinson’s article, that is, the constantly evolving expansion, globally, of special education, alongside a simultaneous growth in support for the idea of inclusive education, is discussed in this chapter. Tomlinson’s influence on the sociological direction of Julie Allan’s work is traced and exemplified, and the continuing tensions in inclusive education are explored.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the citation behavior of Pondicherry University faculty with a focus on their recent publication experience, indexed in Scopus. The paper endeavors to gain an insight into their pattern of citation of scientific papers and attempts to understand the underlying motive in doing so especially in an era where information resources have transitioned from print to digital.

The study adopted a judgmental sample consisting of 100 selected faculty members whose recent papers were indexed by Scopus database. A pre-defined questionnaire consisting of demographic profile and 23 items on citation trust and authority statements of citing sources was self-administered to them.

The findings of the study indicate that the citation behavior of faculty in Pondicherry University is complex and multi-faceted. Although majority of the faculty depicted an inclination toward normative citation behavior (concerned with the intellectual content of the work), there are others who displayed social constructivist (concerned with the social aspects of the work) citation behavior as well. However, in spite of the differences observed in the citation behavior of the faculty, it was observed that they remained traditional while making trust decisions even in the digital era. Finally, findings suggest no statistical significant difference when it comes to variables, such as gender and discipline in the citation behavior of the faculty.

Given the ever-increasing importance of citation in judging the quality of research journals, in ranking institutions and in determining the efficacy of faculty in India, author-based approach of understanding citer motivation definitely carry research value.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the gendered nature of social arrangements in order to bring to the surface the hidden discourses that mediate the opportunities of women leaders in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.

The author uses critical sense-making (CSM) to analyze interviews with CSR leaders toward understanding the interconnected layers of influences they draw from as they make sense of their experiences.

Despite the positioning of women as being untapped resources within CSR, the reality within CSR leadership indicates that resilient, stereotypical social constructions of gender are being (re)created. However, cues can disrupt the ongoing process of sense-making and create shocks that represent opportunities for resistance as discriminatory practices are revealed.

Applying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.

If these leaders are able to use their discursive power to establish an alternate, dominant narrative throughout their organizations – a culture of emotional empathy within CSR – alternate meanings about the nature and purpose of CSR may emerge while highlighting the need for change.

Applying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.

Rarely have studies on the acquisition of knowledge in internationalisation focused on institutional knowledge. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to investigate the acquisition of this knowledge, and its assimilation and exploitation processes in internationalisation.

The paper utilises ten longitudinal revelatory case studies built from multiple semi-structured interviews conducted with three different firm types of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) in the pharmaceutical industry and secondary documents to which the researchers obtained proprietary access.

The study enhances the conceptual understanding of the institutional learning process in internationalisation by, for the first time, developing a framework to characterise this process. The study explores and identifies multiple types of institutional knowledge required, the sequencing of their acquisition, sources and learning methods utilised. It also discusses transferability of this learning across foreign markets and firms’ absorptive capacity for that knowledge. Regulatory-specific product knowledge, found to be the most important type required, appeared to affect significantly both market selection and mode of entry, and when acquired insufficiently, prevented internationalisation.

While the sample size is relatively small, and sector-specific, the findings were consistent across all the SME firms and firm types. They may also be generalisable to other sectors, firm sizes such as MNEs and types, particularly those which are knowledge-based or highly regulated, given that similar institutional knowledge and processes of acquisition are necessary for firms of all sizes in internationalisation.

International marketing managers will gain valuable insights, based on a framework proven to propel firms to successful internationalisation, upon how to plan, organise, manage and match their institutional knowledge-seeking and learning activities with their firms’ internal capabilities, staffing and other resources in an effective and timely manner.

This study contributes to the conceptual understanding of the institutional knowledge learning process in the internationalisation.

The paper aims to explore the social origins of Scottish chartered accountants and the accounting stereotype as portrayed in popular fiction.

The detective novels of the Scottish chartered accountant Alexander Clark Smith are used as a lens through which to explore the social origins of accountants and the changing popular representations of the accountant.

The novels contribute to our understanding of the construction of accounting stereotypes and of the social origins of Scottish accountants. They suggest that, while working class access to the profession was a reality, so was class division within it. In addition, Smith was ahead of contemporary professional discourse in creating a protagonist who combines the positive aspects of the traditional stereotype with qualities of a private‐eye action‐hero, and who uses accounting skills to uncover corruption and address (social) wrongs. However, this unconventional portrayal may have been incongruent with the image the profession wished to portray. The public image (or stereotype) portrayed by its members would have been as important in signalling and maintaining the profession's collective status as the recruitment of its leadership from social elites.

Smith's portrayal of accountants in personal and societal settings at a time of profound social change, as well as his background in the Scottish profession, provide a rich source for the study of social origins of Scottish chartered accountancy during the first half of the twentieth century. Further, Smith's novels are of a popular genre, and innovative in the construction of their hero and of accounting itself; as such they merit attention because of their potential to influence the construction of the accounting stereotype(s) within the popular imagination.