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The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about assessment methods in blended business education, which have become increasingly important to establish sustainable assessment practices that support knowledge acquisition for undergraduate students in business administration at a Colombian university.

For the analysis, a two groups comparison was performed using a nonequivalent control group design with a sample of 420 students. As this study wants to find insights to improve the knowledge on assessment topics in marketing research (MR) education, it was focused on the students from the business administration program. This study also uses individual scores from the state test as prior cognitive scores and the high school classification provided by the National Ministry of Education in Colombia (2012).

It was found that the variables that best predict performance on the MR course examinations were the mathematics skills and reading comprehension scores on the state test. The study also showed a better performance of female students on both assessment methods. There were no significant differences between the assessment methods or among the high school levels.

One of the limitations of this study is the limited number of items on the tests. Additionally, the authors recommend conducting an analysis of the differences between the testing items to provide a detailed explanation of students’ performance when comparing computer-based testing and paper-and-pencil testing.

Further design of teaching material and assessments online and offline, based on local and regional marketing problems, is suggested. As the current text and readings are more oriented to the English-speaking contexts, most of the problems presented are oriented to multinational companies and brands.

Insights into the skills required for future jobs provide valuable guidance (World Economic Forum, 2020). Essential skills for emerging roles, like data scientists, can find robust support within the MR course. To further enrich in-class and online exercises with Excel and SPSS, Colombian educators can leverage data sets obtained from sources like the national statistics office and international market intelligence databases available through the university’s library, including Passport and Statista. Engaging with authentic data sets provides students with a more profound understanding of practical applications in MR.

This approach facilitates the identification of key variables, such as assessment and cognitive abilities in math and reading, which predict students’ knowledge acquisition in MR. It not only offers insights into the relevant factors influencing learning in MR but also provides valuable feedback. Additionally, it suggests potential avenues for future research in this field.

This historical example of the creation of the arms industry in the Connecticut River Valley in the 1800s provides new insights into the value of government venture capital (GVC) and government demand in creating a new industry. Since current theoretical explanations of the best uses of governmental venture capital are still under development, there is considerable need for further theory development to explain and predict the creation of an industry and especially those industries where failures in private capital supply necessitates governmental involvement in new firm creation. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in depth historical review of how the arms industry evolved spurred by GVC and government created demand.

This study uses abductive inference as the best way to build and test emerging theories and advancing theoretical explanations of the best uses of GVC and governmental demand to achieve socially required outcomes.

By observing this specific historical example in detail, the authors add to the understanding of value creation caused by governmental venture capital funding of existing theory. A major contribution of this paper is to advance theory based on detailed observation.

The relatively limited research literature and theory development on governmental venture capital funding and the critical success factors in startups are enriched by this abductive investigation of the creation of the historically important arms industry and its spillover into creating the specialized machine industry.

This paper aims to use the origin story of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management as a foil for unpacking the tensions between deep disciplinary specialization and liberal education in business schools in Canada and the USA. Ultimately, the paper reveals that those tensions are not irreconcilable, and that through the fortunes of historical contingencies and deliberate decision-taking, a faculty can embrace the benefits of both breadth and depth.

The paper proposes a critical organizational history of management education through a case study. By drawing on secondary literature and archival sources, the authors focus on moments in business education, such as the founding of the Wharton School of Business, the release of the Carnegie and Ford Reports and the trend towards increased specialization to situate a case study of Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Management.

The authors find that the evolution of business education in North America from its broad, liberal origins towards narrow, specialization has come at a cost to some of the benefits of business and management education. An alternative approach, one reflected in the design of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, its programme offerings and its interconnection with other disciplines, enables the advantages of deep disciplinarity to co-exist (and cross-inform) with the advantages of liberal approach to knowledges.

The Dalhousie model offers business schools an example of a faculty that balances the rich insights of liberal interdisciplinarity with the need for sophisticated approaches to more granular, often disciplinary, topics. In addition, the paper offers the story of a multidisciplinary management faculty, some explanation for how that faculty was maintained despite pressures towards specialization; and in doing so, contributes to the limited historical research of management education, particularly in Canada, post-2000.

This study aims to examine the scope and contribution of Forensic Clinical Psychology (FCP) advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) to criminal investigations in the UK to address the gap in current knowledge and research.

The 36 FCP reports reviewed were written between 2017 and 2021. They were analysed using Toulmin’s (1958) application of pertinent arguments to the evaluation process. The potential utility of the reports was analysed in terms of the advice provided.

Most of the reports involved murder and equivocal death. The reports focused primarily on understanding the offender’s psychopathology, actions, motivation and risk to self and others using a practitioner model of case study methodology. Out of the 539 claims, grounds were provided for 99% of the claims, 91% had designated modality, 62% of the claims were potentially verifiable and 57% of the claims were supported by a warrant and/or backing. Most of the reports provided either moderate or high insight into the offence/offender (92%) and potential for new leads (64%).

The advice provided relied heavily on extensive forensic clinical and investigative experience of offenders, guided by theory and research and was often performed under considerable time pressure. Flexibility, impartiality, rigour and resilience are essential prerequisites for this type of work.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically evaluate forensic clinical psychology reports from the NCA. It shows the pragmatic, dynamic and varied nature of FCP contributions to investigations and its potential utility.

Land value in urban areas in India is influenced by regulations, bylaws and the amenities associated with them. Planning interventions play a significant role in enhancing the quality of the neighbourhood, thereby resulting in a change in its value. Land is a distinct commodity due to its fixed location, and planning interventions are also specific to certain locations. Consequently, the factors influencing land value will vary across different areas. While recent literature has explored some determinants of land value individually, conducting a comprehensive study specific to each location would be more beneficial for making informed policy decisions. Therefore, this article aims to examine and identify the critical factors that impact the value of residential land in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India.

The study employed a combination of semi-structured and structured interview methods to construct a Relative Importance Index (RII) and ascertain the critical determinants affecting residential land value. A sample of 36 experts, comprising property valuers, urban planners and real estate professionals operating within the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India, were selected using snowball sampling techniques. Subsequently, rank correlation and ANOVA methods were employed to evaluate the obtained results.

Location and stage of urban development are the most critical determinants in determining residential land values in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. The study identifies a total of 13 critical determinants.

A scenario planning approach can be developed to achieve an equitable distribution of values and land use entropy. A land value assessment model can also be developed to assist professional valuers.

There has been a lack of emphasis on assessing the impact of planning interventions and territorial regulation on land values in the context of Delhi. This study will contribute to policy decision-making by developing a rank list of planning-based determinants of land value.

Online brand is becoming a popular and major gateway for consumers for booking various services specifically when they travel for several purposes. The present study aims to explore whether exposure to two separate yet similar modes of communication intervene consumer's brand trust and their subsequent loyalty intention toward the brand. The study further aims to investigate whether consumer's price consciousness has any influence on association between brand trust and brand loyalty in the process of decision -making.

The present study follows a different approach to data collection. The data have been retrieved from online brand (Oyo) page on Facebook through Google Form application. In all, 289 useable responses were retrieved from the travelers aged between 18 and 30. Structural equation modeling using SPSS 25.0 and Amos 26.0 has been applied to examine the effects of brand communication and online reviews on brand loyalty through brand trust.

Empirical evidence supports that even after having strong brand communication, online reviews play a crucial role in consumer's brand loyalty through brand trust. The study further reveals that price consciousness acts as a significant moderator in the relationship between consumer's brand trust and brand loyalty.

The current research contributes to the online brand and marketing knowledge by empirically showing the pertinence of consumer–brand relationship in an online brand context through a parsimonious model by examining how the two distinct mechanisms of communication influences consumer brand trust and loyalty intention.

The parsimonious framework of consumer–brand relationship adds to explicating the dual marketing challenges of communication and to draw a positive consumer response (i.e. consumer brand loyalty). The study attempts to examine the impact of two distinct yet identical modes of communication which facilitate shaping consumer brand trust that reinforce the strategic value of the circumstance and equips it with solid theoretical structure within an endeavor of the strategic significance of online brand managers.

As a little research has been conducted to understand the factors influencing users’ intentions to adopt blockchain-based telemedicine (BBT), it is important to investigate BBT acceptance as incorporation of blockchain technology can solve telemedicine-related issues. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing behavioral intentions (BI) to adopt BBT.

An integrated model comprising the constructs taken from technology–organization–environment framework, technology acceptance model, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and theory of planned behavior based on their relevance to the context and the objectives of the study has been used for this research. A quantitative approach has been used to test the hypotheses, for which the data was collected from 324 respondents through a self-administered questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modeling has been used to test the hypotheses.

The results of the study show that relative advantage, perceived usefulness, trust and perceived ease of use have a significant impact on BI to adopt BBT, whereas regulatory support, subjective norms and facilitating conditions do not have any significant impact on the same.

As the concept of BCT in Pakistan is at its nascent stage and literature regarding this technology’s adoption is also limited, researchers and scholars can apply it to several other fields in Pakistan. For example, this study can be extended to explore the factors influencing blockchain adoption in areas such as education, logistics, transportation, finances and management. This research only considers the direct effects of constructs on BI to adopt BBT and does not consider any mediation and moderations constructs. Future researchers can also study the influence of mediation and moderation constructs on BI to adopt BCT.

Although studies on the acceptance of telemedicine exist, there is a gap concerning the acceptance of BBT, which the current study helps to bridge. From a practical standpoint, the current study makes a highly valuable contribution toward understanding acceptance factors for BBT projects, leading to help policymakers devise policies to promote telemedicine.