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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 August 2024

Irene Torres, Samantha Kloft, Muskan Kumar, Amita Santosh, Mariana Pinto-Alvarez and Daniel F. López-Cevallos

This study compared approaches to school closures in four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru), describing the impact on the health and educational…

Abstract

Purpose

This study compared approaches to school closures in four Latin American countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru), describing the impact on the health and educational wellbeing of school-age children and youth, and evaluating their approaches in regard to continuing education through the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected 75 publicly available documents including scientific and gray literature (government documents and news releases), that referred to school closures and their impact on children’s health and wellbeing. We did thematic analyses using open, axial, and selective coding and applied the latest Health Promoting Schools standards and indicators to the findings.

Findings

Results showed that countries followed epidemiological reasons for prioritizing school closures while adopting some policies that abide by Health Promoting School principles. While they emphasized the need to reopen schools so that instruction could continue, school closures were among the longest in the world. The most significant impacts on wellbeing identified in the four countries were related to food security and mental health.

Research limitations/implications

This study focused on a particular set of documents, and it may not capture the full spectrum of relevant information in different contexts or regions.

Practical implications

By comparing school closures approaches among four Latin American countries, this study highlights the importance of context-specific interventions. In a post-pandemic era, lessons learned from these experiences should help foster more resilient and inclusive educational systems and explore the paths forward for following the new Health Promoting Schools framework in the region.

Originality/value

Cross-country qualitative analyses on this topic are rare. This study adds to the knowledge base by eliciting lessons for future health education research and policy efforts.

Details

Health Education, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-4283

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2024

Justin Stevenson, Maryam Safari, Huan Vo-Tran and Naomi Whiteside

This study aims to investigate the use of voluntary disclosure on mainstream social media platforms to examine strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the use of voluntary disclosure on mainstream social media platforms to examine strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the influential factors and institutional pressures organisations faced when making disclosures on social media during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-stage qualitative approach was adopted. Stage one used content analysis to examine voluntary disclosures made by international organisations on social media during the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stage two comprised semi-structured interviews with individuals who were involved in the decision-making process around the social media disclosures.

Findings

This study’s findings reveal significant changes in disclosure practices due to COVID-19-related pressures. In addition to the utilisation of social media for signalling conformance with new pandemic-related norms and connecting with stakeholders, the evidence also reveals how organisations made use of strategic responses to COVID-19-related institutional pressures.

Practical implications

The findings reveal how social media was used as a means of timely voluntary disclosure during the examined crisis. The findings can inform the development of organisational guidelines and policies for the use of social media as a disclosure medium.

Originality/value

This study reveals how organisations used voluntary disclosure on social media as a strategic response to institutional pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic; this context is under-researched. The study also extends the application of the strategic response framework regarding voluntary disclosure via social media.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 29 February 2024

Samiksha Mathur and Sonu Agarwal

This paper aims to discuss the positioning of international organisations (IOs) in the realm of international law. It proposes a more robust approach, arguing IOs have legal…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the positioning of international organisations (IOs) in the realm of international law. It proposes a more robust approach, arguing IOs have legal obligations akin to states to the extent which could be fulfilled by them. This paper suggests making IOs parties to international treaties like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and Geneva Convention 1949 to codify their international responsibilities. In addition, it proposes amending multilateral treaties to grant IOs membership and create binding legal obligations for them, thereby enhancing the overall legal framework for IOs.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper opted for qualitative analytical approach of research by referring to international treaties and scholarly papers.

Findings

The authors have evaluated the bindingness of international law on IOs. The authors argue that jus cogens and customary international law are equally binding on IOs. However, treaties could only be binding on IOs to the extent of their consent. The authors have assessed prior violations of IOs. The authors argue that, to prevent such violations by IOs, creating obligations is the first step. Second, amendments are required in the existing international treaties that reflect the foundations of international humanitarian and international human rights law like the Geneva Convention 1949, ICCPR, and ICESCR, to permit IOs to join these treaties, resulting in binding international legal obligations.

Research limitations/implications

The most prominent assertion of this paper is that IOs as subjects of international law are bound by the principles of international law, including treaty law with consent, customary international laws, general principles of law and peremptory norms. To fulfil these obligations, a regime needs to be introduced wherein amendment is made in treaties to make IOs parties to them and structuring the law on responsibility for IOs. Considering the multifaceted nature of IO, the role it performs in contemporary times requires them to be bound by rules of international law just like states. There is a need to settle their position in global governance and give them more teeth to understand and fulfil their duties to ensure smooth functioning in the long run.

Originality/value

The paper fulfils an identified gap in the positioning of IOs under the international law.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 66 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 August 2024

Michelle Jayman

This final chapter draws together the key findings presented in the preceding pages and considers emergent conclusions and implications for mental health and wellbeing in schools…

Abstract

This final chapter draws together the key findings presented in the preceding pages and considers emergent conclusions and implications for mental health and wellbeing in schools. The author draws upon the evidence presented by the book’s eclectic range of contributors and the health promoting schools’ (HPSs) framework to provide a road map of what an effective whole school approach (WSA) might look like moving forward. Crucially, lessons from recent crises in education, including COVID-19-driven changes in pathways to support, are highlighted as pivotal factors in a future vision which sees schools as an effective and sustainable frontline force to help tackle the global burden of child and adolescent mental health through a proactive, preventive stance. With this future focus in mind, next steps are considered in terms of developing effective and sustainable mental health and wellbeing support for all within healthy school settings.

Details

The BERA Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools: Exploring Frontline Support in Educational Research and Practice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-245-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2024

Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Sarah-Louise Mitchell, Zoe Lee and Fran Hyde

Social impact research remains in its infancy. The purpose of the paper is to build on Keeling and Marshall’s (2022) “Call for impact” paper and develop a comprehensive social…

Abstract

Purpose

Social impact research remains in its infancy. The purpose of the paper is to build on Keeling and Marshall’s (2022) “Call for impact” paper and develop a comprehensive social impact pathway (SIP) framework. The aim is to encourage marketing researchers, non-profits and corporations to pursue impactful work that is valued, planned, monitored and evaluated.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual paper explores the complexities of estimating social impact drawing from a range of illustrative cases.

Findings

The paper identifies a lack of clarity in the understanding and application of impact and presents a pathway aimed at increasing focus on social impact across future work to deliver the net-positive changes that are needed to reverse biodiversity decline, climate change and social and health inequalities that continue to be persist and be experienced by so many planet wide.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes a pathway forward to encourage and support increased utilisation of the framework in future marketing research.

Practical implications

Mapping and measuring SIPs are concerted efforts directing understanding towards identifying the activities that are contributing to the delivery of outputs that can achieve intended outcomes. The measurement of impact directs investment towards activities that ensure net-positive gains are achieved.

Social implications

Ever growing social inequities, health disparities, loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation occur when practices are left unchecked. A focus on impact avoids greenwashing practices, ensuring that an understanding of what has changed because of the work is transparently reported.

Originality/value

This paper aims to encourage marketing researchers to engage in social change projects, rather than solely disseminating academic findings. Emphasising the importance of an outside-in approach, this paper highlights the necessity of showcasing accumulated outcomes to demonstrate impact.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 May 2024

Wiljeana Jackson Glover, Sabrina JeanPierre Jacques, Rebecca Rosemé Obounou, Ernest Barthélemy and Wilnick Richard

This study examines innovation configurations (i.e. sets of product/service, social and business model innovations) and configuration linkages (i.e. factors that help to combine…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines innovation configurations (i.e. sets of product/service, social and business model innovations) and configuration linkages (i.e. factors that help to combine innovations) across six organizations as contingent upon organizational structure.

Design/methodology/approach

Using semi-structured interviews and available public information, qualitative data were collected and examined using content analysis to characterize innovation configurations and linkages in three local/private organizations and three foreign-led/public-private partnerships in Repiblik Ayiti (Haiti).

Findings

Organizations tend to combine product/service, social, and business model innovations simultaneously in locally founded private organizations and sequentially in foreign-based public-private partnerships. Linkages for simultaneous combination include limited external support, determined autonomy and shifting from a “beneficiary mindset,” and financial need identification. Sequential combination linkages include social need identification, community connections and flexibility.

Research limitations/implications

The generalizability of our findings for this qualitative study is subject to additional quantitative studies to empirically test the suggested factors and to examine other health care organizations and countries.

Practical implications

Locally led private organizations in low- and middle-income settings may benefit from considering how their innovations are in service to one another as they may have limited resources. Foreign based public-private partnerships may benefit from pacing their efforts alongside a broader set of stakeholders and ecosystem partners.

Originality/value

This study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine how organizations combine sets of innovations, i.e. innovation configurations, in a healthcare setting and the first of any setting to examine innovation configuration linkages.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 38 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2024

Lakshyayog

The manoeuvring of everyday spaces to nudge the population towards a physically active lifestyle or active living has been the hallmark of the policy modes of instrumental…

Abstract

The manoeuvring of everyday spaces to nudge the population towards a physically active lifestyle or active living has been the hallmark of the policy modes of instrumental thinking for combating physical inactivity, particularly in urban spaces across the world. Thus, the active promotion of fitness activities by the postcolonial state signifies the centrality of the body in disciplining docile and inactive individuals to produce fit and active citizens. Such a population-based approach has often raised concerns about social and spatial justice and expressions of identity, liberty, and surveillance, even as everyday spaces in cities continue to exhibit elements of colonial governmentality. In the midst of this, the body continues to be central to the ways in which such a population makes sense of being physically active and ‘being healthy’ in their everyday lives. By employing a multi-sited ethnography conducted over a period of 10 months in different public parks in Delhi, the present chapter aims to understand the ways in which fitness activities are performed, produced, and practised in the city. While public parks themselves are a product of colonial urban governmentalities in Delhi, this chapter argues that active bodies engaged in everyday sports in the parks also emerge as the critical site for the bodily inscription of global standards of physical activity. Driven by Western fitness regimes, individuals tend to understand themselves as entrepreneurial selves that can bring to life this imagination of the body ideal even while being engaged in various fitness and leisure activities aimed at being ‘healthy’.

Details

The Postcolonial Sporting Body: Contemporary Indian Investigations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-782-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2024

Margit Malmmose and Mai Skjøtt Linneberg

The objective of this study is to examine developments in the discursive practice of non-financial reporting in the public healthcare sector. In doing so, the authors investigate…

163

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study is to examine developments in the discursive practice of non-financial reporting in the public healthcare sector. In doing so, the authors investigate how the main reform foci of productivity and quality are represented, with a specific focus on the patient.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA), the authors conduct a longitudinal study (2007–2018) of healthcare reporting foci across the five administrative regions responsible for public hospitals in Denmark. The study analyses sixty annual reports and draws on contemporary reform documents over this period. CDA enables a micro-textual analysis, combined with macro-insights and discussions on social practice.

Findings

The findings show complex webs of presentation strategies, but in particular two changes occur during the period. First, the patient is centred throughout but the framing changes from productivity and waiting lists to quality and dialogue. Second, in the first years, the regions present themselves as actively highlighting financial and quality concerns, which changes to a passive and indirect form of presentation steered by indicators and patient legislation enforced by central government. This enhances passivity and distance in healthcare regional non-financial reporting where the regions seek to conform to such demands. Simultaneously, however, the authors find a tendency to highlight very different local initiatives, which shows an attempt to go beyond a pure automatic mode of reporting found in earlier studies.

Originality/value

Responding to the literature on both healthcare and financial reporting, this study identifies novel links between micro-level texts and macro-level social practices, enabling insights into the potentially intertwined impacts of public-sector reporting. The authors offer insights into the complexity of the construction of non-financial reporting in the public sector, which has a wider impact and different intentions than private-sector reporting.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2024

David Díaz Jiménez, José Luis López Ruiz, Jesús González Lama and Ángeles Verdejo Espinosa

The main objective of the study is to address the lack of sustainability assessments of smart connected health systems in the academic literature by presenting an assessment model…

Abstract

Purpose

The main objective of the study is to address the lack of sustainability assessments of smart connected health systems in the academic literature by presenting an assessment model to determine the alignment of these systems with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed in the 2030 Agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

An evaluation model based on decision analysis is proposed that includes three phases: alignment framework, information gathering and assessment. This model measures the alignment of the connected health system with each of the 17 SDGs, identifying the goals and criteria associated with each SDG that the system achieves to satisfy.

Findings

The analysis reveals that the system has achieved more than 24% of the targets among the 17 SDGs. In addition, it identifies four sustainability challenges that the system potentially addresses in relation to the SDGs, providing valuable guidance for researchers and practitioners interested in sustainable health technology development.

Practical implications

The study's results have significant implications for policymakers and stakeholders in the health and technology sectors.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies in its comprehensive approach to assessing the sustainability of connected health systems in the context of the SDGs, filling an important gap in the existing literature.

Details

Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6099

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 October 2024

Asiya Nasreen and Sarika Tomar

Regardless of where the business stood at the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 afflicted the corporate world as well as most of the workforce worked remotely due to government-mandated…

Abstract

Regardless of where the business stood at the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 afflicted the corporate world as well as most of the workforce worked remotely due to government-mandated isolation. The range of personal and professional problems experienced due to remote working by employees was explored at one of the Non-Financial Banking companies and how the company responded to their well-being by interviewing 124 employees and a senior HR personnel. Remote work induced by COVID-19 was not a cakewalk as 56.5% of employees desired physical connectivity with colleagues, for 50.8% work done from home was not interesting and more than 50% of the respondents agreed to work more hours than usual. The outcome was anxiety for some of them. The imbalance between personal and professional life was dissipated with the support of the management as 94.4% of them got sufficient support from their respective managers and colleagues, as they were able to communicate and collaborate with them. The managerial side validated the responses in a way that a flexible and target-oriented approach was adopted for employees. They organized stress management activities and ensured connections through regular employee connect and communication by Learning and Development department. Additionally, COVID-19 advisories and guidelines were followed while engaging with employees. The work–life balance shaken due to remote work was managed with responsive humanistic management practices that had the enduring effect of garnering employee engagement levels with the organization.

Details

Resilient Businesses for Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83608-129-6

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000