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Book part
Publication date: 6 May 2024

Rasha Ashraf Abdelbadie, Nils Braakmann and Aly Salama

The UK government has taken the lead in accelerating the capacity of higher education to engage with sustainability accounting and adopting a novel systematic approach toward a…

Abstract

The UK government has taken the lead in accelerating the capacity of higher education to engage with sustainability accounting and adopting a novel systematic approach toward a collective implementation of and contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN SDG 16 “Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions” promotes the (re)building of effective and accountable institutions. In line with the institutional logics metatheory, we provide empirical evidence on how the alignment between social mechanisms alongside the reputation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and SDGs on transparent and responsible service (SDG 16) affect the students' overall experience. Using a sample of 142 UK HEIs, interpretative content analysis and ordinary least squares, the results show that integrating HEIs' responsible-oriented research agenda proactively with high sustainability reputation adds significantly to greater student satisfaction.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Ethical Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-406-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 April 2024

Chen Zhong, Hong Liu and Hwee-Joo Kam

Cybersecurity competitions can effectively develop skills, but engaging a wide learner spectrum is challenging. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of cybersecurity…

Abstract

Purpose

Cybersecurity competitions can effectively develop skills, but engaging a wide learner spectrum is challenging. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of cybersecurity competitions among Reddit users. These users constitute a substantial demographic of young individuals, often participating in communities oriented towards college students or cybersecurity enthusiasts. The authors specifically focus on novice learners who showed an interest in cybersecurity but have not participated in competitions. By understanding their views and concerns, the authors aim to devise strategies to encourage their continuous involvement in cybersecurity learning. The Reddit platform provides unique access to this significant demographic, contributing to enhancing and diversifying the cybersecurity workforce.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose to mine Reddit posts for information about learners’ attitudes, interests and experiences with cybersecurity competitions. To mine Reddit posts, the authors developed a text mining approach that integrates computational text mining and qualitative content analysis techniques, and the authors discussed the advantages of the integrated approach.

Findings

The authors' text mining approach was successful in extracting the major themes from the collected posts. The authors found that motivated learners would want to form a strategic way to facilitate their learning. In addition, hope and fear collide, which exposes the learners’ interests and challenges.

Originality/value

The authors discussed the findings to provide education and training experts with a thorough understanding of novice learners, allowing them to engage them in the cybersecurity industry.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

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Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Adela Chen and Nicholas Roberts

Practitioners and academics are starting to recognize the benefits of green IT/IS practices. Despite these benefits, this study aims to know more regarding the factors that would…

Abstract

Purpose

Practitioners and academics are starting to recognize the benefits of green IT/IS practices. Despite these benefits, this study aims to know more regarding the factors that would drive organizations to use green IT/IS practices within their IT function and across the enterprise. To further understanding in this area, this study applies a strategic cognition framework of firm responsiveness and institutional theory to determine the extent to which an organization uses green IT/IS practices in response to stakeholder concerns. This study investigates the extent to which two organizational logics – expressive and instrumental – and three institutional pressures – coercive, mimetic and normative – jointly affect an organization's use of both green IT practices and green IS practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tested the hypotheses with survey data collected from 306 organizations. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

Findings support four joint effects: (1) individualistic identity orientation and coercive pressure positively affect green IT practices; (2) collectivistic identity orientation and normative pressure positively influence green IS practices; (3) cost reduction orientation and mimetic pressure positively affect green IT practices; and (4) revenue expansion orientation and normative pressure positively influence green IS practices.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence for joint drivers of green IT and green IS practices. Green IT and IS practices represent organizations' different levels of commitment to environmental sustainability and responsiveness to stakeholders (i.e. green IT/IS practices). Organizations of different expressive and instrumental orientations are attuned to institutional pressures to various degrees, which leads to different green IT/IS practices.

Book part
Publication date: 6 May 2024

Gul Afshan, Zubaida Ashraf, Maryam Kalhoro, Sonia Sethi, Qurat-ul-Ain Memon and Mansoor Ahmed Khuhro

The incorporation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability is essential for higher education institutions' (HEIs') future development as they deal with more…

Abstract

The incorporation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability is essential for higher education institutions' (HEIs') future development as they deal with more societal and environmental concerns. The current status of research on CSR and sustainability in HEIs is examined in this systematic review, which also identifies major themes and trends for future development. This review emphasizes the complex characteristics of CSR and sustainability in the higher education environment, spanning aspects like university's social responsibility (education, community engagement, research, and internal management and organization), Sustainable Development Goal (environment, social, and economic), student's perceived self-efficacy, students' intention to implement sustainability, students' engagement for sustainability. It does this by assessing a wide range of scientific works. Additionally, it reveals the advantages and disadvantages of applying CSR and sustainability strategies in HEIs. The results highlight the significance of all-encompassing initiatives that cover governance, accountability, and openness in order to promote a sustainability culture inside HEIs. The paper ends with suggestions for further study, highlighting the necessity of interdisciplinary methods and successful collaborations to promote CSR and sustainability initiatives in HEIs and consequently contribute to sustainable development generally.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Ethical Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-406-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2024

Amrita Hari, Luciara Nardon and Dunja Palic

Educational institutions are investing heavily in the internationalization of their campuses to attract global talent. Yet, highly skilled immigrants face persistent labor market…

Abstract

Purpose

Educational institutions are investing heavily in the internationalization of their campuses to attract global talent. Yet, highly skilled immigrants face persistent labor market challenges. We investigate how immigrant academics experience and mitigate their double precarity (migrant and academic) as they seek employment in higher education in Canada.

Design/methodology/approach

We take a phenomenological approach and draw on reflective interviews with nine immigrant academics, encouraging participants to elaborate on symbols and metaphors to describe their experiences.

Findings

We found that immigrant academics constitute a unique highly skilled precariat: a group of professionals with strong professional identities and attachments who face the dilemma of securing highly precarious employment (temporary, part-time and insecure) in a new academic environment or forgoing their professional attachment to seek stable employment in an alternate occupational sector. Long-term, stable and commensurate employment in Canadian higher education is out of reach due to credentialism. Those who stay the course risk deepening their precarity through multiple temporary engagements. Purposeful deskilling toward more stable employment that is disconnected from their previous educational and career accomplishments is a costly alternative in a situation of limited information and high uncertainty.

Originality/value

We bring into the conversation discussions of migrant precarity and academic precarity and draw on immigrant academics’ unique experiences and strategies to understand how this double precarization shapes their professional identities, mobility and work integration in Canadian higher education.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

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Article
Publication date: 18 April 2024

Nicole Ann Amato

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

Design/methodology/approach

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Findings

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Originality/value

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 April 2024

Salvatore Cincimino, Salvatore Gnoffo, Fabio La Rosa and Sergio Paternostro

Scholarly interest in the business effects of organised crime (OC) has recently increased. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on the conditions under…

Abstract

Purpose

Scholarly interest in the business effects of organised crime (OC) has recently increased. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on the conditions under which OC could pose a threat to or take control of firms within a particular context.

Design/methodology/approach

We use narrative synthesis and thematic analysis, with a sample of 46 theoretical and empirical studies published over the past 30 years on the relationship between OC and firms within the disciplines of Business, Management and Accounting (BMA).

Findings

SLR and thematic analysis show that scholarly interest has focused on four key domains: OC as a firm, the impact of OC on firms, firms’ efforts to counter OC’s influence and governmental interventions. Using medical metaphors, we also develop a diagram depicting the interplay between OC and firms within the BMA literature.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature shaping an agenda to steer future research towards these four key themes. The effectiveness of anti-OC tools and measures depends on a thorough understanding of local norms, behaviours and business practices. In addition to measurement and methodological challenges, several grey areas remain, including the distinction between criminal enterprises and legitimate businesses. Ambiguities also surround the circumstances under which the OC preys upon firms or employs them to establish dominance over a territory.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 October 2023

Renata Konrad, Solomiya Sorokotyaha and Daniel Walker

Conflict and violence are the main drivers of globally escalating humanitarian needs. Local grassroots initiatives are pivotal in distributing humanitarian supplies in the acute…

Abstract

Purpose

Conflict and violence are the main drivers of globally escalating humanitarian needs. Local grassroots initiatives are pivotal in distributing humanitarian supplies in the acute response phase until more established humanitarian aid organizations can enter. Nevertheless, scant research exists regarding the role of grassroots associations in providing humanitarian assistance during a military conflict. The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of grassroots associations and identify important themes for effective operations.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a case-study approach of three Ukrainian grassroots associations that began operating in the immediate days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The findings are based on analyzing primary sources, including interviews with Ukrainian volunteers, and are supported by secondary sources.

Findings

Grassroots associations have local contacts and a contextual understanding of population needs and can respond more rapidly and effectively than large intergovernmental agencies. Four critical themes regarding the operations of grassroots associations emerged: information management, inventory management, coordination and performance measurement. Grassroots humanitarian response operations during conflict are challenged by personal security risks, the unpredictability of unsolicited supplies, emerging volunteer roles, dynamic transportation routes and shifting demands.

Originality/value

Grassroots responses are central to humanitarian responses during the acute phase of a military conflict. By examining the operations of grassroots associations in the early months of the 2022 war in Ukraine, the authors provide a unique perspective on humanitarian logistics. Nonetheless, more inclusive models of humanitarian responses are needed to harness the capacities and resilience of grassroots operations in practice.

Details

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6747

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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 December 2023

Ingo Pies and Vladislav Valentinov

Stakeholder theory understands business in terms of relationships among stakeholders whose interests are mainly joint but may be occasionally conflicting. In the latter case…

Abstract

Purpose

Stakeholder theory understands business in terms of relationships among stakeholders whose interests are mainly joint but may be occasionally conflicting. In the latter case, managers may need to make trade-offs between these interests. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of managerial decision-making about these trade-offs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on the ordonomic approach which sees business life to be rife with social dilemmas and locates the role of stakeholders in harnessing or resolving these dilemmas through engagement in rule-finding and rule-setting processes.

Findings

The ordonomic approach suggests that stakeholder interests trade-offs ought to be neither ignored nor avoided, but rather embraced and welcomed as an opportunity for bringing to fruition the joint interest of stakeholders in playing a better game of business. Stakeholders are shown to bear responsibility for overcoming the perceived trade-offs through the institutional management of social dilemmas.

Originality/value

For many stakeholder theorists, the nature of managerial decision-making about trade-offs between conflicting stakeholder interests and the nature of trade-offs themselves have been a long-standing point of contention. The paper shows that trade-offs may be useful for the value creation process and explicitly discusses managerial strategies for dealing with them.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 April 2024

Phyllis Tharenou

Skilled migrant (SM) women play a key role in developed countries especially in healthcare and education in easing staffing shortages and migrate expecting to gain…

Abstract

Purpose

Skilled migrant (SM) women play a key role in developed countries especially in healthcare and education in easing staffing shortages and migrate expecting to gain qualification-matched employment (QME). The aim of this review is to assess whether SM women gain the anticipated QME, equitably compared to their skilled counterparts and to examine why and how they do so.

Design/methodology/approach

I conducted a systematic literature review to derive empirical studies to assess if, why and how SM women achieve QME (1) using SM women-only samples and comparative samples including SM women, and (2) examining whether they gain QME directly on or soon after migration or indirectly over time through undertaking alternative, contingent paths.

Findings

Only a minority of SM women achieve the anticipated QME directly soon after migration and less often than their skilled counterparts. Explaining the mechanism for achieving QME, other women, especially due to having young families, indirectly undertake alternative, lower-level contingent paths enabling them to ascend later to QME.

Originality/value

The SM literature gains new knowledge from revealing how SM women can gain positions post-migration comparable to their pre-migration qualifications through undertaking the alternative, contingent paths of steppingstone jobs and academic study, especially as part of agreed familial strategies. This review results in a theoretical mechanism (mediation by a developmental contingency path) to provide an alternative mechanism by which SM women achieve QME.

Details

Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-8799

Keywords

1 – 10 of 22