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The purpose of this study is to examine how young people imagine civic futures through speculative fiction writing about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The authors argue that young people’s speculative fiction writing about AI not only helps make visible the ways they imagine the impacts of emerging technologies and the modes of collective action available for leveraging, resisting or countering them but also the frictions and fissures between the two.

This practitioner research study used data from student artifacts (speculative fiction stories, prewriting and relevant unit work) as well as classroom fieldnotes. The authors used inductive coding to identify emergent patterns in the ways young people wrote about AI and civics, as well as deductive coding using digital civic ecologies framework.

The findings of this study spotlight both the breadth of intractable civic concerns that young people associate with AI, as well as the limitations of the civic frameworks for imagining political interventions to these challenges. Importantly, they also indicate that the process of speculative writing itself can help reconcile this disjuncture by opening space to dwell in, rather than resolve, the tensions between “the speculative” and the “civic.”

Teachers might use speculative fiction writing and the digital civic ecologies framework to support students in critically examining possible AI futures and effective civic actions within them.

Speculative fiction writing offers an avenue for students to analyze the growing civic concerns posed by emerging platform technologies like AI.

The objective of this paper is to extend the debate on audit quality in the less complex entity (LCE) context by analyzing comment letters submitted to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). The IAASB has drafted a new, stand-alone standard for audits of LCEs’ financial statements.

The Gioia method is utilized to conduct the qualitative analysis. This enables the material to shine and provide a comprehensive picture of the important aspects of the comment letters about the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) for LCEs. A content analysis of the 145 comment letters is conducted to identify the extent of the support for and the arguments against the new, stand-alone draft standard for audits of LCEs’ financial statements. In addition, this study considers how the comment letters describe the respondents’ views on audit quality in relation to the new standard. Finally, the tone of the comment letters and audit quality arguments is investigated.

The findings provide a useful framework of the most frequently used arguments supporting and opposing the ISA for LCEs. Within the themes identified, a wide variety of issues and concerns are discussed. The results reveal that the arguments in the comment letters are contradictory. For instance, when discussing audit quality, those interest groups that perceived many positive opportunities in the adoption of the ISA for LCEs thought that the audit quality would increase. Conversely, those interest groups that were skeptical about the success of the ISA for LCEs argued that the audit quality could be compromised by the general prejudice that the ISA for LCEs might be perceived as a lower-quality audit with fewer procedures.

This paper is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first to examine the content of comment letters in the context of a new, stand-alone standard for audits of LCEs. The international audience can utilize the results in the context of the widely discussed issue of reducing LCEs’ auditing obligations. This study aims to contribute to the two streams of accounting literature concerning audit quality and political lobbying.

This chapter explores creative drawing mediums in research practice and education, through speculative drawing methods, and the use of temporal mediums such as film, animation, and augmented reality [AR] to move outside entrenched perspectives of communicating towards more inclusive storytelling narratives. Architectural representation mediums provide means of conveying rich layers of information, having evolved through cultural influences and technologies with their origins in Western world views. However, these methods of drawing are limited in how they convey multiple and diverse views or social understandings, ultimately delivering static representations. The student and staff approaches discussed in this chapter demonstrate approaches that recalibrate from a singular, designer-led perspective to one that is multivalent, considering and engaging other stakeholders in the negotiations and conversations of the spaces in our built environments. Through making architectural communication more accessible and inclusive of diverse audiences and voices, alternative world views can be both enabled and facilitated.

By a thorough bibliometric examination of the area through time, this paper analyses the research landscape of metaverse in education. It is an effort that is focused on the metaverse research trends, academic production and conceptual focus of scientific publications.

The Web of Science (WoS) database was explored for information containing research articles and associated publications that met the requirements. For a thorough analysis of the trend, thematic focus and scientific output in the subject of metaverse in education, a bibliometric technique was used to analyse the data. The bibliometrix package of R software, specifically the biblioshiny interface of R-studio, was used to conduct the analysis.

The analysis of the metaverse in education spanning from 1995 to the beginning of 2023 reveals a dynamic and evolving landscape. Notably, the field has experienced robust annual growth, with a peak of publications in 2022. Citation analysis highlights seminal works, with Dionisio et al. (2013) leading discussions on the transition of virtual worlds into intricate digital cultures. Thematic mapping identifies dominant themes such as “system,” “augmented reality” and “information technology,” indicating a strong technological focus. Surprisingly, China emerges as a leading contributor with significant citation impact, emphasising the global nature of metaverse research. The thematic map suggests ongoing developments in performance and future aspects, emphasising the essential role of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Overall, the findings depict a vibrant and multidimensional metaverse in education, poised for continued exploration and innovation.

The study is among the pioneers that provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis in the area of metaverse in education which will guide the novice researchers to identify the unexplored areas.

The rise of the regulatory state during the Gilded Age was closely associated with the development of institutionalist ideas in American academia. In their analysis of the emergent regulatory environment, institutionalists like John Commons operated with a fundamentally marginalist theory of value and distribution. This engagement is a central explanation for the ultimate ascendancy of neoclassical economics, and the limitations of the regulatory environment that emerged in the Progressive Era. The eventual rise of the Chicago School and its deregulatory ambitions did constitute a rupture, but one achieved without rejecting preceding conceptions of competition and value. The substantial compatibility of the view of markets underlying both the regulatory and deregulatory periods is stressed, casting doubt about the transformative potential of the resurgent regulatory impulse in the New Gilded Age.

The Scottish Enlightenment, which gave birth to classical liberal thought and political economy, developed out of a strong theological tradition and was marked by significant theological conflict. Most people understand the Scottish Enlightenment through the works of David Hume, Adam Smith, and their intellectual circle of Moderate clergy and literati. Though this group represents the dominant strain of thinking in the Scottish Enlightenment, one should not neglect other important contributions made by more orthodox clergy and literati. Comparing the ideas of less well-known, but leading figures of the Moderate and the orthodox literati, Hugh Blair and John Witherspoon, reveals different views on doctrines related to salvation, human nature, and God’s providence, as well as on the nature of moral judgment and education. These differences provide important context for understanding the ideas and arguments of more influential philosophers like Smith and Hume.

This chapter reports on research that explores new and emerging extended reality [XR] technologies and how they might provide opportunities to trial, investigate, and put into practice their potential to reverse processes of atomisation, polarisation, and intercultural discomfort, in our contemporary society. This transdisciplinary practice-led research was underpinned by disciplines of computer science and engineering, social sciences, history, diverse community economics, human ecology, and Indigenous psychology. The collaboration between these various disciplines with the Māori and non-Māori community members allowed researchers to understand current societal stressors, prioritise relationality, and explore our shared values in the creation of XR experiences for exhibition in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] sector.

A discursive design framework motivated, inspired, provoked, persuaded, and reminded inspiring collaborators, and visitors to the exhibitions, the value of (re)connecting with people and overcoming interracial awkwardness through these curated experiences. The XR technologies provided women a platform to discuss and reimagine first encounters between people from different cultural backgrounds. The technologies included a 180° stereoscopic projection, Common Sense, in which Māori Elder Irene Hancy shared her insight about social engagement and haptic HONGI in which visitors were greeted by a Māori woman Tania Remana via augmented reality. This research has been motivated by a desire to promote and support intercultural understanding in Aotearoa New Zealand, and it extends research by other non-Māori and Māori scholars.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the potential of data analytics to enhance project delivery. Yet many argue that its application in projects is still lagging behind other disciplines. This paper aims to provide a review of the current use of data analytics in project delivery encompassing both academic research and practice to accelerate current understanding and use this to formulate questions and goals for future research.

We propose to achieve the research aim through the creation of a systematic review of the status of data analytics in project delivery. Fusing the methodology of integrative literature review with a recently established practice to include both white and grey literature amounts to an approach tailored to the state of the domain. It serves to delineate a research agenda informed by current developments in both academic research and industrial practice.

The literature review reveals a dearth of work in both academic research and practice relating to data analytics in project delivery and characterises this situation as having “more gap than knowledge.” Some work does exist in the application of machine learning to predicting project delivery though this is restricted to disparate, single context studies that do not reach extendible findings on algorithm selection or key predictive characteristics. Grey literature addresses the potential benefits of data analytics in project delivery but in a manner reliant on “thought-experiments” and devoid of empirical examples.

Based on the review we articulate a research agenda to create knowledge fundamental to the effective use of data analytics in project delivery. This is structured around the functional framework devised by this investigation and highlights both organisational and data analytic challenges. Specifically, we express this structure in the form of an “onion-skin” model for conceptual structuring of data analytics in projects. We conclude with a discussion about if and how today’s project studies research community can respond to the totality of these challenges. This paper provides a blueprint for a bridge connecting data analytics and project management.

With the rise of cryptocurrency and its influence on the financial industry, this paper aims to explore cryptocurrency affordances that lead to approach–avoidance behavioral intentions for non-users (potential) and the intention to continue use for users (actual), drawing upon affordance theory and chasm theory.

The authors collected data from 480 potential and actual users in Germany and used maximum likelihood structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) to analyze it. In particular, the data consisted of 301 cryptocurrency users in Germany\ the authors used ML-SEM to test the post-adoption model. Additionally, logistic regression was utilized to determine the dominant actual usage method (store of value or medium of exchange) for various cryptocurrency coins.

According to the study's results, the perceived value benefits have a positive impact on the behavioral intention of potential users to adopt cryptocurrency, and they influence the intention of actual users to continue using it. However, both perceived volatility and financial risk tolerance are the most crucial factors hindering cryptocurrency adoption, whether in the pre-adoption or the post-adoption stage.

This is the first study to reveal cryptocurrency affordances and examine their effect on behavioral intentions toward cryptocurrency adoption based on the differences between non-users (potential) and users (actual). Furthermore, the authors explore how cryptocurrency holders perceive and invest in different coins (e.g. NFTs), which sheds light on factors such as financial risk tolerance that affect their decision making.

Pragmatism is very relevant to workplace management and performance measurement, yet in the accounting literature, it is a term used loosely and in a colloquial manner. By drawing on a framework based on classical pragmatism, this study aims to examine how a pragmatic perspective is discernible in the form and use of management control (MC) practices.

This study collects data using a case study of a firm in the green energy construction sector.

Building on the analytical framework, this study provides evidence that a pragmatic perspective is discernible in both form and use of MC practices, through a clear focus on targets rather than variance analysis, the presence of mutable local MC practices characterised by interaction and problem-solving and the absence of other common MC practices with no clear links to ends-in-view. This study also provides evidence of the potential limitations of a pragmatic perspective including myopia and an exacerbation of the inherent bias in organisations towards exploitation.

This research brings analytical clarity to the study of pragmatism in the accounting literature and insights into how a pragmatic perspective is discernible in the form and use of MC practices. Further, the study shows the potential limitations of a pragmatic perspective for management.