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This article aims to help educators provide a holistic view of the LGBTQ community by highlighting children’s books that include non-parental LGBTQ characters.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to help educators provide a holistic view of the LGBTQ community by highlighting children’s books that include non-parental LGBTQ characters.
Design/methodology/approach
The author selected over 80 children’s books honored by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List. Twenty-two books were analyzed that contain examples of LGBTQ adults existing beyond the homonormative nuclear family, e.g. two same-sex parents raising children.
Findings
The author discusses various ways of living represented in these books, such as chosen families, extended families, romantic partnerships and singlehood.
Originality/value
With the increased number of high-quality LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books published in the past decade, this study provides the foundation for educators to select various texts that reveal diverse representations of LGBTQ individuals.
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Behzad Gholampour, Alireza Noruzi, Alireza Elahi, David Barranco Gil and Sajad Gholampour
The purpose of this study is to draw a scientific map of the Grand Tours cycling as part of the growing research field in this field at the global level. This study also…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to draw a scientific map of the Grand Tours cycling as part of the growing research field in this field at the global level. This study also identifies the components of scientific production in this field along with their collaboration patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
With the aim of achieving a comprehensive and deep understanding of the studies related to the Grand Tour, this research aims to address the existing gaps and provide a comprehensive summary of these scholarly works. To achieve this goal, the authors used a systematic and scientometric combination method, analyzing studies from the past half century (1970–2022).
Findings
The research findings reveal that scientific studies related to cycling events exhibit a geographical concentration within the continent of Europe, surpassing other continents. Notably, Spain, the USA, the UK and Italy emerge as pioneers in this field of inquiry. The main themes identified in these studies encompass cycling, the Tour de France, performance, professional roa cycling, heart rate, endurance, doping and power output.
Practical implications
This research, along with other systematic studies, contributes to the existing literature in this field by providing both quantitative and qualitative data. Additionally, the study serves as a foundation for identifying active and influential countries, institutions and authors in this domain. Such insights are highly effective in establishing scientific focal points in this field.
Originality/value
This study, in conjunction with the introduction of key figures in mega cycling event research, sheds light on the thematic areas explored within these studies. Notably, it is the sole study that has illuminated hidden facets of this field using scientometric and systematic methods.
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Carolyn J. Cordery, David Hay and Sione Taufa
The purpose of this paper is to report a study of public accountability within the political and economic structures that characterise Pacific nations. The authors examine audit…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report a study of public accountability within the political and economic structures that characterise Pacific nations. The authors examine audit quality with respect to Pacific Island nations’ governmental reporting to investigate ways to improve accountability in a region that is economically and environmentally challenged.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine whether audit quality in Pacific Island nations is associated with the practical arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), taking into account external factors. The “practical arrangements” include the independence of a SAI (regarding its staffing and funding) and also the requirement for it to report to the Executive. The financial setting in each jurisdiction has been seen to impact the quality of financial reporting and auditing. The authors examine mediating factors such as income, political stability and education that may also impact audit quality. This study uses publicly available databases as well as jurisdictional annual reports and the associated audit opinions and management letters (where available). Jurisdictional reports on public financial management were also analysed.
Findings
The authors find that public sector audit quality is low in many Pacific countries, concluding that public accountability is impaired. While the authors recommend changes to the practical arrangements that can improve audit quality, the mediating factors also impact audit quality. They argue that a renewed focus on financial capability could enhance public accountability in these nations, but there are limiting factors that are difficult to overcome.
Practical implications
There are problems in providing accountability for public sector activities in Pacific nations. The authors suggest that improvements to the appointment and funding of SAIs to enhance their independence will help to reduce these issues.
Originality/value
The authors present a framework for analysing SAIs’ practical arrangements and audit quality that includes variables that may mediate the effects of these practical arrangements. They apply the model to 20 Pacific jurisdictions, showing that the practical arrangements of a SAI directly impact audit quality. Nevertheless, there are instances where audit quality is poor despite good practical arrangements, implying that mediating factors also play a substantial role in determining audit quality of a SAI.
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Marianne Thejls Ziegler and Christoph Lütge
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging interests of office workers for the purpose of addressing work ethical and business ethical issues of professional collaboration, competition, and power in future hybrid work models.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, and through the theoretical lens of phenomenology, the study develops explanatory hypotheses conceptualising four basic intentions of professional interaction and their corresponding preferences for video conferences and working on site.
Findings
The four intentions developed on the basis of the interviews are: the need for physical proximity; the challenge of collective creativity; the will to influence; and control of communication. This conceptual framework qualifies a moral ambivalence of professional interaction. The authors identify a connectivity paradox of professional interaction where the personal dimension remains unarticulated for the purpose of maintaining professionality. This tacit human connectivity is intertwined with latent power relations. This plasticity of both connectivity and power in direct interaction can be diminished by transferring the interaction to video conferencing.
Originality/value
The application of phenomenology to a collection of qualitative interviews has enabled the identification of underlying intention structures and the system in which they affect each other. This research identifies conflicts of interests between workers relative to their different self-perceived abilities to persevere in competitive professional interaction. It is therefore able to address consequences of future hybrid work models at an existential and societal level.
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Sebastian Aparicio, Mathew (Mat) Hughes, David Audretsch and David Urbano
Going beyond the traditional approach of formal and informal institutions as antecedents of entrepreneurship (directly) and development (indirectly), this paper seeks to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Going beyond the traditional approach of formal and informal institutions as antecedents of entrepreneurship (directly) and development (indirectly), this paper seeks to explore knowledge institutions as a necessary input for entrepreneurship and the development of societies.
Design/methodology/approach
Institutional economics lenses are utilized to observe other factors (e.g. the number of R&D staff and researchers from the public sector) that involve laws and socialization processes, which at the same time create knowledge useful for entrepreneurs and society. These ideas are tested through a sample of 281 observations from 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities in Spain. The information coming from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), Ministry of Economics, Industry, and Competitiveness, and INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística), was analyzed through 3SLS, which is useful for a simultaneous equation strategy.
Findings
Knowledge institutions such as the number of R&D staff and researchers from the public sector are found positively associated with entrepreneurship, which is a factor directly and positively linked to economic development across Spanish regions.
Originality/value
The findings help the operationalization of other institutions considered in institutional economics theory and its application to entrepreneurship research. Moreover, the results bring new insights into the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship in the public sector, in which the institutional analysis is implicit.
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Feng Wang, Rong Fu, Fu Yang and Ren Yingwei
Although the targets of envy have received increasing attention in management research, how envied employees respond to envy remains ambiguous and merits further investigation…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the targets of envy have received increasing attention in management research, how envied employees respond to envy remains ambiguous and merits further investigation. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, this paper aims to reconcile these inconsistent findings by developing and testing a model that elucidates how different types of being envied (i.e. benignly or maliciously) can elicit either favorable or unfavorable motivational and behavioral reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
An experience sampling study was conducted on 131 employees across 10 consecutive workdays in China. Focusing on within-person effects, multilevel mediation models using multilevel structural equation modeling were applied.
Findings
Results indicated that on days when employees are benignly envied, they engage in more organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) due to increased daily promotion focus. On the contrary, on days when employees are maliciously envied, they participate in more counterproductive work behavior (CWB) due to decreased daily promotion focus.
Practical implications
Organizations and managers should take a more holistic view of workplace envy when considering that envied employees may use OCB to deal with benign envy. Conversely, considering that CWB may emerge from employees who are maliciously envied, it is crucial for managers to be vigilant in discouraging and addressing malicious envy in the workplace.
Originality/value
This paper takes an initial foray into incorporating the concepts of benign envy and malicious envy into the literature on being envied and provides a novel perspective to explain why being envied can lead to both functional and dysfunctional responses.
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Inas Saleh Said and Vijay Vyas
The objective of this study is to understand how Arab entrepreneurs in Israel redress the disadvantage of the intersectionality of place and race by setting up their businesses in…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study is to understand how Arab entrepreneurs in Israel redress the disadvantage of the intersectionality of place and race by setting up their businesses in markets beyond their ethnic enclaves as well as by pursuing opportunity entrepreneurship and the role human values play in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the portrait value questionnaire, a survey of Arab entrepreneurs in Israel was conducted. Multiple linear regressions were run to generate the findings.
Findings
The authors find that educated and non-conforming Arab men in Israel, driven by stimulation and universalism, successfully neutralise the intersectional disadvantage of place and race through entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications
Care is advised in the generalisation of findings of this research to other intersectional communities as they emerge from the unique context of Arab entrepreneurs in Israel.
Practical implications
Education, stimulation and universalism facilitate entrepreneurial success beyond Arab ethnic enclaves whereas conformity suppresses it.
Social implications
With the right attributes and values, marginalised individuals can emerge from the disadvantage of the intersectionality of place and race.
Originality/value
The study advances the intersectionality discourse from “what it is” and “what it does” to “what can be done about it”. It identifies the attributes and values that help Arab entrepreneurs in Israel to remedy their intersectional disadvantage.
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Maria Tsouroufli, Anita Walton and David Thompson
In this paper we explore the gendered ways in which academic staff resistance and compliance is configured in a post-1992 University in England, including the emotions implicated…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper we explore the gendered ways in which academic staff resistance and compliance is configured in a post-1992 University in England, including the emotions implicated in the navigation of neo-liberalisation and research intensification of their academic institution and its associated disciplinarian mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw on data from an interview study of a diverse sample of 32 academics of different gender, discipline and academic grade. Analysis informed by a feminist post-structuralist framework of power and discourse explored different forms of academic resistance and compliance; how the embodied academic subject was (re)negotiated within gendered discourses of neo-liberal research excellence and managerialism and the gendered emotions generated in processes of resistance and compliance.
Findings
Institutional change and expectations to engage with research performativity generated fear, anxiety and anger. Female staff appeared to actively resist the masculinized research subject performing all hours work and individualism in the context of private and institutional gendered relations and labour. Male staff though actively resisted the feminization of higher education and the neo-liberal instrumentalization of caring and therapeutic cultures and ideologically resisted the surveillance mechanisms of higher education including the REF.
Research limitations/implications
Our work contributes to scholarship problematizing the assumed neutrality of resistance and compliance and highlighting women’s symbolic struggle to (dis)identify with a masculine professional norm. In terms of theorising academic resistance to neo-liberalism and identity construction, further attention should be given to the mobilization and symbolic capital of academics and emotions positioned differently due to their gender and intersecting differences.
Originality/value
Our study addresses a gap in the scholarship of academic resistance and compliance by advancing the understanding of gender inequalities and emotions implicated in the process of resistance and compliance against neo-liberalism.
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Ye Bai, Xinlong Li and Hongye Sun
In online purchase for dietary supplements, due to the lack of professional advice from pharmacists, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become an important source of information…
Abstract
Purpose
In online purchase for dietary supplements, due to the lack of professional advice from pharmacists, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become an important source of information for consumers to make purchase decisions. How can firms use eWOM resources to increase sales? The purpose of this paper is to provide practical methods for firms by exploring the effects of eWOM on sales and developing a sales prediction model based on eWOM.
Design/methodology/approach
The data came from 120 dietary supplements on Tmall.com. The authors extracted the product sales as dependent variable and 11 eWOM factors as independent variables. The multicollinearity was tested by using variance inflation factor and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The multiple linear regression was used to investigate the effects of eWOM on sales. Drawing on white- and black-box approaches, six models were developed. Comparing the root mean square error, the authors selected the optimal one as their target sales prediction model.
Findings
Product ratings, total reviews and favorites are positively and strongly associated with sales. Questions and additional reviews have negative effects on sales. The random forest model has the best prediction performance.
Originality/value
The research focuses on eWOM of dietary supplement. First, the authors show that easily accessible eWOM from online platforms can be used to evaluate effects and predict sales. Second, the authors introduce white- and black-box models through machine learning to assess eWOM. Firms could use the described models to foster their marketing initiatives.
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Yongqiang Lu and Li Ma
Construction project team members’ job burnout damages the physical health of members and also have a negative effect on project performance. This study primarily aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Construction project team members’ job burnout damages the physical health of members and also have a negative effect on project performance. This study primarily aims to empirically examine the relationship between coaching project managers (CPMs) and team members’ job burnout. Moreover, this research examines the cross-level mediating effect of team caring ethical climate and team members’ team-based self-esteem (TBSE) on the relationship between the two aspects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses conservation of resources theory as basis to construct a cross-level research model of the effect of CPMs on team members’ job burnout. Thereafter, regression analysis was performed on a sample of 431 team members from 83 teams.
Findings
According to the empirical results, the authors found that, in construction project teams, first, CPMs were negatively correlated with team members’ job burnout and positively correlated with caring ethical climate and team members’ TBSE. Second, caring ethical climate and team members’ TBSE played a cross-level mediating role between CPMs and team members’ job burnout. In addition, caring ethical climate played a cross-level moderating role in the negative relationship between team members’ TBSE and job burnout.
Originality/value
This study introduces coaching leadership, an important leadership type, into the research background of construction project teams, thereby theoretically enriching the research on construction project team leadership. Moreover, by further expanding the research on the consequences of coaching leadership to the field of job burnout, this study also enriches the theoretical results of the research on the consequences of coaching leadership.
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