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This research aims to investigate how adaptability potential analysis in collaborative manufacturing networks can be used to enhance resilience when addressing innovative production challenges that require change initiatives.

A literature review on collaborative adaptive systems showed a lack of solutions to adapt production to an unpredicted product within a network. A framework is proposed for evaluating the adaptability of collaborative networks and providing inter-system adaptation recommendations. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach through an illustrative experimentation involving a cosmetic company seeking to produce a new product, hydroalcoholic gels in the context of collaborative networks.

The experimentation demonstrates that the adaptability analysis based on ontology can help different manufacturing systems make decisions based on their state and limits of capabilities. Also, our adaptation recommendations may help understand the economic impacts of collaboration for different scenarios before launching.

The research scope does not extend to the consideration of quantity and operational aspects. Additionally, the reconfigurability aspects within each manufacturing system, such as the reordering of layout sequences, have not been addressed yet.

The results allow organizations to compare resilience states from an individual and collaborative perspective, enabling them to make informed decisions about new production opportunities and effectively navigate the changing manufacturing landscape.

This research combines capability-based analysis and a collaborative network perspective to streamline decision-making for systems facing new production demands. It provides new insights into effectual decision-making, empowering organizations to skilfully manage unexpected challenges and identify suitable partners accordingly.

The study is aimed at analyzing the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on learning efficiency of students and also evaluating MOOCs as an ideal tool for designing a blended model for education.

The analysis was carried out by using the data gathered from the students as well as teachers of University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. Two separate sets of questionnaires were developed for both the categories of respondents. Also, the respondents were required to have prior experience in MOOCs. Further, the collected data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).

The study showed that MOOCs have a more positive influence on learning efficiency, as opined by both teachers and students. Negative views such as cheating during the assessment, lack of individual attention to students and low teacher-student ratio were also observed.

Many educational institutions view that the MOOCs do not influence learning efficiency and also do not support in achieving their vision. However, this study provides evidence that MOOCs are positively influencing the learning efficiency and also can be employed in a blended model of education so as to promote collaborative learning.

Technology is playing a pivotal role in all fields of life and the education sector is not an exception. It can be rightly said that the technology-based education models such as MOOCs are the need of the hour. This study may help higher education institutions to adopt MOOCs as part of their blended model of education, and, if already adopted, the outcome of the present study will help them to improve the effectiveness of the MOOCs they are offering.

We explore the design risk factors and associated managerial practices driving collaborative risk management for design efficacy in green building projects. By illuminating project design risk as an important project risk category in its own right, the study contributes to our understanding of optimising design efficacies for collaborative project risk management.

The study comprises exploratory interviews conducted with 27 industry project practitioners involved in the design and delivery/implementation of Green Star-certified building projects in South Africa.

The findings discursively highlight seven sources of design risk. We also identify seven specific collaborative risk management practices for design efficacy emerging from a consideration of how risk environments vary in the Green Star-certified projects, each with its own project design risk implications.

The study advances our understanding of how collaborations emerging from particular relational yet context-specific practices can be optimised to strengthen project risk management.

Several studies have been conducted to understand why the conviction rate for rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) remains so low. Increasing pressure and criticism have led to questioning why improvements in RASSO investigations are proving ineffective. The purpose of this study was to capture police officers’ perspective of police specialism while investigating RASSO.

A total of 82 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data collection spanned across two years, from October 2021 until May 2023, and included police officers from four police forces in England and Wales. Template analysis was used to identify recurrent patterns around police specialism for RASSO.

Most officers viewed specialism as a tool to improve how police forces prevent and tackle RASSO. In spite of this, the lack of prioritisation of specialist training, roles and units specifically for this crime type has hindered the development of evidence-based practice in policing. The impact on well-being, resources, organisational support and role identity has been explored.

This is the first qualitative study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to look at officers’ insights on police specialism for RASSO in England and Wales. Officers discussed day-to-day challenges associated with conducting RASSO investigations while reflecting on potential advantages related to dedicated specialist units and/or specialist roles.

In the context of rising reports of rape, set against falling convictions, it has been argued that rape has been de facto decriminalised in England and Wales. This paper aims to explore how police and prosecutors investigating rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) use and perceive investigation management documents (IMDs), and how high-quality IMDs may lead to better justice outcomes. IMDs must be started by police at the beginning of an investigation and should document: what an officer is/is not doing and why; what the reasonable lines of enquiry are and their outcomes; and what has translated to evidence and supports charge, disclosure or unused material. The document is shared with the crown prosecution service at the point a charging decision is sought.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 police officers and five crown prosecutors across five areas in Year 2 of Operation Soteria Bluestone, a project that aimed to improve how police investigate rape. These interviews were analysed using the qualitative method of thematic analysis.

Three main themes were identified relating to timeliness, understanding, and quality of IMDs. It was found that IMDs are not always started at the beginning of RASSO investigations or even at all. Officers also lacked understanding around the purpose of IMDs, often seeing them as duplications of other case files. Finally, prosecutors and police concurred that the quality of IMDs are generally poor and lacking in critical reflection.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first academic paper to consider the use of IMDs by police and prosecutors in RASSO investigations. As such, it is both a unique contribution to the field and also provides a platform for future research. Understanding how police officers can produce the highest quality IMDs, in a timely fashion, is of paramount importance given the wider societal context of increasing reports of rape alongside low charge rates. Implications for training are considered.

This paper aims to describe the approach taken to identify areas for development and to enhance positive practice, in line with a preventative tier 1 positive behaviour support (PBS) approach. The work was conducted within a supported living service, where 10 individuals with a learning disability reside.

The intervention was provided through a dedicated behavioural clinical specialist role over nine months. An initial assessment included measures evaluating PBS, active support and staff culture. Narrative themes were also noted from discussions with staff to deepen the understanding of informal staff culture. Together, this informed a programme of work guided by the setting of both individual and service-wide goals. Input included practice leadership, staff training, review of PBS plans and delivery of case workshops. Assessments were then repeated to evaluate the work completed.

There were indications of improvements in staff culture and practice following the intervention.

This practice example may be useful for other organisations to consider when thinking about how to use resources effectively to improve people’s quality of life and implement tier 1 of PBS provision.

Hiring employees with criminal records has become a heightened topic of conversation for hospitality practitioners. The labor shortage in the hospitality industry has increased consideration for individuals impacted by the justice system, bolstered by programming such as second-chance vocational training programs. However, hospitality practitioners with second-chance employment practices have had challenges managing the multiple stakeholder relationships to employ and retain justice-impacted employees. The purpose of this paper is to aid practitioners in the hospitality industry with an innovative and inclusive hiring practice with timely implications in the United States.

This paper will emphasize the correctional system actors, community-based partners, and justice-impacted employees as salient stakeholders in such hiring contexts. Employing a stakeholder theoretical perspective, we outline a stakeholder map for hospitality practitioners with fair chance hiring practices to better understand second-chance employees.

Organizations do not sit on the periphery of a community; they are interconnected with the community in many direct and indirect ways. Past research has yet to identify a relationship between stakeholder theory and second-chance employment when the stakeholders involved in this employee population are arguably extended. By providing a stakeholder mapping process second-chance employment context, the interwoven actors’ needs can be more holistically assessed.

In America, individuals with a criminal record are often a forgotten and stigmatized labor pool. With this paper, we aim to break down barriers of bias while encouraging the narrative toward true Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) hiring practices. Multiple stakeholder management is often an organizational challenge, and by providing this framework, we provide guidelines to practitioners while highlighting the opportunity for community leadership. To that end, we provide guidelines for hospitality practitioners intending to increase justice-involved employee retention through stakeholder relationship management.

This study investigates the impact of Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic visits on outward and inward foreign direct investment (OFDI and IFDI, respectively). Additionally, it aims to discern the differential impacts of diplomatic visits on FDI across different Chinese administrations.

We utilize data about the diplomatic visits of Chinese senior leaders to 146 host countries. The dataset was divided into two leadership eras: the tenure of President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao from 2003 to 2012 and the period from 2013 to 2021 under President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang. We employ generalized least squares, lagged effect, and two-stage least squares methods to estimate the econometric model. This analytical framework assesses the influence of high-level diplomatic visits on FDI flows, addressing potential time-serial and endogeneity concerns.

The findings reveal that senior leaders’ diplomatic visits significantly boost Chinese OFDI. The effect on IFDI in China is not statistically significant. The administrations of Hu and Xi played positive roles in promoting OFDI. However, only Hu’s administration showed a statistically significant positive relationship with IFDI. The result suggests a potential increase in IFDI between China and host countries within two to three years following diplomatic visits.

This study contributes to the understanding of how Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic activities affect foreign direct investment. It provides a deeper understanding of Chinese senior leaders’ diplomatic efforts to compensate for investment across two administration periods. It offers insights into the potential influence of diplomatic efforts on FDI, enriching the understanding of diplomacy’s role in international business contexts.

This commentary aims to explore the theme of Tier 1 support within the UK context and abroad by the associated article by Hardiman and Harding (2025; this issue).

This commentary considers the literature regarding high-quality support as a Tier 1 approach within positive behaviour support (PBS) model in the UK and abroad. It also considers potential infrastructure that services could use to develop and sustain high-quality support.

This commentary highlights how the UK may be guided by the framework of school-wide PBS in the USA to inform the implementation of system-wide PBS in UK contexts.

This commentary explores how system-wide PBS can be applied.

This article explores the use of natural language processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning (ML) models to discover underlying concepts of gender inequality applied to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in female social media conversations. The first purpose is to characterize female users who use this platform to share content around this area. The second is to identify the most prominent themes among female users’ digital production of gender inequality concepts, applied to AI technologies.

Social opinion mining has been applied to historical Twitter data. Data were gathered using a combination of analytical methods such as word clouds, sentiment analyses and clustering. It examines 172,041 tweets worldwide over a limited period of 359 days.

Empirical data gathered from interactions of female users in digital dialogues highlight that the most prominent topics of interest are the future of AI technologies and the active role of women to guarantee gender balanced systems. Algorithmic bias impacts female user behaviours in response to injustice and inequality in algorithmic outcomes. They share topics of interest and lead constructive conversations with profiles affiliated with gender or race empowerment associations. Women challenged by stereotypes and prejudices are likely to fund entrepreneurial solutions to create opportunities for change.

This study does have its limitations, however. First, different keywords are likely to result in a different pool of related research. Moreover, due to the nature of our sample, the largest proportion of posts are from native English speakers, predominantly (88%) from the US, UK, Australia and Canada. This demographic concentration reflects specific social structures and practices that influence gender equity priorities within the sample. These cultural contexts, which often emphasize inclusivity and equity, play a significant role in shaping the discourse around gender issues. These cultural norms, preferences and practices are critical in understanding the individual behaviours, perspectives and priorities expressed in the posts; in other words, it is vital to consider cultural context and economic determinants in an analysis of gender equity discussions. The US, UK, Australia and Canada share a cultural and legal heritage, a common language, values, democracy and the rule of law. Bennett (2007) emphasizes the potential for enhanced cooperation in areas like technology, trade and security, suggesting that the anglosphere’s cultural and institutional commonalities create a natural foundation for a cohesive, influential global network. These shared characteristics further influence the common approaches and perspectives on gender equity in public discourse. Yet findings from Western nations should not be assumed to apply easily to the contexts of other countries.

From a practical perspective, the results help us understand the role of female influencers and scrutinize public conversations. From a theoretical one, this research upholds the argument that feminist critical thought is indispensable in the development of balanced AI systems.

The results also help us understand the role of female influencers: ordinary individuals often challenged by gender and race discrimination. They request an intersectional, collaborative and pluralistic understanding of gender and race in AI. They act alone and endure the consequences of stigmatized products and services. AI curators should strongly consider advocating for responsible, impartial technologies, recognizing the indispensable role of women. This must consider all stakeholders, including representatives from industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), civil society and academia.

This study aims to fill critical research gaps by addressing the lack of a socio-technical perspective on AI-based decision-making systems, the shortage of empirical studies in the field and the need for a critical analysis using feminist theories. The study offers valuable insights that can guide managerial decision-making for AI researchers and practitioners, providing a comprehensive understanding of the topic through a critical lens.