Search results

This chapter is a retrospective commentary on the efficacy of teaching and learning in a higher education space that embraces the incredible diversity of delivery modes available in the post-Covid-19 era of “Smart Cities.” The current reality of widespread and leading-edge experimentation with online learning necessitates that existing brick-and-mortar institutions reimagine their places as providers of higher education in this new age of digital disruptions that will resonate with all stakeholders a future of endless possibilities. The authors, with four decades between them of practice and field research at leading universities and colleges in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and UAE, advocate an approach to higher education that is personalized for learning effectiveness, industrial operations, and institutional evolution; that is, a higher education that is democratized. They warn that the wasted opportunities of meaningful digital transformation pre-Covid-19 have led to an urgency of transformation at the present time. While randomized control trials continue to be the “elephant in the room”; scholars, leaders, technocrats, and regulators must drive the quest for the growth and relevance of a diversified and learner-driven higher education in the years ahead. The platform of a “smart city” may just be the catalyst for such a radical innovation.

This chapter explores the multifaceted relationship between quantum computing (QC) and sustainability, with a focus on the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO) framework. The manuscript delves into the theoretical underpinnings of QUBO and its formulation as a quantum annealing problem, identifying the quantum principles that facilitate the resolution of such optimisation challenges. It offers a critical analysis of the suitability of QUBO for unconstrained problems and its efficacy in consistently locating the global minimum – a pivotal concern in optimisation tasks. Further, this study provides a nuanced discussion on the intersection of QC and sustainability. It delineates the types of optimisation problems within sustainability initiatives that are amenable to formulation as QUBO problems, while also highlighting sustainability challenges that elude the QUBO framework. It argues for the integration of quantum solutions into business operations, highlighting the potential for QC to play a transformative role in achieving sustainability objectives. The critique of the current hype surrounding QC provides a balanced viewpoint, ensuring a grounded approach to the adoption of quantum technologies in tackling pressing global issues.

Psychological and entrepreneurial traits have been widely studied as explicative variables of encouraging entrepreneurial behavior, while their impact on innovative activity is less explored. This study examines whether, how and why psycho-entrepreneurial traits and social networks effect innovativeness among women firm owners.

Analysis of data collected from 304 Saudi women entrepreneurs accompanied by business accelerators provides a wide support with some notable exceptions. We use Structural Equation Modeling technique to estimate how different constructs interact with each other and jointly affect directly or indirectly women's innovativeness behavior in Saudi Arabia.

Findings point out that innovativeness is positively and significantly affected by emotional intelligence, internal locus of control, entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The construct of entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates the relationship between both business and personal networks and innovativeness. However, professional forums and mentors have no significant effect on innovativeness.

The sample selection is limited to two entrepreneurial support structures especially business accelerator and business incubator. Expanding the context to other support structures can reinforce the implications and provide more valuable results.

The findings are likely to be of applicability for improving women entrepreneurship by entrepreneurial support structures.

This research is original in the sense that it investigated useful insights of innovativeness among Saudi female entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to derive a model that explores how the interplay between knowledge integration capability and innovation impacts strategic orientation, leading to the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. The study considers the constituents of strategic orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and technology orientation, as the basis for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The study suggests that the firm’s capacity for integrating external and internal knowledge shapes how strategic orientation influences sustainable competitive advantage through service innovation.

This empirical research relies on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from telecom professionals to assess how knowledge integration and service innovation influence sustained competitive advantage. Structured equation modeling is used to examine the model and its interrelationships.

The research establishes significant relationships between strategic orientations, knowledge integration capability, service innovation and sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge integration capability and service innovation are found to mediate the relationship between strategic orientations and the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage.

The study highlights the significant contribution of a firm’s knowledge integration capability in driving service innovation, especially in technology-intensive service industries facing hypercompetition. It also advocates prioritizing technology orientation and integrating knowledge from internal and external sources for competitive advantage.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to model the effect of knowledge integration capability and service innovation on strategic orientation-led sustainable competitive advantage.

This study aimed to collect data on the perception of top executive women in the Aruban hotel sector regarding implicit gender bias.

A qualitative study on the metacognitive processes of awareness, evaluation and autocorrection was utilized. Through purposive sampling women in the top two leadership levels in Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (AHATA) member-hotels were selected.

Results showed that a third of the top female executives experienced implicit gender bias career barriers. Different types of bias were identified such as: judgments regarding pregnancy, unequal pay and obstructions by the male general manager. How the women dealt with this bias depended on the type of bias and their personality. The identification of bias and its effects on the career trajectory were also influenced by characteristics of the work setting such as the size of the hotel and functional area.

The research limitations include the chosen scope, the impediment of the generalizability of the findings due to the nature of the study, self-perceived data and possible researcher and respondent bias.

This study added to the existing body of leadership development literature with a focus on the effects of implicit bias on female leadership advancement. Some specific theoretical concepts that were combined in this study are organizational leadership, metacognition and the unconscious mind. The important role of personality was also confirmed in this study however one element that stood out in the current study was the effect of resilience in overcoming perceived barriers and attaining personal career goals. Suggestions and directions for future research are provided.

Despite the fact that gender bias was not observed in an explicit form, participants advised to be aware of the existence and effects of the implicit form and to seek education and guidance from female mentors and to remain goal oriented when confronted with this bias. Since female under-representation in senior leadership positions in other economic sectors is not observed this advice serves as a significant practical implication for the development of female leadership in this important sector in Aruba.

The various quality improvement (QI) frameworks and maturity models described in the health services literature consider some aspects of QI while excluding others. This paper aims to present a concerted attempt to create a quality improvement maturity model (QIMM) derived from holistic principles underlying the successful implementation of system-wide QI programmes.

A hybrid methodology involving a systematic review (Phase 1) of over 270 empirical research articles and books developed the basis for the proposed QIMM. It was followed by expert interviews to refine the core constructs and ground the proposed QIMM in contemporary QI practice (Phase 2). The experts included academics in two academic conferences and 59 QI managers from the New Zealand health-care system. In-depth interviews were conducted with QI managers to ascertain their views on the QIMM and its applicability in their respective health organisations (HOs).

The QIMM consists of four dimensions of organisational maturity, namely, strategic, process, supply chain and philosophical maturity. These dimensions progress through six stages, namely, identification, ad-hoc, formal, process-driven, optimised enterprise and finally a way of life. The application of the QIMM by the QI managers revealed that the scope of QI and the breadth of the principles adopted by the QI managers and their HOs in New Zealand is limited.

The importance of QI in health systems cannot be overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality.

This paper contributes new knowledge by presenting a maturity model with an integrated set of quality principles for HOs and their extended supply networks.

The paper provides a theoretical framework for interdisciplinary accounting scholars interested in performances of accountability in front of live audiences.

This is a processual case study of “Falkirk in crisis” that covers the period from September 2021 to September 2022. The focus of this paper is two-fan-Q&A sessions held in October 2021 and June 2022. Both are naturally occurring discussions between two groups such as are found in previous research on routine events and accountability. This is a theoretically consequential case study.

A key insight of the paper is to identify the practical and symbolic dimensions of accountability. The paper demonstrates the need to align these two dimensions when responding to questions: a practical question demands a practical answer and a symbolic question requires a symbolic answer. Second, the paper argues that most fields contain conflicting logics and highlights that a complete performance of accountability needs to cover the different conflicting logics within the field. In this case, this means paying full attention to both the communitarian and results logics. A third finding is that a performance of accountability cannot succeed if the audience rejects attempts to impose an unpalatable definition of the situation. If these three conditions are not met, the performance is bound to fail.

An important theoretical coontribution of the study is the application of Jeffery Alexander’s work on political performance to public performances of accountability.

The phenomenon explored in the paper (what the authors term “grassroots accountability”) has broad applicability to any situation in organizational or civic life where the power apex of an organization is required to engage with a group of informed and committed stakeholders – the “community”. For those who find themselves in the position of the fans in this study, the observations set out in the empirical narrative can serve as a useful practical guide. Attempts to answer a practical complaint with a symbolic answer (or vice versa) should be challenged as evasive.

This paper studies an engagement of elite actors with ordinary (or grassroots) actors. The study shows important rules of engagement, including the importance of respecting the power of practical questions and the need to engage with these questions appropriately.

This paper offers a new vista for interdisciplinary accounting by synthesizing the accountability literature with the political performance literature. Specifically, the paper employs Jeffery Alexander’s work on practical and symbolic performance to study the microprocesses underpinning successful and unsuccessful performances of accountability.