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In this chapter, we underscore the enduring importance of research on work, workers, labour markets, and the places and spaces of work. We then examine the particular and valuable contributions that come from ethnographic research in providing detailed studies of work, particularly when these are situated and interpreted in their wider socio-political contexts. We discuss the key dimensions of ethnography before overviewing the contributions to the volume. The volume presents cutting-edge ethnographic research on contemporary worlds of work and the experiences of workers from a range of contexts including an alternative community, working online, the gig economy, and the hospitality industry. Alongside novel empirical chapters, the collection includes the reflections of ethnographers with regards to, for example, the experience as a young female management researcher working amongst journalists in a media firm, personal feelings of precarity within and beyond the field, and how to navigate the challenges of researching inequalities ethnographically.

This study aims to examine the direct influence of workplace bullying (WB) on internal auditors’ independence using the nexus between the agency theory and social exchange theory. From the internal auditors’ perspective, the investigation covered both government and private colleges and universities in one of the Middle East countries.

A survey was administered and delivered to internal auditors at each of the 85 educational institutions. A total of 267 valid questionnaires were analysed. The study’s measurement and structural models were tested and evaluated by using SmartPLS v.4 and partial least squares-structural equation modelling.

The study results indicated that bullying is common among senior managers, and that it has a significant, negative, high-level and direct effect on the independence of internal auditors in the higher education sector.

Regulators and other stakeholders should make a deliberate effort to promote positive behaviours and abandon negative ones regarding the independence of internal auditors and the performance of audit teams, which play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of audit units. For example, enhancing coordination and communication internally and externally. In addition to providing the internal auditors with equitable advancement and learning opportunities, senior management should also support their professional development.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between WB and the internal auditor’s independence in the context of government and private organisations in Southwest Asian countries.

The article examines the ways in which professional associations representing those working in international education are able to shape national systems and thereby change the ways in which the country engages internationally. This is particularly significant for Australia, which has one of the world’s most internationalised higher education systems.

This paper presents a case study of the International Education Association of Australia, which since 2004 has played a central role in shaping international education policy and practice. It provides an insider account of three authors who have held senior roles in the Association, drawing on first-hand knowledge of institutional history.

The case study illustrates the ways in which the Association’s professional development, research and policy advocacy activities have helped to broaden Australia’s engagement in international education from a narrow commercial focus. The resulting deeper engagement with a broad range of issues associated with international engagement, including student welfare, outbound mobility, curriculum, migration and transnational education, has transformed policy and practice in Australia.

Although international education is coming to play an increasingly significant role in many systems, little has been written about the role of professional bodies in influencing the character and quality of international engagement. This paper makes a valuable contribution by demonstrating the practical measures that can be employed by international education professional bodies to strengthen public diplomacy and the social licence for global engagement.

Customer experience management (CXM) and Innovation are two important capabilities on which businesses compete today. However, research to date has not empirically investigated their potential symbiotic relationship. Specifically, does better CXM improve innovation; similarly, does better innovation improve CXM? As a starting point, our research focuses on the former: how does effective CXM correlate with innovation success?

Data was collected by querying marketing managers from 251 goods and services firms involved in CX design and implementation. Managers answered questions related to their innovation efforts, customer experience management initiatives, and innovation outcomes. Cluster analysis was used to identify a taxonomy of CXM approaches contingent upon environmental factors (market turbulence, competitive intensity, and technological turbulence).

Our research found that higher levels of CXM engagement result in greater innovation success – i.e. higher success rates, revenues, and profits from new products or services. In addition, we find that there are three distinct approaches to CXM: (1) Extensive CXM approach (43% of firms in our sample); (2) Moderate CXM approach (39%); and (3) Limited CXM approach (18%). Firms with an extensive CXM approach operate in intensely competitive environments that are characterized by very high technological turbulence. Firms that employ a limited CXM approach operate in environments with the lowest levels of competitive intensity and technological change. Market turbulence did not factor into the choice of CXM approach.

To our knowledge, our study is the first to provide empirical evidence that firms adopt different CXM approaches. Further, we identify factors external to the firm that are considered when selecting these CXM approaches; namely, market turbulence, competitive intensity, and technological turbulence. Finally, our findings related to CXM approaches and innovation success indicate that managers should make investments in CXM to help improve innovation.

The purpose is to replicate and extend Ambulkar et al.’s (2015) work testing resource reconfiguration as a mediator of the supply chain disruption/firm resilience relationship and testing risk management infrastructure as a moderator. This study extends the work of Ambulkar in that it uses analysis of survey data gathered from manufacturing firms during an actual disruption event (COVID-19). The previous work is also in extended in that the authors include a pandemic disruption impact variable and supply chain performance is an expanded model.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze data gathered from 184 US manufacturing managers during the height (Summer 2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two of four of Ambulkars et al.’s (2015) hypotheses were confirmed as relevant to firm resilience during the pandemic while two were not confirmed. Results also show that supply chain disruption orientation, risk management infrastructure and resource reconfiguration combine to improve firm resilience, which in turn improves supply chain performance while mitigating the disruption impact of COVID-19.

Previous work is replicated and extended, using data from an actual disruption event (COVID-19). This study presents a more comprehensive model using a newly developed and validated scale to measure pandemic impact and including supply chain performance.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) management, by revisiting three older services marketing models: the servuction model, the services marketing triangle and the services marketing pyramid.

Noting the lack of theoretical frameworks of CCI management, this study adopts a problematization approach to identify foundational services marketing models, question their underlying assumptions, develop an alternative conceptual framework and evaluate its adequacy for CCI management, on the basis of a systematic literature review and content analyses.

By revisiting the assumptions underlying three relevant models in the light of the present-day, technology-infused service environment, this study proposes a four-triangle CCI management framework encompassing four specific modes of CCI management: managerial decisions by the firm; frontline employees; the design of the physical environment; and technology. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the triadic relationships involving the focal customer, other customers and the four modes of CCI management. Building on these findings, this study concludes with an extensive research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first scholarly effort in services marketing literature to provide a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of CCI management. With its basis in foundational models, the new framework is well-suited to address future challenges to service marketplaces too.

The problem of long delay and waiting time in Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) housing adaptation has been ongoing for years. This study aimed at constructing an innovative smart solution to streamline the housing adaptation process to prevent lengthy delays for disabled and elderly people.

The Adapt-ABLE approach is suggested based on a constructive research approach, where extensive theoretical development of the Adapt-ABLE concept is developed. It consists of four integrated platforms that undergo theoretical and analogical development and validations through applicable theories, a workshop, four brainstorming sessions and a focus group.

The proposed Adapt-ABLE approach utilises process optimisation techniques through an IT system for streamlining the process. The merits of the semi-automated system include the development of a preventive measure that allows measurement of suitability index of homes for the occupants, indicative assessment that shorten the application duration, procurement and contracting platform that utilises principles based on framework agreement and call-off contract, and a platform that standardised performance management for continuous improvement.

The Adapt-ABLE solution will cut the application journey of non-qualified applicants and suggest where help can be sought. The qualified applicants' application journey will also be shortened through an online indicative assessment regime and early online resources (means) testing. Overall, the proposed system reduces the waiting time, and timely delivery improves the applicant's quality of life by living independently. It will potentially save the NHS billions of pounds used to replace hips and residential care costs due to lengthy delays in the housing adaptations process.