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Recent research and scholarship explore and attempt to understand why certain modern library organizations and workplaces suffer from systemic dysfunction. There is evidence that a history of ineffectual library administration, poor leadership, and lack of communication creates an environment which breeds incivility and toxic behavior, including occurrences of mobbing, bullying, and harassment in certain library environments. Yet, it's been observed that despite these destructive behaviors and ensuing trauma, some library employees choose to remain employed in, and even increasingly committed to, these same dysfunctional workplaces. The application of organizational commitment models, such as Meyer and Allen's, as well as the findings of librarian turnover analysis account for the practical reasons why library employees remain in dysfunctional organizations; examples include fear of negative consequences associated with resignation or a sense of duty to one's patrons, organization, or profession. These models and studies, however, do not explain the paradox of increased employee commitment and loyalty to traumatic and dysfunctional library workplaces.

To understand this conflicting behavior, which has yet to be examined in library literature, the authors apply the concept of Corporate Stockholm Syndrome (CSS). CSS, a type of trauma bonding with origins in psychology and business, serves as a foundation to explain why library employees remain in workplaces in which they've experienced dysfunctional behavior and related trauma. Reviewing documented cases of library workplace incivility and trauma, the authors will apply the CSS framework as an explanation for the increased level of library employee commitment to dysfunctional workplaces.

Urban design professionals face the challenge of creating responsive human settlements amidst complex, ever-evolving interactions between numerous factors, which makes each project a “wicked problem,” requiring designers with specific skills to solve them effectively. This paper explores how integrating “Living Labs” and “Learning Playing techniques” equips urban design students with the needed competencies to address these challenges.

The research employed a literature review focusing on urban design theories related to “wicked problems,” design thinking and soft skills. Through this review, the authors developed the “Urban Design Thinking Soft Skills (UDTS) matrix” and identified pedagogical approaches using Living Labs and Learning Playing Techniques. An award-winning community design studio at Cairo University served as a case study to test and validate the UDTS matrix. Interviews were conducted to further investigate the effectiveness of incorporating these approaches.

The study found that integrating Living Labs principles and Learning Playing Techniques (termed “Joyful Living Labs” in this context) are effective pedagogical methods. Interviews provided evidence supporting their value within urban design curricula for the Egyptian context.

This paper proposes the UDTS matrix as a framework to equip students with the necessary soft skills for tackling complex urban design challenges. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of “Joyful Living Labs” as a potential pedagogical approach specifically suited for the Egyptian context.

Transport is responsible for around a quarter of global emissions. It is 91% fossil fuel dependent for energy, with emissions remaining stubbornly high, increasing in the EU since 1990 and falling since then by just 15% in the UK. The UK’s National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), in producing its second assessment, a major strategic overview for the next 30 years, emphasises a near universal dependency on electricity and hydrogen to decarbonise transport emissions. Locally distributed energy solutions are not considered part of their approach and neither do they consider where the products proposed for mass adoption – electric vehicles (EVs) are to be manufactured. Embodied carbon emissions are not taken into account, with emissions analysis focused on zero tailpipe emissions. Green gases which can be used in combustion engines and hybrids, harnessing existing supply chains and maintenance service provision, are also not seen as part of the solution, even during transition. Manufacturers are concerned that legislation and policy approaches, such as the Zero Emissions Vehicle Mandate, will lead to off-shoring of production. Zero Emissions Vehicles do not consider tyre emissions, which some research has shown to be many times higher than tailpipe emissions with devastating impacts on ecosystems. The chapter proposes the need for a greater holistic and circular approach to be taken to embodied carbon, mineral and resource utilisation together with biodiversity and planetary impacts.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the perceived firm ethicality and loyalty behaviour of consumers through the lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR), green brand innovativeness (GBI) and green marketing (GM).

The authors used questionnaires as a primary method of data collection. The authors selected four large malls in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia and three large malls in Surabaya, the second-largest city in the country. These locations were chosen due to their high levels of consumer activity and the presence of numerous products from major companies.

The findings provide strong support for all proposed hypotheses, confirming that perceived firm ethicality plays a crucial role in significantly enhancing brand loyalty. This positive relationship however is mediated through distinct pathways, namely CSR, GBI and GM. Each of these factors contributes meaningfully to shaping consumer perceptions of a firm’s ethicality, which in turn drives greater loyalty to the brand. Collectively, these strategies synergise to amplify a firm’s perceived ethicality, further solidifying brand loyalty. Notably, CSR, perceived firm ethicality, GBI and GM together account for approximately 65.2% of the variance in customer brand loyalty.

The study offers important theoretical insights into attachment theory by extending it to consumer-brand relationships, demonstrating that perceived firm ethicality fosters emotional attachment, which enhances brand loyalty. Just as secure attachment in human relationships builds trust and loyalty, consumers develop emotional bonds with brands they perceive as ethical, supported by CSR practices, GBI and GM from the firms. These strategies reinforce consumer trust and loyalty, paralleling attachment theory’s secure base concept.

The issues raised in this chapter are primarily those of obfuscation regarding social and economic inequality in the UK. The chapter is about the way discourse in various forms serves to disguise and justify the huge inequalities in this society; legitimising and ‘naturalising’ them, or in Arendt's words ‘lying’ about them so that they are seen as ‘natural and self-evident’ (Alvesson & Deetz, 2006, p. 261). Issues looked at are the institutional arrangements by which government ministers give or withhold resources to and from certain categories of its citizens. This includes the UK Treasury in relation to which economic groups the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides how much to tax or not to tax. In particular what are examined are the discourses justifying these measures and establishing certain ‘truths’ about how things are economically and socially; which categories are entitled to or deserving of certain kinds of resources and which are not – argued here as constituting obfuscations of the ‘actual’ situation. Obfuscation has been defined as the action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. This, arguably, is not far removed, from the action of being deliberately untruthful or lying. The question then arises as to how close these discourses come to lying and how serious the inequalities are.

The study aims to assess the impact of disruptive frugal digital technology and small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') innovation performance on the food sector in Masvingo urban, Zimbabwe. A descriptive research design was used, and quantitative data were obtained using a questionnaire survey on 50 restaurant employees and 100 customers. The empirical findings demonstrated that the performance of SMEs was significantly improved by social media, cloud computing, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and robotics. The study concludes that disruptive digital technologies (social media, cloud computing, AR, VR and robots affect the performance of SMEs by improving food production, streamlining information transfer, and utilizing cutting-edge technical applications. This chapter recommends that the government, through those in charge of formulating policy, educate and encourage the adoption of disruptive digital technology. The application of social media, cloud computing, VR, AR, and robotics will increase local food producers' access to the market. Digitalization will have a significant effect on Zimbabwe's local food system in the future.

This study aims to outline the transformative impacts of technological developments (TD) on architectural education (AE). The focus is on studying the dynamics of convergence and erosion, aiming to understand the impact of current digital transformations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability considerations and technology integration on AE.

A scientometric analysis and bibliometric search were performed to understand the current knowledge in the field. The Web of Science (WoS) was selected for its comprehensive collection of significant research articles and integrated analytical tools for generating representative data. The study involved an extensive bibliometric analysis of 131 journal articles on TD in AE from 2000 to 2023. Subsequently, the VOSviewer software was employed to illuminate the transformative impacts of technological advancements on AE. Robust methodologies, including citation analysis and co-citation networks, unravel quantitative dimensions such as publication trends, influential authors, prolific journals, geographic distribution and prevalent themes or technological domains within the discourse.

The findings reveal significant evolution in AE due to TD, with notable shifts influenced by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability concerns and the integration of modern technologies. Key findings include the increasing adoption of online platforms and technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), the crucial role of design thinking methodologies and the recognition of innovative modules such as architectural photogrammetry and augmented reality (AR) applications. Furthermore, keyword clusters were classified into six groups: “AE pedagogy and curriculum development,” “Development of architectural design process and studio,” “Educational approaches and digitalization in architectural design,” “Transition to online AE,” “Development/emergence of photogrammetry at architectural education” and “use of AR.”

Although several studies have addressed TD in AE from various perspectives and methods, they have yet to investigate the subject using scientometric analysis from a holistic perspective. A holistic exploration of TD in AE still needs to be improved in the existing literature. In contrast to previous investigations, this study is the first to leverage the quantitative analytical capabilities of VOSviewer. The originality lies in uncovering quantitative dimensions such as publication trends, influential authors and prevalent themes, providing a comprehensive understanding of the nuanced dimensions of this evolving intersection.

This article explores how firms' unresponsiveness to Black customer feedback influences Black (vs. White) customers' perceived firm-based discrimination and brand engagement.

Two experimental studies (Study 1(N1) = 254) and Study 1(N2) = 484) are conducted to test the modeled relationships. The data are analyzed using ANOVA, PROCESS Model 4 and PROCESS Model 7.

The findings suggest that though perceived discrimination remains modest in all conditions, Black (vs. White) respondents report higher perceived discrimination when the firm fails to respond to a Black customer's negative or neutral (but not positive) brand-related feedback on social media. The results also indicate that Black (vs. White) customers exhibit lower engagement through perceived discrimination in the case of the firm's unresponsiveness to a Black customer's negative and neutral (but not positive) brand-related feedback regardless of the manager's race.

Prior research on intercultural service encounters and ethnic differences in consumer engagement on social media are combined to examine the relationship between customer race and perceived discrimination based on the firm's unresponsiveness to customers' social media posts.

Manipulations were created based on a fictitious e-tailer. Thus, it is recommend that future researchers examine the extent to which the findings hold for existing (r)etailers. In addition, future studies using secondary data could provide additional evidence for the findings.

Managerial attention is accentuated among customer feedback responsiveness, engagement and perceived firm discrimination. Managers are encouraged to adopt communication strategies that complement the firm's strategy and social media presence.