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This study aimed to understand how administrative employees of an oil company perceive the role of software solutions in their routines.

Starting from an interpretive perspective, we used the phenomenographic method to analyze software solutions based on users’ experience, by means of 20 interviews carried out between November 2020 and May 2021.

Interviewees ranked the function of software solutions in their routines in three categories: (1) information repository; (2) orchestration mechanism and (3) guidelines for action. Four explanatory dimensions were identified: (1) artifact performance; (2) configuration between actors; (3) degree of automation and (4) accountability aspects.

The results expand knowledge on the role of software solutions in organizations. As players consider software essential to their routines, human agency in actions tends to decrease. Furthermore, the incorporation of digital elements in routines varies, based on how actors perceive their integration, from external tools to dominant elements that shape actions.

Respecting the autonomy of the actors involved in automated routines; ideally, automating routine steps that add value to the process.

The study explores the function of software solutions in organizational routines through the phenomenographic approach, presenting different concepts of that event.

This paper aims to extend the literature on social proof by looking at the effectiveness of social proof on behaviour change for environmental benefit.

The research is based on real case studies currently intended to encourage behaviour change among residents of a large UK city. An initial study assesses the motivation displayed within each case study. A second study then examines whether recipients recognise their own motivation in each case study.

Results indicate that participants did not recognise their own motivation in the case studies that were expected to be most similar to them, suggesting that recipients do not recognise “social proof” according to motivation. However, a relationship is observed between recipients’ gender and the gender of the case studies.

Demographics appear to be a better basis for social proof than motivation. This paper recommends several future avenues for further exploration, including using case studies that represent a wider range of characteristics (such as demographics). The current range of stimulus materials is limited, as these are real materials currently being used in a large UK city.

The results indicate that portraying motivation is not a good basis for using the social proof principle. Instead, social marketers ought to focus on representing similarity to the intended audience based on other characteristics such as gender.

The research contributes a new direction in this field, using Self-determination Theory to match social proof examples to recipients.

This study aims to examine the transitions of workers between paid employment and self-employment before and after the 2008 financial crisis, focusing on the drivers behind increased self-employment in the UK and the role of trade union membership in these transitions.

Using a long-running panel data set, the labour market is divided into three groups: sustained self-employed, always employed and those who transition between the two. The framework assesses the influence of union membership on these transitions.

Long-term paid employees, rather than those transitioning between employment types, are driving increased self-employment. Union membership appears more attractive post-crisis to paid employees, but disengagement from unions may be linked to transitions towards self-employment.

This research highlights the nuanced role of trade unions in employment transitions and contributes to understanding labour market dynamics post-financial crisis in the UK.

By drawing on previous research on mechanism-based explanations and business-to-business engagement, the purpose of this study is to identify and define mechanisms that enhance Internet of Things (IoT) engagement.

By positioning the study within the paradigm of critical realism (CR), this paper used multiple case study research. This paper applied 12 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, an observation and firm documents as data-gathering tools.

This paper argues that the higher-level phenomenon (Institutional logic of the IoT ecosystem) leads to a higher-level outcome (IoT engagement). As lower-level situational mechanisms, this paper found IoT readiness and transparency in the ecosystem. Action-formation mechanisms were acknowledged as communication, availability of an IoT interface, and support. Commitment, trust, satisfaction and software maintenance and updates were recognized as transformational mechanisms.

The findings will help managers to understand which mechanisms to focus on when forming engagement strategies for onboarding new actors and strengthening relationships with existing actors. Furthermore, this paper suggests considering the IoT readiness of new actors more critically, as this mechanism was found to be the most crucial one for an early stage of engagement in an IoT ecosystem.

This study helps understand the causal structures behind engagement and enhances the theoretical and practical domain of IoT engagement. In addition, this study demonstrates the value of applying CR for generating knowledge about a phenomenon through causal explanations.

The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its geographical boundaries into the global arena. This study aims to identify key constructs, their theoretical background and dimensions that aid in building a global knowledge brand. The authors' research focuses on adapting and validating scales for global knowledge and education services brands from well-established academic literature.

The authors have adopted a mixed methodology approach and a systematic literature review. Authors interviewed 18 subject matter experts as part of content and face validity to arrive at select constructs, dimensions and items. Quantitative methods with random sampling were adopted as the primary methodology. Initially, the survey was administered to 390 students to test preliminary results. The survey was also administered to 5,112 students at a later part of this study. Valid responses stood at 3,244 with a 63% response rate. Further, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the reliability and validity of scales. This study analyzed composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity to finalize items for scales. The authors also validated the hypotheses based on the discriminant validity assessment scores.

Authors' key research findings are that academic stimulus, campus infrastructure and student intent play a significant role in campus culture and events design and experience at campus. Authors were able to bring out 16 key constructs and 55 critical dimensions vital to global education services brand building. This study also adapted and validated 99 items that meet construct validity and composite reliability criteria. This study also highlights that constructs such as student intent, academic stimulus, campus infrastructure scalability, selection mechanism, pedagogical content knowledge, brand identity, events experience and campus culture play a vital role in global brand recognition.

The authors' work is fairly generalizable to education services and the higher education sector. However, this study must be extrapolated and empirically validated in other industry sectors. The research implications of this study are that it aided the authors in building theoretical background for student brand loyalty theory, student expectation theory and study loyalty theory. This study adds to the body of knowledge by contributing to theoretical concepts on students, knowledge culture, events, infrastructure and branding. Researchers can adopt the scales proposed in this study to build research models in higher education branding. This study acts as a catalyst for building theories in education services areas. Researchers can delve deep into proposed research aspects of campus infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure, campus knowledge culture, events design and events experience.

This study aids educators and brand managers to develop global education services and optimize their effort and budget. Administrators in the education services sector must focus on practical aspects of student perception, campus infrastructure, culture and events experience. Practically administrators can reorient their efforts based on this study to achieve global brand recognition.

This study highlights that students are not customers but are co-creators of value in the education sector. This study provides scales and dimensions needed to build co-creation frameworks and models.

Most research in higher education branding has not covered wider aspects of global brand building. Existing theories proposed in higher education and education services articles cover only narrower aspects of campus infrastructure, culture, events design and branding. This study presents a comprehensive list of critical factors that play a vital role in global knowledge brand building. This study highlights the constructs and scales integral to building a global education services brand.

In this chapter, the author makes the case for how disability affects a family and, therefore, that clinicians should adopt a wider lens when providing treatment to disabled clients. In the review of research findings on disability in the family, there are three parts: (a) models of disability, (b) disabled children, and (c) disabled adults. In the next section, the author presents ideas from medical family therapy (MFT) and discusses family systems models that provide a structure for thinking about a family’s response to disability in any of its members. Brief case examples throughout the chapter illustrate how families are involved in an individual member’s disability. Implications for clinicians include knowing the core tenets and common factors of family systems therapy; familiarity with disability affirmative therapy; attention to the reality of microaggressions and courtesy stigma; comfort with disability topics such as pain, fatigue, and sexuality; having an accessible practice; thinking systemically; and the ability to hold all the parts of the family and the disability in one place.

This study aims to evaluate how positive experiences affect satisfaction and brand loyalty toward specific brand products for travel services by collecting 489 structured questionnaires from those patronizing seven world-renowned brand travel agencies in Taiwan. As for data analysis, it uses a structural equation model (SEM) to examine causal relationships among the proposed constructs. This study suggests that marketers of brand products utilize this consumer mentality, pursue the meaning of symbol development strategies for products and appeal to more consumers to boost consumption. In addition, offering a positive experience and ensuring satisfaction is a valid strategy for creating brand life cycle advantages for travel services.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common form of anemia in the world, affecting children, women and the elderly, while also being a common comorbidity in several medical conditions. Several studies have suggested a possible association between IDA and neurological dysfunction. Epilepsy, one of the common neurological disorders, has an unknown association with IDA. This pa per aims to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between IDA and epilepsy using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design.

This paper obtained summary data on IDA and epilepsy from the FinnGen consortium. Genetic variants significantly associated with IDA were used as instrumental variables (IVs). Epilepsy, focal epilepsy and generalized epilepsy were the outcomes. This paper used inverse variance weighted (IVW) as the primary estimate, and other MR methods were used as supplementary measures. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to assess heterogeneity and pleiotropy.

IVW estimates genetically predicted a causal relationship between IDA and the risk of epilepsy [odds ratio (OR), 1.15; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.05–1.26; p = 0.002] and focal epilepsy (OR, 1.978, 95% CI, 1.58–2.48, p ≤ 0.0001), while no significant causal relationship was found with generalized epilepsy (OR, 1.1, 95% CI, 0.94–1.3, p = 0.24). There was no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity in the sensitivity analysis.

This two-sample MR study found that IDA has a negative effect on the development of epilepsy. Clinical control of IDA may be helpful in the prevention of epilepsy. There is a need for further studies to explain the underlying mechanisms of this association.