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The European Marriage Pattern (EMP) was characteristic of preindustrial northwestern Europe and, in recent years, has been proposed as an important factor in the rise of the West. Yet, the origins and ultimate causes of the EMP remain obscure. We examine a novel hypothesis that the EMP can emerge in geographic environments with a lighter infectious disease burden. We overcome significant challenges facing empirical analysis of premodern societies. Using a large, individual-level database of marriages from the county of Kent, England, as well as a spatial regression discontinuity approach, we demonstrate a robust association between physical ecology and female age at first marriage (FAFM). We also find that the two potential channels proposed in the literature play starkly different roles in explaining our finding. Specifically, we fail to find that pastoralism plays any significant role in explaining the EMP, while the mortality rate channel accounts for a significant portion of the observed relationship between the disease environment and FAFM.

Grounded in social learning theory and conservation of resources theory, this study examines the link between witnessing co-workers’ idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and task crafting, task crafting and task i-deals negotiation; and the route that employees take to build their perceptions of personal brand equity.

A time-lagged survey was used to collect data from 259 information technology (IT) and consulting professionals in India. Hypotheses were tested using PROCESS MACRO in R.

Results show that witnessing co-workers’ i-deals is positively associated with both task crafting and task i-deals negotiation; and task i-deals negotiation is positively associated with employees’ personal brand equity. Findings also show that task crafting mediates the positive impact of witnessing co-workers’ i-deals on task i-deals negotiation. Further, the study shows that need for legitimization of task customizations moderates the positive relationship between task crafting and task i-deals negotiation, in such a manner that the relationship is stronger when employees’ need for legitimization is low, and it is insignificant when their need for legitimization is high.

This is one of the earliest studies that examine the relationship between task crafting and task i-deals negotiation; and shows that employees negotiate task i-deals to build their personal brand equity.

The businesses at the global level are surfacing precipitously, and its ecosystem is illustrated by the factors of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The rapidly changing business landscape calls for incorporating virtual exertion and the adoption of various digital tools. The process of virtual onboarding which has gained prominence at the global level at the onset of the pandemic necessitates encompassing recruits using virtual podiums and remote processes. The current chapter insinuates a holistic model for a suitable virtual onboarding programme, delineating a comprehensive methodology that incorporates a range of onboarding process elements and syndicates business best exercises from several theoretical backgrounds. It intends to offer a robust framework that suitably guides business organisations in developing and implementing effective virtual onboarding programmes. The Virtual Onboarding Model outlined in the present study elucidates the five integral phases, each serving a specific purpose and strategically integrating them from the outcomes derived from various theoretical underpinnings. The outcomes of this chapter provide detailed assistance for businesses operating in the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) world to establish comprehensive remote onboarding programmes. It aims to endow human resource (HR) managers with the indispensable intuitions to create and execute virtual onboarding programmes that support successful learning, cultural integration and employee engagement, ultimately benefiting both the recruits and the businesses in contemporary HR practices.

This review explores the challenges and opportunities of implementing telemedicine in rural Tanzania. The study examines how telemedicine can address healthcare gaps in underserved areas and identifies key barriers that hinder its full adoption. It also provides insights into strategies for improving healthcare delivery through telemedicine in rural settings.

A systematic literature review methodology was employed following the PRISMA guidelines. The study collected and analysed relevant academic and grey literature from PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus databases. The search focused on telemedicine in rural Tanzania, with a thematic analysis used to categorise the challenges and opportunities identified in the literature.

The review found that the major challenges to telemedicine implementation in rural Tanzania include inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, limited digital literacy among healthcare providers, insufficient financial investment and weak regulatory frameworks. Despite these barriers, telemedicine presents significant opportunities to improve healthcare access, particularly by connecting rural patients with specialists, reducing travel times and integrating telemedicine with national health insurance systems. Innovations such as drone-based medical deliveries and SMS-based health interventions also show promise.

This paper comprehensively overviews telemedicine’s potential to transform healthcare delivery in rural Tanzania. It synthesises existing literature, highlights critical gaps in telemedicine adoption and proposes actionable strategies for overcoming these barriers. The study contributes valuable insights for policymakers, healthcare providers and stakeholders interested in leveraging telemedicine to enhance healthcare outcomes in underserved regions.

This study aims to investigate the role of family businesses in contributing to societal well-being through their philanthropic activities, with a particular focus on religious contexts. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the research aims to deepen the academic understanding of the motivations, strategies and outcomes associated with family business philanthropy, particularly in the context of Malaysia.

This qualitative study is based on 37 in-depth interviews conducted across four case studies of family-owned businesses. Data were analyzed to explore how these businesses engage in philanthropy and the impact of their efforts on both the recipients and the businesses themselves.

The findings reveal that family business philanthropy is primarily motivated by religious obligations and a desire to enhance community legitimacy. Family businesses focus on long-term social impacts, fostering community development and economic sustainability among recipients. These philanthropic activities not only contribute to societal well-being but also enhance the legitimacy and competitiveness of the businesses involved.

This study introduces the “Intention-Effort-Outcome” framework, offering a novel conceptual approach to understanding family business philanthropy. By highlighting the interconnections between motivation, effort and outcome, it expands current knowledge on the dynamic role of family businesses in religiously driven philanthropic efforts.

The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the existing literature on women’s leadership in academia by identifying the existing challenges for their underrepresentation, and proposing a new-age leadership interventions to address the inherent systemic biases and develop foster an equitable academic climate.

The study employed bibliometric analysis to map the literature by investigating publication and geographical trends. Techniques like citation, co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis identified seminal research and emerging themes, providing insights into research developments and facilitating identification of avenues for future research.

Our study highlights how social, organizational and individual barriers disadvantage women academic leaders. Existing enablers for women in leadership, like mentorship, leadership development and family friendly policies, focus on bringing change within the prevailing academic culture, reinforcing the notion “women need support”, overlooking the influence of systemic barriers. Such interventions are often ineffective in bringing sustainable change. We propose integrating AI/machine learning (ML) technologies in leadership selection to reduce bias arising from subjectivity.

This study contributes to the discourse on gender inequality in academic leadership by offering a robust understanding of the research topic and informing avenues for future research.

Policymakers and higher education institutions can use the findings of the study to aid the formulation of policies, initiatives and institutional procedures to mitigate the prevalent gender bias in academia and cultivate an inclusive culture for growth of women.

The paper analyses women’s under-representation as academic leaders and proposes a novel data-driven intervention using gamification, AI and ML, aiming to reshape gender dynamics in academic leadership.

The IT services industry faces ongoing disruptions due to rapid technological changes and corresponding shifts in customer expectations and competitor actions. Successfully addressing these disruptions entails IT firms to channelize their intellectual capital toward enhancing their ability to adapt. In this study, we propose a mediation model to examine the influence of a project team’s intellectual capital on project performance.

Data were collected from 215 project leaders across different business units within an Indian IT services organization with large operational teams. Mediation analysis was conducted to test the model.

Our findings provide evidence for enhanced team performance through the indirect benefits of adaptive capability accruing from the teams’ intellectual capital. Superior performance is achieved when the intellectual capital steers the adaptive capability of the firm.

Project leaders within IT organizations should constantly enhance their knowledge base and intellectual capital, enabling them to exploit the available knowledge to gain a competitive advantage. This intellectual capital created within the project team can be tapped to foster an adaptive capability, eventually leading to better performance.

Our findings provide unique insights regarding the importance of investing in the intellectual capital of the teams, which results in the enhancement of adaptive capability and thereby the project performance. Data collected from a non-western setting also add to the existing body of knowledge on intellectual capital.

The purpose of this study is to revisit the conventional wisdom about a key contribution [i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis] in the field of strategic management. The societal context and the role of academics, consultants and executives is taken into account in the emergence of SWOT analysis during the 1960–1980 period as a pivotal development within the broader context of the satisfactory, opportunities, faults, threats (SOFT) approach. The authors report on both the content and the approach, so that other scholars seeking to invigorate indigenous theories and/or underreported strategy practices will thrive.

Applying a historiographic approach, the authors introduce an evidence-based methodology for interpreting historical sources. This methodology incorporates source criticism, triangulation and hermeneutical interpretation, drawing upon insights from robust evidence through three iterative stages.

The underreporting of the SOFT approach/SWOT analysis can be attributed to several factors, including strategy tools being integrated into planning frameworks rather than being published as standalone materials; restricted circulation of crucial long-range planning service/theory and practice of planning reports due to copyright limitations; restricted access to the Stanford Research Institute Planning Library in California; and the enduring popularity of SOFT and SWOT variations, driven in part by their memorable acronyms.

In the spirit of a renaissance in strategic planning research, the authors unveil novel theoretical and social connections in the emergence of SWOT analysis by combining evidence from both theory and practice and delving into previously unexplored areas.

Caution is advised for scholars who examine the discrete time frame of 1960–1980 through mere bibliometric techniques. This study underscores the risks associated with gathering incomplete and/or inaccurate data, emphasizing the importance of triangulating evidence beyond scholarly databases. The paradigm shift of strategic management research due to the advent of large language models poses new challenges and the risk of conserving and perpetuating academic urban legends, myths and lies if training data is not adequately curated.

Although the interest in firm media sentiment has been increasing, the impact of news media sentiments on consumers’ perception of firms’ offerings and, subsequently, their sales remain unknown. This study aims to address this research question in this study. Furthermore, the authors consider the role of two boundary conditions, i.e., offerings’ similarity and offerings’ service ratio, that moderate the main relationship.

Using a comprehensive and novel data set of over 900 firms between 2009 and 2019 from multiple sources, this study addresses the research questions. The authors use a fixed effects panel regression model to estimate the model.

A firm’s news media sentiments can influence consumers’ perception of the corporate brand, thereby driving sales growth. This study finds that when a firm’s offerings are not differentiated from its competitors, news media sentiments become more important and so does when a firm offers more services than a product.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to assess customers’ responses as manifested in the sales growth of a firm’s offerings, using both primary and secondary data and analysis.

The findings provide actionable insights to managers by identifying specific offerings-related attributes – similarity and service ratio – where media sentiments play a critical role in influencing sales growth.

While existing studies in marketing have primarily considered user-generated social media sentiments, this study departs from this literature by investigating earned media sentiments through traditional media outlets such as newspapers and business magazines, which have rarely been studied in marketing.

The unitized curtain wall system (UCWS), a symbol of modern architecture, is gaining popularity among prefabricated components. Previous studies have focused on both construction technology advances and material selection strategies to facilitate the UCWS. However, the topic of client satisfaction, which drives industry development by targeting clients' demands, has gone unnoticed. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate client satisfaction with UCWS products in Hong Kong by finding its influential factors.

A systematic review was employed to first identify the influential factors. A semi-structured interview was employed to validate the reliability of the extracted factors. The machine learning algorithm Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and the Pearson correlation were then employed to rank the importance and correlation of factors based on the 1–5 Likert scale scores obtained through a questionnaire survey.

The findings revealed that “reduction in construction time” and “reduction in construction waste” are the most important factors and have a strong positive influence on client satisfaction.

Unlike previous studies, the present study focused on a novel research topic and introduces an objective analysis process using machine learning algorithms. The findings contribute to narrowing the knowledge gap regarding client preference for UCWS products from both individual and collaborative perspectives, providing decision-makers with an objective, quantitative and thorough reference before making investments in the curtain wall management development.