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The purpose of this teaching case is to introduce students to an alternative business model as practiced by the Haier Group, a Chinese company, and how that model was used to turn around an acquired company in the United States of America (USA). The explicit teaching objectives are threefold. First, the case provides insights into Haier’s unique employee-centered culture. Second, Haier’s efforts to transfer parts of its culture to the newly acquired General Electric (GE) Appliance Division are discussed. Third, to improve the performance of the acquired division, Haier had to invest in people, equipment and new product technology.

This case is based on both primary and secondary research. The authors interviewed the chief executive officer. In addition, one of the authors spent a week in China observing and participating in meetings at the Haier Group. Both before and after the interviews, the authors searched both print and electronic media for additional information.

The case describes how Haier, a large Chinese appliance manufacturer, learned from its own difficult growth in building an employee- and client-driven organization. Haier was able to transfer key aspects of its culture, management practices and technology to help turnaround the well-known American appliance brand GE. The results of the first five years have been financially successful and investment in new product technology (Smart Home) bodes well for the future.

This case represents only one successful turnaround of one acquisition, GE Appliances, by the Haier Group in the USA. Whether the changes introduced would work with other acquisitions in other countries is unknown. Thus, additional follow-up research needs to be done.

This case brings into question the traditional, hierarchical, bureaucratic, spreadsheet-driven model of management that is the predominant model taught and practiced in the USA. Others, such as Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, have also raised the same question. This case introduces readers to another way and is just one more example of how managers who practice a high engagement style and share financial success with workers can outperform those who do not.

This case documents the introduction of nontraditional management and human resource management practices by a foreign, Chinese company, into what at one time had been a highly regarded division of a traditional major American corporation. GE had become known for strident labor-management relationships. The employees’ acceptance of the alternative approach to management was in doubt prior to the acquisition, but over the past five years, the labor–management relationship appears to have improved as well as the profitability of the division.

Although the acquisition of the GE Appliance Division by the Haier Group has been widely reported in the press, knowledge of how the acquisition was successfully turned around from a money-losing GE Division to a profitable and growing portion of the Haier Group has been largely ignored in both the popular press and in instructional material for the classroom. This case study seeks to ameliorate the latter deficiency.

Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’. To achieve this goal, we must rebuild the marine life-support systems that provide society with the many advantages of a healthy ocean. Therefore, countries worldwide have been using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to restore, create, or protect habitats and ecosystems. Palau was one of the first countries to use MPAs as a tool to develop biodiversity within its exclusive economic zone. On 22 October 2015, Palau placed approximately 80% of its maritime territory in a network of locally monitored MPAs, which has now shown a population increase in stationary and migratory fish species. This movement towards a MPA was intentional and because of increased pressure from tourism and the increasing incursion of foreign fishing vessels in Palauan territorial waters. Since countries worldwide are using and looking towards MPAs, secondary protection projects are becoming more and more popular. This chapter highlights the practical implementations and results in Palau, how to theoretically apply this within the Greater North Sea in combination with Windmill Farms, and how the Marine Strategy Framework Directive stimulates these practices.

In this chapter, the authors critically examine the application of unmeasured latent method factors (ULMFs) in human resource and organizational behavior (HROB) research, focusing on addressing common method variance (CMV). The authors explore the development and usage of ULMF to mitigate CMV and highlight key debates concerning measurement error in the HROB literature. The authors also discuss the implications of biased effect sizes and how such bias can lead HR professionals to oversell interventions. The authors provide evidence supporting the effectiveness of ULMF when a specific assumption is held: a single latent method factor contributes to the data. However, the authors dispute this assumption, noting that CMV is likely multidimensional; that is, it is complex and difficult to fix with statistical methods alone. Importantly, the authors highlight the significance of maintaining a multidimensional view of CMV, challenging the simplification of a CMV as a single source. The authors close by offering recommendations for using ULMFs in practice as well as more research into more complex forms of CMV.

This study examines how the resource of egalitarianism, at both individual and organizational levels, affects employee proactivity. Specifically, we propose relational social capital is an effective mechanism through which an individual's egalitarian mindset and the organization's egalitarian HR practice facilitate employee proactivity.

This study surveys a sample of 511 knowledge workers employed in small to medium-sized enterprises in Australia and New Zealand.

Results of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) demonstrate that relational social capital partially mediates the relationship between an egalitarian mindset and employee proactivity and fully mediates the effects of egalitarian HR practice on employee proactivity.

Globally, a social transformation, particularly around the notions of social responsibility and sustainability, is occurring, and this means increasing numbers of employees support egalitarian ideals. HR practitioners therefore need to be aware of how their human resource management (HRM) system supports this value orientation.

This study illuminates a new performance pathway by highlighting egalitarianism's contribution, as a valuable resource, to organizational and employee innovation. This focus on egalitarianism is both timely and important. This is because the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through their support of diversity, inclusiveness and equality, reflect an egalitarian ethos, and managers are becoming increasingly cognizant of the need to embed these values into organizational structures and operational processes.

This study aims to offer an original criterion of assessment for examiners of practice-based doctorates in contemporary arts practices, based upon the degree of intrigue, perceptual and conceptual, afforded by the research outputs. It is argued that intrigue is the necessary stimulus for the states of attention required for the recognition of fresh understanding and the acquisition of new knowledge from such outputs. The paper is intended to support doctoral students structuring theses for such research, those responsible for assessing proposals in university cross-disciplinary research committees with limited experience of practice-based research and the examiners of such research.

Acknowledging the several decades of work already published on practice-based research, this study adopts an aesthetic cognitivist position from which the visual arts are construed as powerful means of deepening our understanding, a source of non-propositional knowledge on a par with, although qualitatively different from, the way that the sciences are accepted as the means to propositional knowledge.

A case study demonstrates the efficacy of applying the proposed criterion in the assessment of practice-based doctoral research.

Within the social context of academic research, the article strengthens the validation of practice-based research.

The terms perceptual intrigue and conceptual intrigue are coined as values implicit in aesthetic cognitivism; they are construed as the initial stimuli for the state of attentiveness required for fresh understanding, and the degree of balance between them is proposed as an original criterion for the assessment of practice-based research.

This paper aims to explore the interplay between methods and methodologies in the field of international relations (IR) over the 100 years of its lifetime reflecting on the relationship between the rise of new research methods and the rise of new methodologies.

This paper looks in retrospect into the field’s great debates using a historiography approach. It maps chronologically the interplay of methods and methodology throughout the stages of the development of the study of IR.

This paper argues that inspite of narratives of triumph being common in the field, the coexistence of competing research methods and methodologies is the defining feature of the field. All theories, all methods and all methodologies have undergone a process of criticism, self-criticism and change. New methodologies have not necessarily accompanied the rise of new research methods in the field.

Drawing a map of the field’s methodologies and methods reveals necessarily its dynamism and its plurality. An honest map of the field is one that highlights not only theoretical differences but also ontological, epistemological and methodological differences embedded in the field’s debates.

Despite the burgeoning popularity of virtual gifting in live streaming, research lacks an in-depth understanding of the drivers behind this behavior. Using para-social relationship (PSR), this study aims to capture viewers’ lively social feelings toward the streamer as the key factor leading to the purchase behavior of virtual gifts. It also aims to establish a theoretical link between PSR and viewers’ holistic experience in live streaming as captured by cognitive absorption and aims to investigates the role of technological features (i.e. viewer–streamer and viewer–viewer interactivity, streamer-level and viewer-level deep profiling and design aesthetics) in shaping viewers’ experience.

Based on 433 survey responses, this study employs a combination of structural equation modeling and neural networks to offer valuable insights into the relationships between the technological environment, viewer experience and viewer behavior.

Our results highlight the salience of PSR in promoting the purchase of virtual gifts through cognitive absorption and the importance of the technological environment in eliciting the viewer experience. This study sheds light on the development of PSR in a technological environment and its relationship with cognitive absorption.

By applying PSR to conceptualize viewers’ perceived connection with the streamer, this study extends the research on purchase behavior in the non-shopping context by providing an enlightened understanding of virtual gift purchase behavior in live streaming. Moreover, by theoretically linking PSR with cognitive absorption, virtual gift purchase and technological features of live streaming, it enriches the theory of PSR and bridges the gap between the design practice of supporting the IT infrastructure of live streaming and research.

In the context of an analysis of stopgap and reactionary presidential library and records act, the purpose of this paper is to consider how the separation of the Obama Presidential Library from the Obama Presidential Center illuminates fundamental flaws in the public-private model that demand a more comprehensive legislative solution.

Drawing upon government, academic and public sources, this paper examines the legislation of presidential records and libraries to gain perspective on the presidential library system and the Obama Presidential Center, the first post-Presidential Records Act institution to operate independently of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

This paper traces the evolution of presidential library statutes and standards to reveal how the genesis of an independent Obama Presidential Center strained an already stressed system, creating significant questions about its future.

This paper offers an original treatment of the statutes governing NARA’s administration of presidential libraries, framing a cycle of calls and responses, with the acts of individual presidents eliciting acts of Congress. Also original, and timely, is the treatment in this paper of how these laws created the conditions for an independent Obama Presidential Center.

There is an ongoing discussion on tools that can lead to sustainable tourism, as well as attempts to implement them. In the selection of tools, the attitudes of residents – local stakeholders and their degree of acceptance of such tools should be analysed and taken into account. Some cause conflicts, and hence, the purpose of this study is the comparative analysis of three cities (Prague, Krakow and Braga).

Analysis of the basic types of conflicts was conducted using the division proposed by Moore. The research was conducted among residents – experts representing the tourism sector. Based on the literature review, three hypotheses were formulated. Statistical tests were used to analyse the results.

The results showed a strong impact of the conflict of information and the interests of those dependent on the degree of development of the city’s tourist function. It was established that in the process of achieving sustainable tourism, to minimize conflicts, the following are necessary: paying attention to communication and the involvement of local communities, creating attractions that benefit both residents and visitors, measuring and monitoring tourist traffic, supporting initiatives for new tourist offers and initiating discussions on development problems, and setting common goals for all residents.

The research was conducted during the pandemic and is based on the opinions of experts indicated by the city authorities. While the attitudes of the inhabitants towards the development of tourism were recognized in earlier studies, the awareness of tourists and their readiness to accept limitations related to respecting the needs of the inhabitants were not examined. This aspect may be an interesting direction for further research. A limitation of this research is the small scope of the study, caused both by the restrictions in force during the research period (related to the COVID-19 pandemic) and also by the inability to conduct in-depth interviews with experts. It should also be noted that among the experts participating in the research were tourist entrepreneurs directly interested in rebuilding tourism after the pandemic. Due to this, their opinions may have been biased, but there is no way to prove or disprove this. However, the answers gathered were considered collectively; therefore, the opinions obtained were considered to be objective. Attempts to balance tourism so far have focused mainly on limiting the access of tourists to attractions and tourist areas and introducing (or increasing) admission fees. It is still too early to assess the effectiveness of such tools, hence the lack of scientific analyses of implemented tourism policies.

The role and tasks of institutions managing tourism in cities will probably also change, in particular, so-called destination management organizations. The current declarations indicate the need to respect inhabitants and take measures to limit conflicts arising in the context of the development of the tourist function. However, there is no empirical evidence of the positive results achieved.

The results will allow the implementation of tourism balancing tools that are accepted by the local community.

The selection of the historical cities and the posing of a research problem based on the same tool allowed for comparative inference. The results can help shape tourism management in cities and the choice of tools for their sustainable development.

关于实现可持续旅游的工具以及运用这些工具的尝试始终是学界热议的话题。 在选择工具时, 应当分析和考虑居民和当地利益相关者的态度以及他们对工具的接受程度, 因为有些会引起冲突。基于此, 本文的目的是对三个城市（布拉格、克拉科夫、布拉加）的居民-当地利益相关者冲突进行比较分析。

本文采用摩尔提出的划分方法对冲突的基本类型进行了分析。 该研究是在居民——代表旅游部门的专家中进行的。文章基于文献综述提出了三个假设, 并 使用统计测试来分析结果。

结果表明, 信息冲突和利益冲突的强烈影响取决于城市旅游功能的发展程度。在实现可持续旅游的过程中, 为了尽量减少冲突, 有必要采取以下措施：注重当地社区的参与和沟通, 创造有利于居民和游客双方的景点, 测量和监测旅游流量, 支持旅游产品创新并发起针对发展问题的讨论, 同时为所有居民设定共同目标。

本文选择历史名城作为案例地, 加之基于同一工具提出的研究问题, 使得本研究具备用于比较推断的条件。 研究结果有助于塑造城市的旅游管理以及引导可持续发展工具的选择。

Hay un debate en curso sobre las herramientas que pueden conducir al turismo sostenible, así como los intentos de implementarlas. En la selección de herramientas, se deben analizar y tener en cuenta las actitudes de los residentes – agentes interesados locales y su grado de aceptación de dichas herramientas. Algunas provocan conflictos, de ahí que el objetivo de este artículo sea el análisis comparativo de tres ciudades (Praga, Cracovia, Braga).

El análisis de los tipos básicos de conflictos se realizó utilizando la división propuesta por Moore. La investigación se llevó a cabo entre residentes, expertos que representan el sector turístico. A partir de la revisión de la literatura se formularon tres hipótesis. Se utilizaron pruebas estadísticas para analizar los resultados.

Los resultados mostraron un fuerte impacto del conflicto de información y los intereses de quienes dependen del grado de desarrollo de la función turística de la ciudad. Se estableció que en el proceso de lograr un turismo sostenible, para minimizar los conflictos es necesario: prestar atención a la comunicación y a la implicación de las comunidades locales, crear atractivos que beneficien tanto a los residentes como a los visitantes, medir y monitorear el tráfico turístico, apoyar iniciativas de nuevas ofertas turísticas e iniciar debates sobre los problemas de desarrollo, y establecer objetivos comunes para todos los residentes.

La selección de las ciudades históricas y el planteamiento de un problema de investigación basado en la misma herramienta permitieron realizar una inferencia comparativa. Los resultados pueden ayudar a configurar la gestión del turismo en las ciudades y la elección de herramientas para su desarrollo sostenible.