Search results

This chapter focuses on the contextual conditions around which entrepreneurship is a positive option for individuals on the autism spectrum. Drawing on omnibus and discrete context (Johns, 2006) and on research on other forms for neurodiversity and entrepreneurship, this chapter explains the who, what, where, when, and why of entrepreneurship and autism. Aimed at encouraging future scholarship in this under-research area, the chapter underlines the connections between entrepreneurship and common characteristics of individuals on the spectrum, issues of motivation and self-efficacy, the option of social entrepreneurship, and the importance of formal and informal support networks.

Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his stated wish to be dictator “on day one” of second term in office would repel voters, Trump said “I think a lot of people like it.” It is one of his invariable talking points that 74 million voters supported him in 2020, and he remains the unrivaled leader of the Republican Party, even as his rhetoric escalates to levels that cautious observers now routinely call fascistic.

Is Trump right that many people “like” his talk of dictatorship? If so, what does that mean empirically? Part of the answer to these questions was apparent early, in the results of the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES), which included survey questions that we had proposed which we drew from the aptly-named “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” scale. Posed to voters in 2012–2013 and again in 2016, those questions elicited striking responses.

In this chapter, we revisit those responses. We begin by exploring Trump's escalating anti-democratic rhetoric in the light of themes drawn from Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno. We follow this with the text of the 2017 conference paper in which we first reported that 75% of Trump's voters supported him enthusiastically, mainly because they shared his prejudices, not because they were hurting economically. They hoped to “get rid” of troublemakers and “crush evil.” That wish, as we show in our conclusion, remains central to Trump's appeal.

Many academic libraries opened their doors in fall 2020 to support students after operations had been suspended due to COVID-19 the previous spring. Frontline employees returned in person while remote work remained standard for others. Staff encountered deficits, on-site isolation, the responsibility of enforcing new protocols, short-tempered patrons, and unprecedented workplace stress.

At the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), staff who served on-site throughout the pandemic still feel the effects of this crucible, even as the library assesses and implements hybrid models to meet the needs of students. Concurrent is a need for leadership to do the same for its vulnerable frontline staff, whose physical and mental well-being suffered over the last 3 years.

In the waning months of university-mandated COVID-19 protocols (spring 2023), the UIC Library conducted its biennial survey to assess library impact on its students. Results revealed frustration with hours, services, and health and safety. Administration immediately discussed what could be done to improve impressions of library culture, but that student survey tells only one side of the story.

This chapter presents the results of facilitated discussions with frontline staff, often people from underrepresented groups, who speak to the other side of navigating the pandemic. It also interrogates how leadership can do more to provide essential employees with support during and postcrisis to protect them from burnout, aggressive and unreasonable patrons, and the stress of doing more with less. Staff voices balance existing student narratives and call for a healthier environment to better serve everyone within the library.

Leadership development programs (LDPs) have emerged relatively recently in the healthcare context as a mechanism not only to develop capable and competent leaders but also to retain them. The purpose of this paper is to describe a perspective on practice by illustrating a case example that showcases a pilot LDP for newly promoted healthcare leaders. The details about how it was developed and implemented collaboratively by a healthcare consortium and higher education institution (HEI) to address shared healthcare leadership talent pipeline and retention challenges are provided.

This perspective on practice describes how a consortium of competitive healthcare organizations, a type of branded Inter-organizational Relationship referred to as “Coopetition,” contracted with a HEI to design, develop and launch a pilot LDP, referred to as the Academy for Healthcare Education and Development program, using the analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate model.

The significance of this illustrative case example is discussed along with some initial lessons learned based upon this pilot LDP that 24 program participants completed. Implications for research, theory and practice are presented, followed by limitations and a conclusion.

Inter-organizational relationships, particularly coopetition, are relatively new in the healthcare sector, along with collaboration with HEIs to develop interventions to solve compelling industry problems. This illustrative case example offers insights that address scholars’ calls and practitioners’ needs to explicate different approaches for LDPs to build the healthcare leadership talent pipeline.

The 7th decade manager (7DM) is an overlooked and under-researched group in organisation studies. This paper explores the changes which 7DMs experience in later life through the lenses of age, work and identity.

An interpretivist methodology was adopted and data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 32 managers across 10 different sectors in England and Scotland. These data were analysed thematically.

Change manifested itself in various contradictory ways across three domains of age, work and identity. Age was experienced dichotomously, with these 7DMs identifying as subjectively younger yet openly (if reluctantly) accepting signs of ageing. They appeared more tolerant and kinder but could be impatient and outspoken. Work remained important, providing structure, a sense of purpose and camaraderie; however, career progression was not. Altruistically, the 7DMs exercised generativity by providing their colleagues with counsel in both work and personal matters. Their sense of self and identity work featured prominently, particularly in the liminality associated with the impending cessation of work. Preparation for the psychosocial transition to retirement was lacking.

This project would have benefitted from a larger and broader cohort demographic. Whether there are any significant gender or ethnic differences in attitudes, values or approaches to work cannot be ascertained from the data obtained. Future studies should therefore include a greater diversity of participants. There may also be merit in investigating if any differences exist for the ex-military 7DM manager compared to others.

Organisations can benefit from greater recognition of the value experienced managers in their later working lives can bring. Both the broader community of managers and their employers would benefit from leveraging the experience, knowledge and attributes of older managers in their passage through their 7th decade and better prepare younger people to succeed them.

Different agencies such as government, employers, professional bodies like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Trade Unions or consultancies may wish to explore the benefits and practicalities of preparing the individual for the transition to retirement. Importantly, this should address the psychosocial connotations associated with ceasing work. Whilst this applies to all 7th decade workers, we suggest that there are some challenges that are peculiar to being an older manager.

Whilst much is known about older workers, research relating to older managers, especially those in their seventh decade, is largely absent. This paper illustrates the changes and challenges they experience in both their professional and personal lives, some of which seem to be unique to this age group and many of which would benefit from being addressed in organisational policy and practice as well as further research.

This chapter suggests that self-employment or entrepreneurship can constitute an alternative to employment for neurodivergent people. While this is a suitable and successful option for many, we explore the experience of one entrepreneur who was, and remains, very reluctant in his entrepreneurial endeavors. We use Michael's firsthand autobiographical accounts to showcase his struggle before and during entrepreneurship and its impact on his physical and mental health. We conclude with some reflections on his experience and highlight what the literature on neurodivergent entrepreneurs can learn from it.

This study aims to explore the influence of management control on the performance of teams with surface levels of social diversity.

Under the categorization-elaboration model perspective, an integrative literature review was conducted. Selecting articles published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases until 2023 and with the terms about gender diversity, age diversity, racial diversity and team performance, obtaining 122 documents. Results were analyzed in a matrix under the criteria of social diversity as a principal variable and examined the effects on team performance. Subsequently, it is synthesized according to the social diversity dimension and then integrated into an analysis with conceptual perspectives from management control systems.

The main negative effects of surface-level social diversity on team performance arise from stereotypical perceptions and social biases about differences in gender, age and race, affecting team members’ interactions. This scenario is related to the causes of the need for management control in the absence of direction, motivation problems and personal limitations, so control systems associated with possible solutions to improve group performance are proposed.

To the authors’ knowledge, this work opens the discussion on the influence of management control on the performance of teams with social diversity. Demographic changes require new perspectives for team management, from management control providing a way to guide socially diverse team behaviors to desired team performance.

We examine negative emotions’ influence on consumer satisfaction and loyalty when repurchasing a product or service after experiencing failures in the financial services sector.

The sample comprised 735 valid surveys of customers who encountered such service failures. An initial model incorporating 14 negative emotions was narrowed down to the most robust one, comprising three emotions, after data collection and statistical validation.

Consumer dissatisfaction is explained by affective (pleasure) rather than cognitive factors (disconfirmation) in the financial services context. Loyalty is influenced only by affective (pleasure and activation) rather than cognitive elements (disconfirmation) in the dissatisfaction generation process, indicating that loyalty is not a cognitive but an affective one. Finally, an affective judgment (activation) rather than a cognitive one (disconfirmation) explains consumer’s recommendation of a product or service despite encountering failures.

This is the first study to focus exclusively on negative emotions, revealing that the pleasure dimension is a significant antecedent of dissatisfaction. By demonstrating that emotional factors rather than cognitive assessments dominate both satisfaction and loyalty responses, this study offers a unique contribution to understanding consumer behavior after service failures in financial services, with practical implications for service recovery strategies.

Este estudio examina el impacto de las emociones negativas en la satisfacción y lealtad del consumidor al volver a adquirir un producto o servicio después de experimentar fallas en el sector de servicios financieros.

La muestra incluyó 735 encuestas válidas de clientes que enfrentaron dichas fallas en el servicio. Un modelo inicial que incorporaba 14 emociones negativas se redujo, tras la recolección de datos y la validación estadística, a un modelo más robusto que comprende tres emociones.

La insatisfacción del consumidor se explica por factores afectivos (agrado) en lugar de cognitivos (desconfirmación) en el contexto de servicios financieros. La lealtad está influenciada únicamente por elementos afectivos (agrado y activación) y no por elementos cognitivos (desconfirmación) en el proceso de generación de insatisfacción, lo que indica que la lealtad no es de naturaleza cognitiva, sino afectiva. Finalmente, un juicio afectivo (activación), más que uno cognitivo (desconfirmación), explica la recomendación de un producto o servicio por parte del consumidor, incluso tras haber enfrentado fallas.

Este es el primer estudio que se enfoca exclusivamente en las emociones negativas, revelando que la dimensión de agrado es un antecedente significativo de la insatisfacción. Al demostrar que los factores emocionales, más que las evaluaciones cognitivas, dominan tanto las respuestas de satisfacción como de lealtad, este estudio ofrece una contribución única para comprender el comportamiento del consumidor tras fallas en los servicios financieros, con implicaciones prácticas para las estrategias de recuperación del servicio.

This article focusses on the hybrid strategy, a simultaneous combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The study aims to examine the impact of hybrid strategy on firm performance through its anticipated positive effects on process and product innovation. In addition, we study the moderating role of adaptive capacity in the direct relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 1,842 Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. We randomly selected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

We found that hybrid strategy is positively related to firm performance and to process and product innovation. Additionally, in firms implementing hybrid strategies, process innovation fostered firm performance. Finally, adaptive capacity strengthened the relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation. This sheds light on how and when hybrid strategy is most effective in fostering SME performance.

We highlight that SMEs need to establish strategies that use diverse resources and capabilities and not just generate competitive advantage using one strategy (cost leadership or differentiation strategy). This requires an agile and flexible systems and structures.

Our research provides novel results by proposing the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) as a way for SMEs to survive during crises. Unlike “stuck in the middle” strategies, our study demonstrates the importance of hybrid strategies in a comprehensive model that links them to innovation and firm performance, with adaptive capacity being a determining factor.

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.