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The recruitment of undergraduate students within English universities is of vital importance to both the academic success and the financial stability of the organisation. Despite the primacy of the task, there has been a dearth of research looking at related performance and how to ensure that the process is optimised. The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of variation both within a university and between different universities. The reliance that individual programmes and/or universities place on the Clearing process is key; given its uncertainty, resource demands and timing shortly before students take up their places.

The Nomogramma di Gandy diagrammatical approach utilises readily available data to analyse universities’ performance in recruiting students to different programmes, and the degree to which they each rely of the Clearing process. Inter-university performance was investigated on a whole-student intake basis for a sample of English universities, representative of type and region.

The study found that there were disparate patterns for the many programmes within the pilot university and also disparate patterns between different types of universities across England. Accordingly, universities should internally benchmark their programmes to inform both strategic and tactical decision-making. Similarly, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service benchmarking inter-university patterns could inform the overall sector.

The approach and findings provide lessons for analysing student recruitment which could be critical to universities’ academic and financial health, in an increasingly competitive environment.

This paper describes a model of “Learning to care” derived from a study exploring how care workers in care homes learn to care for people living with dementia. The “Learning to care” model is primarily informal in nature in which influences such as formalised training and organisational culture impact care outcomes indirectly rather than directly.

This study used a focused, critical ethnographic approach in two care homes in England resulting in 63 h of observation of care of people living with advanced dementia, 15 semi-structured interviews and 90 in-situ ethnographic interviews with care staff.

The findings reveal a three-level model of learning to care. At the level of day-to-day interactions is a mechanism for learning that is wholly informal and follows the maxim “What Works is What Matters”. Workers draw on resources and information within this process derived from their personal experiences, resident influences and care home cultural knowledge. Cultural knowledge is created through a worker’s interactions with colleagues and the training they receive, meaning that these organisational level influences affect care practice only indirectly via the “What Works is What Matters” mechanism.

This study makes an original contribution by explaining the nature of day-to-day informal learning processes as experienced by care workers and those living with dementia in care homes. In particular, it illuminates the specific mechanisms by which organisational culture has an effect on care practice and the limitations of formal training in influencing such practice.

Drawing from transformative service research (TSR) and service ecosystem perspectives, the author seeks to provide multi-level insights into gaming service systems and call to action how this knowledge can contribute to cultivating socially responsible gaming by addressing the following research questions: What insights from service ecosystem and TSR literature can help optimise value co-creation and cultivate socially responsible practices in digital gaming services? What future research directions could advance the understanding of digital gaming services and their potential to develop a responsible gaming ecosystem that balances social well-being with commercial success?

Adopting a conceptual approach of theory synthesis and adaptation, the author discusses four overarching themes alongside key research gaps and directions crucial for understanding the dynamics of gaming ecosystem.

The central themes – “Exploring individuals as game service consumers”, “Gaming service exchange dynamics among meso-level stakeholders”, “A macro lens to gaming service ecosystem” and “The complexities of multi-actor dynamics and interdependencies” – shed light on how responsible services can be fostered.

Given the absence of a well-defined scope for understanding responsible gaming, future research should develop a typology to capture its multifaceted aspects. Expanding beyond micro-level analysis, conducting consultation interviews with industry practitioners and policymakers can contribute insights into promoting responsible gaming services.

The author offers insights for the game players, designers and developers, service providers and policymakers to promote a healthy gaming culture.

Through this research, the author advances the understanding of gaming as a service by illuminating value co-creation and co-destruction within an interconnected gaming service ecosystem through the lens of TSR. Such understanding empowers businesses to prioritise consumer welfare in their decision-making and practices.

This paper aims to explore the importance of tailored faculty development for neurodiverse business educators. It focuses on how specialized support can enhance research output, teaching effectiveness and service contributions within the academic community.

This paper’s conceptual approach uses elements of autoethnography to inform and support prior theoretical and empirical work. An explication of how neurodiversity can be integrated into faculty development efforts is presented with emphasis on individualized support systems, empathetic mentorship and customized teaching and research support strategies to leverage often unrecognized abilities.

The research identifies that neuroatypical faculty possess certain strengths such as heightened problem-solving skills and attention to detail, which, when supported, can significantly enrich the academic environment. However, there is a lack of targeted support mechanisms for, and general awareness of, these faculty. The paper proposes modifications to existing faculty development activities, emphasizing general and individualized approaches to better harness the talents of neurodiverse educators.

Implementing the proposed strategies will foster an inclusive educational atmosphere while enhancing academic creativity, innovation and productivity. This approach also aligns with important trends in diversity and inclusion, promoting a more equitable and dynamic academic environment.

This research contributes to the field by extending the discourse on neurodiversity in higher education beyond student-focused initiatives to include faculty development. It provides actionable strategies to create inclusive environments that leverage the cognitive strengths of neurodiverse faculty, a relatively unexplored area in business education.

This study evaluated electronic resource searching competency among postgraduate students (PGS). Specifically, the study intended to identify online search strategies used by PGS in searching electronic resources, examine the mechanisms used by PGS to access electronic resources and identify the challenges faced by PGS when searching electronic resources.

An online survey was administered to 70 PGS who attended a training workshop on scholarly literature searching. A pre- and post-training assessment was carried out to establish their competence prior to and after the training.

The results show that during the preassessment, the majority of respondents indicated Google search and Google Scholar search engines were their primary sources of scholarly literature, and the majority used simple search strategies to locate scholarly literature. The results further show that, before the training, it was revealed that 50.5% of the PGS had never used subscribed databases such as EBSCOhost, Emeralds, Taylor and Francis, Wiley online library and Springer. After the post-training assessment, results indicated an increased level of using new techniques such as Boolean operation, phrase searches, truncations, search limit and subject directories. Access through local IP addresses was highly used compared to other mechanisms such as remote access authentication methods or discovery services. Students’ exposure to new strategies and search tools had significant improvement in searching scholarly literature.

This paper is the researcher’s original study and it has not been conducted before. The paper represents a true analysis of the search capability of postgraduates in areas of research.