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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which a sample of US-based higher education institution’s (HEI’s) climate targets and associated climate action planning efforts align with the definitions of and practices associated with science-based targets (SBTs) that are typically used to organize corporate climate efforts. This analysis will be used to explore similarities and tease out differences between how US-based HEIs and corporations approach sustainable target setting and organize sustainable action.

The degree of intersection between a sample of HEI climate action plans from Ivy Plus (Ivy+) schools and the current SBT initiative (SBTi) general corporate protocol was assessed by using an objective-oriented evaluative approach.

While there were some areas of overlap between HEI’s climate action planning and SBTi’s general corporate protocol – for instance, the setting of both short- and long-term targets and large-scale investments in renewable energy – significant areas of difference in sampled HEIs included scant quantitative Scope 3 targets, the use offsets to meet short-term targets and a low absolute annual reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

This paper unites diverse areas of literature on SBTs, corporate sustainability target setting and sustainability in higher education. It provides an overview of the potential benefits and disadvantages of HEIs adopting SBTs and provides recommendations for the development of sector-specific SBTi guidelines.

The study aims to consider the multiple affordances of micro-credentials as a means of creating agency and making a positive contribution to the human experience, through the voices of practitioners and stakeholders.

Multiple case study, narrative inquiry, using Reflexive Thematic Analysis to identify themes was the approach used. Qualitative Descriptive Research is employed to present and analyse the re-told tales.

Micro-credentials possess numerous characteristics which coalesce to create multiple affordances, which are identified as follows: Micro-credentials as: Urgent and Emergent, Critical and Transformative, Promoting Equity, Access and Participation, and Servicing Traditional Qualifications. These concomitant multiple affordances possess the core affordance of micro-credentials making a difference to the lives of learners. The more powerful affordances a micro-credential has, the more powerful it is and the greater the difference it can make to the human experience.

Practitioners will arguably do well to consider these multiple affordances in the future development of micro-credentials. Equally, those working in urgent or emergent spaces, in critical or transformative areas of practice, those engaged in a social justice environment or in the re-development of curricula, would do well to consider micro-credentials as a means of creating agency in the development and recognition of knowledge and skills. This study has focused on the voices of practitioners and their storied professional lives. However, the learner voice is limited to one and the employer voice is absent. Future research will benefit from a consideration of the employer voice in the development of micro-credentials as well as the voice of the end user, the learner.

It is hoped the study will assist practitioners in the judicious development of micro-credentials that possess agency and make a positive contribution to the human experience.

It is hoped the study will shed light on how micro-credentials can afford equity, access and participation to priority learners, and to all learners, in the development of cognitively manageable, affordable, time-achievable micro-credentials, that enable learners to see success quickly, whereby encouraging them to further their life-long and life-wide learning journeys.

This study unusually gives voice to practitioners and other stakeholders in the micro-credentials arena. Most studies to date have focused on the potential of micro-credentials. This study considers their actuality and new ways of ‘doing' micro-credentialing based on the voices of experience.

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.

This paper aims to explore three operations and supply chain management (OSCM) approaches for meeting the 2 °C targets to counteract climate change: adaptation (adjusting to climatic impacts); mitigation (innovating towards low-carbon practices); and carbon-removing negative emissions technologies (NETs). We suggest that adaptation nor mitigation may be enough to meet the current climate targets, thus calling for NETs, resulting in the following question: How can operations and supply chains be reconceptualized for NETs?

We draw on the sustainable supply chain and transitions discourses along with interview data involving 125 experts gathered from a broad research project focused on geoengineering and NETs. We analyze three case studies of emerging NETs (biochar, direct air carbon capture and storage and ocean alkalinity enhancement), leading to propositions on the link between OSCM and NETs.

Although some NETs are promising, there remains considerable variance and uncertainty over supply chain configurations, efficacy, social acceptability and potential risks of unintended detrimental consequences. We introduce the concept of transformative OSCM, which encompasses policy interventions to foster the emergence of new technologies in industry sectors driven by social mandates but lack clear commercial incentives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first that studies NETs from an OSCM perspective. It suggests a pathway toward new industry structures and policy support to effectively tackle climate change through carbon removal.

This paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.

This paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.

Whereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.

This paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.

The purpose of this paper reporting an exploratory pilot study is to examine how participant engagement in design thinking varies when playing and fixing (playfixing) three partially complete games (broken games).

The data for this study consist of transcripts of five playfixing sessions with a total of 16 participants. Each session focused on one of three games. The authors used Winn’s (2009) design-play-experience framework to analyze features of each game that might relate to differences in design thinking. Next, the authors coded each playfixing session’s transcript to identify patterns of design thinking. Finally, these findings were used to make conjectures about how design features and flaws might encourage particular forms of design thinking.

The findings indicate how playfixing tabletop games with varied levels of complexity, playability and rule definition lead to different patterns of design thinking.

This is a first step toward understanding how the constraints associated with various elements of broken games might direct participants toward desired modes of design thinking and more broadly, contributes to the literature on the educational uses of game making.

Regarding industrial sports products, there is sometimes a dual sport and health meaning intended by designers. Appearances of sport products are often quite opposite to health products. Design choices made by designers can thus be misunderstood by users. This paper aims to deeper understand the perception gap between designers and users within earlier stages of the design process to limit this confusion and help designers.

The authors propose an approach to help designers defining the perception of a new dual and hybrid product field. The first step is to collect designers’ perception through interviews combined with card sorting. The second step is to compare the perception of designers with that of users. Comparisons are based on an agreement measure.

The approach provides a first step to evaluate the perception of a dual hybrid product field. It allows designers to extract trends and perceptions to be considered for the design of products, to consolidate and confirm their intuitions regarding the intended dual meaning.

The main contribution of this paper is to evaluate the perception of a new and non-defined hybrid product field presenting a duality in appearance. This approach can be used by designers either to identify trends to be considered, reinforce the intended meaning, or validate their intuitions while designing products with dual meanings before.

The purpose of this study is to explore advisor–advisee relationships from the perspective of doctoral students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While some research exists on the importance of doctoral advisor/advisee relationships generally, few studies have focused on advisor support for doctoral students with LD and/or ADHD.

In total, 20 doctoral students from various US institutions with an average age of 28 years old participated in this study. In all, 2 participants had a dual diagnosis of LD and ADHD, 3 were diagnosed solely with LD and 15 solely with ADHD; 15 of the participants with ADHD indicated that they take medication. Each graduate student participated in an hour-long semi-structured Zoom interview inquiring about their disability and their relationship with their advisor. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed inductively.

The relationship between the participant and their advisor was the key theory. In total, 6 participants disclosed their disability status to their advisor with positive results, 2 had negative outcomes and 12 did not disclose for various reasons. The overarching theme of the study is that advisors are supportive of doctoral students with LD and/or ADHD whether or not they know about the student’s disability. Support was seen in offering flexible and strict deadlines, advocating on the student’s behalf and/or forming personal relationships with students.

One of the biggest challenges of this study was recruiting participants. Graduate students with LD and ADHD are justifiably afraid of facing discrimination; therefore, it was difficult to identify participants despite having IRB approval and placing a very high value on confidentiality. The sample was consequently limited in size as well as in terms of race and gender diversity and was not representative of students with LD and/or ADHD in higher education. Qualitative research is typically not generalizable and the same was true for this study. This study gives a broader glimpse into the experiences of doctoral students with ADHD than those with LD. Additionally, when one of the researchers began each interview, she revealed that she also has a learning disability. While this may have helped participants feel more comfortable, it also could have influenced their responses.

This study undertakes a more detailed investigation than previous research on the experiences of individuals with LD and/or ADHD in doctoral programs in the US. The findings provide current data on perceptions of advisor–advisee relationships in the students’ own voices.

Given the emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in US higher education, students with LD and/or ADHD need to be actively engaged in these conversations. With increasing numbers of students with LD and ADHD entering higher education and pursuing graduate degrees, faculty must be prepared to support all their students. By assessing strategies for positive mentor–mentee relationships among doctoral students with LD and/or ADHD, institutions can continue to foster increased diversity, creating doctoral programs and developing future faculty who more accurately represent the world in which we live.

The population studied doctoral students with LD and/or ADHD in the USA adds to the literature. The findings in terms of disclosure as it relates to advisors also adds to the literature. Doctoral students in the USA are dropping out at high rates making this an area that needs exploration.