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This chapter emphasizes the interconnectedness of legal frameworks, socio-cultural norms, and policy interventions in forging a more inclusive and just society for girls and women. Despite substantial strides, gender disparities still persist across the Western world, highlighting the need for targeted actions. The chapter explores the “glass ceiling” phenomenon, the wage gap, gender-based violence, emphasizing their persistence, and the imperative of transformative policies. Shifting focus to the East, the narrative navigates through distinct trajectories of women’s rights advocacy. Religious beliefs have historically reinforced gender inequality in some Eastern societies, shaping cultural norms and limiting women’s public participation. In the context of Islam, varying interpretations have led to differing perspectives on gender roles. The chapter showcases instances of progress, such as Saudi Arabian women gaining voting rights, while acknowledging enduring challenges like female genital mutilation and forced marriages. In the conclusion part, the chapter highlights the need for sustained efforts to dismantle barriers and elevate women’s voices, fostering a global landscape marked by gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This article examines the role the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) played in international education through the provision of trade union courses and exchanges. We consider how an investigation of trade union networks contributes to a richer understanding of international education linkages.

This paper is based on research conducted for an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project: Trade union training: reshaping the Australian industrial landscape (ARC LP180100500). This research involved a critical analysis of 60 semi-structured oral history interviews and textual archives, including the official records held by the National Archives of Australia and papers held by the Noel Butlin Archives, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and in private collections.

TUTA was established primarily as a national union training organisation, but from its inception, it also acted as a hub for the development of regional and international labour networks. The nature of TUTA’s work placed it at the intersection of international trade union and educational domains. Although there were some points of contact with formal international programs (e.g. Japan–Australia and Kellogg Foundations, the Colombo Plan and US Department of Labour exchanges schemes), the specific contribution of TUTA is overlooked in the educational exchange literature. The role of TUTA is revealed through institutional connections and individual experiences.

Further research is required to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of TUTA from the perspective of former participants in international TUTA course and current and former trade unionists in the Asia–Pacific.

This article builds new knowledge by examining the connections forged in the Asia–Pacific region at the intersection of trade union and educational networks, an area often overlooked in the literature on educational exchange.

This study aims to analyze whether the Barcelona markets integrated with Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.

This study uses the unit root tests with multiple structural breaks under both the null and alternative hypotheses proposed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. (2009) and Harvey et al. (2013). These tests are robust to multiple unknown breaks in the series.

The results suggest that the Barcelona wheat markets integrated with some European cities during the 18th century.

The results are important because they highlight the importance of considering nonlinearities and structural breaks in the series to study market integration with historical perspective. Contrary to the results obtained using conventional unit root tests, when this study applies unit root tests robust to structural breaks in the series, it finds that the law of one price holds in some cases.

This study empirically tests a model of human capital (HC) factors affecting the organisational competitiveness (OC) of automotive parts suppliers in the Industry 4.0 framework, including concepts such as Toyota Kata (TK), Kaizen and Quality 4.0, during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

An instrument was created to measure emotional intelligence (EI) and analytical skill (AS) as input variables and OC as the output variable. The instrument was distributed electronically to Tier 1 non-technical employees in Nuevo León and Querétaro, México. A total of 195 surveys were obtained. The instrument used stepwise multiple linear regression.

This study proposes a model to strengthen the OC of Tier 1 automotive parts supply industry from the perspective of HC factors. Furthermore, it is shown that EI and AS have a positive and significant impact on OC.

From an HC perspective, this study provides a useful basis to improve OC for researchers, industry experts and managers at different levels of the automotive industry, including the triple helix (academia, industry and the government).

No studies simultaneously test the relationship of EI and AS to OC; therefore, this study fills a gap in the literature. Furthermore, the study explored the literature on individual Kaizen (IK) and TK, leading to a contrast between the definitions of EI and AS. Finally, for EI, a reference to motivation was found in the IK. In the case of AS, an orientation to ability of problem solving was found in TK.

With more cities aiming to achieve climate neutrality, identifying the funding to support these plans is essential. The purpose of this paper is to exploit the present of a structured green bonds framework in Sweden to investigate the typology of abatement projects Swedish municipalities invested in and understand their effectiveness.

Marginal abatement cost curves of the green bond measures are constructed by using the financial and abatement data provided by municipalities on an annual basis.

The results highlight the economic competitiveness of clean energy production, measured in abatement potential per unit of currency, even when compared to other emerging technologies that have attracted the interest of policymakers. A comparison with previous studies on the cost efficiency of carbon capture storage reveals that clean energy projects, especially wind energy production, can contribute to the reduction of emissions in a more efficient way. The Swedish carbon tax is a good incentive tool for investments in clean energy projects.

The improvement concerning previous applications is twofold: the authors expand the financial considerations to include the whole life-cycle costs, and the authors consider all the greenhouse gases. This research constitutes a prime in using financial and environmental data produced by local governments to assess the effectiveness of their environmental measures.

This study explores a novel conception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) hybridity and investigates its effect on returns following CSR announcements and the moderating role of aspirational CSR talk.

Based on an event study of 136 Chinese companies’ CSR announcements, this study empirically insights into an overall tension between the short-term firm performance (FP) loss and medium-term FP success of CSR hybridity.

First, CSR hybridity has a negative impact on short-term FP. Second, although there is positive effect on medium-term FP, this influence is not permanent. Third, aspirational CSR talk has a moderating role on the positive relationship between CSR hybridity and FP. These results point to the unique features of hybridity that require time to diffuse the impacts.

First, by adopting new concept of CSR hybridity, this study contributes to the literature by considering better solutions to integrate strategic CSR. Second, by investigating the complexity of the CSR hybridity–FP dialogue, the results provide insights into the questions of why and when organizations could be incentivized to adopt hybrid CSR approaches. Third, this study contributes to the CSR–FP and stakeholder literature by demonstrating that aspirational talk is key in CSR’s medium-term success. The implication of this is a growing pressure on companies’ CSR communications with investors through managerial talk that depicts organizational ambitions for CSR engagement.