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This study explores the relationship between economic freedom and gender ideologies on the allocation of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries. Opportunity entrepreneurship is typically understood as one’s best option for work, whereas necessity entrepreneurship describes the choice as driven by no better option for work. Specifically, we examine how economic freedom (i.e. each country’s policies that facilitate voluntary exchange) and gender ideologies (i.e. each country’s propensity for gendered separate spheres) affect the distribution of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries.

We construct our sample by matching data from the following country-level sources: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Adult Population Survey (APS), the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom Index (EFI), the European/World Value Survey’s Integrated Values Survey (IVS) gender equality index, and other covariates from the IVS, Varieties of Democracy (V-dem) World Bank (WB) databases. Our final sample consists of 729 observations from 109 countries between 2006 and 2018. Entrepreneurial activity motivations are measured by the ratio of the percentage of women’s opportunity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship to the percentage of female necessity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship at the country level. Due to a first-order autoregressive process and heteroskedastic cross-sectional dependence in our panel, we estimate a fixed-effect regression with robust standard errors clustered by country.

After controlling for multiple macro-level factors, we find two interesting findings. First, economic freedom positively affects the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship. We find that the size of government, sound money, and business and credit regulations play the most important role in shaping the distribution of contextual motivations over time and between countries. However, this effect appears to benefit efficiency and innovation economies more than factor economies in our sub-sample analysis. Second, gender ideologies of political equality positively affect the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship, and this effect is most pronounced for efficiency economies.

This study offers one critical contribution to the entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating how economic freedom and gender ideologies shape the distribution of contextual motivation for women’s entrepreneurship cross-culturally. We answer calls to better understand the variation within women’s entrepreneurship instead of comparing women’s and men’s entrepreneurial activity. As a result, our study sheds light on how structural aspects of societies shape the allocation of women’s entrepreneurial motivations through their institutional arrangements.

The body has been one of the central tools in analysing connections between sport and postcolonialism in India, given how sport was an essential part of the colonial ‘civilising’ mission, which involved disciplining and controlling Indian bodies. Any discursive understanding of sport and postcolonialism in India must consider how it relates to existing concepts of the body and shapes the experiences of the people involved in it – acknowledging not just the power of colonialism in moulding sporting experiences but also the force of internal hierarchies that exist in Indian society. This chapter explores the experiences of students who studied in higher educational institutions in Kerala under the ‘sports quota’, a system that reserves seats in colleges/universities for high-performing sportspersons in India. Through their interviews, the sustained exclusion of the sporting body in contemporary Indian pedagogy is illustrated here. Specifically, the continuing prevalence of the colonial emphasis on the sporting body, as one whose strength and instrumentality are paramount, as well as its corollary postcolonial position, which treats this sporting body as inferior to the ‘refined mind’ of studious pupils, can be observed. Approaching the sports quota with a decolonising lens would require re-examining the disembodied nature of pedagogy in India’s higher educational institutions, acknowledging sporting students’ lived experiences, and a seamless integration – as opposed to separation/exclusion – of the sportsperson into higher education.

This study is based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) to dynamically examine the effect of review variance on sales and the boundary conditions that mitigate this effect.

Based on the theoretical domain of HSM, a conceptual model is proposed that analyzes the nonlinear relationship between review variance and sales and the interaction and motivation factors that moderate these relationships. Review data from websites targeting the film industry in the USA and South Korea (Korea) were collected to empirically analyze the authors' hypothesis, and panel regression analysis was used for confirmation.

Moderated by interactive and motivational factors, review variance exhibits an inverse-U-shaped relationship with review variance. Specifically, as an interaction factor, review valence and owned social media (OSM) resulted in positive interaction effects, and as a motivation factor, the number of alternatives exhibited a positive interaction effect with review variance. The effect of review variance was less pronounced in the USA than in Korea.

The study outcomes reveal a nonlinear relationship between review variance and sales, thus supporting the contradictory findings of previous studies. This study contributes to the literature by using the HSM as a theoretical framework to verify various HSM mechanisms using online review data. This exploratory study also contributes to the international marketing literature by showing that the effects of review variance vary across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to study talent retention, which has long been an important area of inquiry across many industries. Consistently, both academicians and practitioners have recommended several “posthire” solutions to retain employees, such as allowing employees to work from home, providing them with flexible work schedules, promoting a work–life balance and rewarding good performance. In this study, the authors focus on how the “prehire” career-related characteristics of call center agents and their personality traits relate to their turnover intentions. This is important because selecting the right person at the employee selection stage can prevent firms from trying to retain someone who is likely to quit his/her job.

The authors surveyed 442 employees working in the call centers of a major multinational logistics company across China and Malaysia and used covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to test the model.

The results showed that call center agents who reapplied for a job in the current company had lower turnover intentions than first-time applicants. Similarly, call center agents who provided supplementary information during their application had lower turnover intentions than the ones who did not provide any such information. As for the personality traits, the results indicated that while the call center agents’ agreeableness and openness to experience were positively associated with their turnover intentions, their consciousness and emotional stability were negatively associated with them.

This study shows the uniqueness of Asian emerging markets and the call center industry by presenting several interesting patterns that are different from those that have been found in other industries.

The use of polysaccharides increases solubility and consistency and causes functions such as viscosity? Moisture and food emulsifier stabilizer. This study aims to enrich the formulation of low-fat mozzarella cheese using microcoated vitamin D3 (VD3).

This study investigates the addition of hydrocolloids to low-fat mozzarella cheese to enhance its properties and nutritional value. Tests were conducted on cheese samples with 0.05% and 0.25% hydrocolloid concentrations at various stages: before production and at three and six months’ postproduction. The samples were evaluated for elasticity, pH and solubility to select the best one, which was then fortified with VD3. The vitamin was microencapsulated using alginate and whey protein to shield it from light and oxygen, optimizing the formula using the response surface method. The fortified cheese was tested for VD3 content over its shelf life.

Results indicated that all hydrocolloids tested improved moisture and meltability of the cheese while higher protein levels increased stretchability two to threefold. Rice starch hydrocolloid at 0.05% concentration was chosen due to superior sensory scores and minimal oil separation. This study concluded that VD3 levels remained stable during the cheese’s shelf life, suggesting that this approach could enhance the nutritional value of low-fat cheese without compromising its quality. Therefore, after examining the obtained results and comparing the regression models, the results indicated that the Quadratic model was chosen to investigate the effect of independent variables on the response rate, which had a statistically significant difference with other models (p = 0.0019). Also the results of the area under the curve and using the encapsulation efficiency equation, the percentage of microencapsulated vitamin was obtained, and according to the simulation results, the encapsulation efficiency was reported as 89.02%.

Developing innovative functional dairy products fortified with VD3 could improve the vitamin D status in deficient populations. Therefore, these designs can be applied at industrial scales for functional cheese production.

This research fills a gap in process science by defining and explaining entropy and the increase of entropy in processes.

This is a theoretical treatment that begins with a conceptual understanding of entropy in thermodynamics and information theory and extends it to the study of degradation and improvement in a transformation process.

A transformation process with three inputs: demand volume, throughput and product design, utilizes a system composed of processors, stores, configuration, human actors, stored data and controllers to provide a product. Elements of the system are aligned with the inputs and each other with a purpose to raise standard of living. Lack of alignment is entropy. Primary causes of increased entropy are changes in inputs and disordering of the system components. Secondary causes result from changes made to cope with the primary causes. Improvement and innovation reduce entropy by providing better alignments and new ways of aligning resources.

This is the first detailed theoretical treatment of entropy in a process science context.

Social virtual reality (SVR) has emerged as a solution for the facilitation of remote and distributed teamwork, promising to overcome challenges faced in virtual 2D communication channels. The purpose of this study is to systematically review empirical articles dealing with the application of SVR with head-mounted displays (HMDs) in teams.

This study reviewed 40 empirical papers on teamwork that address the application of SVR using HMD in teams. The authors present results from the extracted data and identify themes that indicate the current state of research in this field.

Based on data obtained from the journal articles, the authors identified three themes underlying current research. They are features and applications of SVR technology, collaboration dynamics and team performance in SVR and educational and professional training and learning. The results show that SVR enhances team collaboration and collaborative learning.

SVR can aid in improving teamwork and team outcomes. In its current stage, SVR is complementary to 2D technology and not likely to replace traditional tools. Findings suggest that the technology is promising for collaboration and learning in organisations, especially in collaborative design tasks and simulations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies to look at research emerging from the nascent area of SVR and summarise the current state of research. This study provides managerial implications and identifies future research areas for SVR in teamwork and learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled higher education institutions (HEI) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and globally to shift to a new pedagogy that is sustainable and resilient to crises and disruptions. It necessitated the integration of technologies as part of pedagogical innovation and modification of higher education practices – advancing toward a more holistic integration of physical and digital tools and methods to enable more flexible, creative, collaborative and participatory learning. In terms of pedagogy, an open approach to learning is essential, combining in-person teaching with technological tools and online learning.

This paper examines theoretical and empirical literature to define the potential benefits of utilizing open educational practices (OEP) in higher education, including better access, furthering equity and enhancing teaching, learning and assessment.

It proposes a comprehensive framework built on a continuum of open pedagogy (OP) that comprises “Emphasis”, “Essentials” and “Evolution”. Based on this framework, a set of recommendations for using OEP for successful knowledge building is provided.

The research determined the significance of increased OEP involvement for sustainable learning possibilities and the UAE’s initiatives in developing educators to support innovative pedagogies and technology-enabled teaching-learning standards. The study suggests placing more emphasis on faculty and student scaffolding while using OP for better learning experiences and outcomes, as well as more institutional support and the need for policy development to transform the UAE into a global hub for sustainable education.

Due to government policies, accreditation demands, competition, digital India reforms and National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the need for electronic human resource management (e-HRM) has increased considerably in the Indian higher education (HE) sector, but the literature has revealed that the adoption of e-HRM practices in Indian HE institutions (HEIs) is still in its embryonic stage; therefore, the purpose of the current qualitative study is to explore the challenges and facilitators of e-HRM adoption in the Indian HE sector through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

The present study incorporates IPA, to capture the personal lived experiences of the HR executives employed in the Indian HEIs. Using purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the HR executives employed in Indian universities and institutions to know the perspectives on the adoption of e-HRM practices in Indian HEIs.

The study identified two superordinate themes, namely, challenges and facilitators of e-HRM adoption in the Indian HE sector. The superordinate theme “challenges” comprises eight sub-themes. Further, the theme “facilitators” consists of six subthemes.

The study has implications for the stakeholders of the HE sector, i.e. HR practitioners, top executives of the HE sector, government and HE regulators and other stakeholders of the HE sector.

This study has given deep insights into the challenges and facilitators in the adoption of e-HRM practices in the Indian HE sector, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study till date has filled this knowledge gap through qualitative exploration using IPA.

This study aims to deal with both the development and mechanical investigations of unsaturated polyester matrix (UPR) composites containing recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers as new fillers.

UPR/PET fibers composites have been developed as mats by incorporating 5, 8, 13 and 18 parts per hundred of rubber (phr) of 6-, 10- and 15-mm length PET fibers from the recycling of postconsumer bottles. The mechanical and physical properties of the composites were investigated as a function of fiber content and length. A significant increase in stress at break and in ultimate stress (sr) were observed for composites reinforced with 5 and 8 phr of 15-mm length PET fibers. The Izod impact strength of UPR/mat PET fiber composites as a function of fiber rate and length showed that the 5 and 8 phr composites for the 15-mm length PET fiber have the optimal mechanical properties 13.55 and 10.50 Kj/m², respectively. The morphological study showed that the strong adhesion resulting from the affinity of the PET fiber for the UPR matrix. The ductile fracture of materials reinforced with 5 and 8 phr is confirmed by the fiber deformation and fracture surface roughness.

This study concluded that the PET fiber enhances the properties of composites, a good correlation was observed between the results of the mechanical tests and the structural analysis revealing that for the lower concentrations, the PET fibers are well dispersed into the resin, but entanglements are evidenced when the fiber content increases.

It can be shown from scanning electron microscopy micrographs that the fabrication technique produced composites with good interfacial adhesion between PET fibers and UPR matrix.