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Technological innovations are rapidly transforming service frontlines, resulting in increasingly complex service touchpoints. These touchpoints place greater demands on frontline employees (FLEs) to deliver a positive customer experience. Despite the considerable extant body of knowledge on FLE competencies, the literature on frameworks for managing the complexity of contemporary frontlines from the FLE’s perspective is sparse. This paper aims to fill this critical gap by developing a framework that enables FLEs to deliver positive moments of truth (MOTs) while ensuring the well-being of all actors involved.

This paper uses a conceptual approach rooted in the organizational mindfulness and individual mindfulness literature as the theoretical lens. This is complemented by a comprehensive review of the FLE skills literature supported by marketplace examples to illustrate the optimal use of the said skills.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework of mindfulness orientation which delineates how FLE competencies underpinned by a set of key skills can deliver positive MOTs and actor well-being.

The research is conceptual in nature and does not contain validation through empirical data.

This comprehensive skill set provides a clear roadmap for firms in both recruitment and developing training for their FLEs, thus contributing to practice.

Firstly, we present a conceptual framework of mindfulness, combining organizational mindfulness and individual mindfulness that will enable employees to help facilitate the creation of positive MOTs. Secondly, we develop a comprehensive set of employee skills that underpin the mindfulness orientation framework.

This study explores whether and how archival records can address the social oppression faced by Chinese immigrants through community engagement, with the aim of fostering transformative change within marginalized communities.

Guided by Paulo Freire’s concepts of generative themes and dialogue, this community-based qualitative case study engaged seven participants in a workshop that used archival materials about Chinese immigration history. Participants interacted with three groups of materials and had collective discussions. They reflected on their perceptions of the history and stories documented in the archival materials and further shared insights on the fairness of current immigration systems, as well as potential changes necessary for a more equitable immigration system.

The archival records activated dialogues in which participants expressed disappointment with historical and ongoing exclusion by the government. They critiqued social beliefs such as the expectation that Asians must conform to white normativity to be accepted in the United States. Participants explored the challenges facing the community, reflected on how their experiences resonate with the archival stories and identified the “cyclical oppression” of the Chinese immigrant community. I propose this process as “dialogue-based archives,” which engages marginalized community members in conversations through archival records, fostering mutual respect, active listening, sharing of lived experiences and critical reflection on oppression.

Dialogue-based archives effectively engage marginalized communities. It also constitutes rigorous scholarship, contributing to the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) by challenging the dominant white-elitist and Euro-Anglo-centric discourse within the field and highlighting the value of archival engagement work in addressing the needs of marginalized communities. It also specifically contributes to critical archival studies by providing grassroots insights into collection building and description.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how high school social studies teachers perceive and address controversial topics in politically polarized suburban classrooms. Research indicates that political polarization significantly affects both teachers and students, with suburban communities being some of the most politically divided in the U.S. By examining the experiences of teachers in these suburban settings and their approaches to handling controversial topics, this study aims to shed light on how the political climate influences teaching practices, discussions of controversial issues and teachers' curriculum-related decisions.

This is a qualitative research study. I interviewed six suburban Long Island high school social studies teachers over the 2021–2022 school year. Each teacher was interviewed twice, with interviews ranging from one to two hours. The interviews were semi-structured and asked the teachers about the purposes of teaching social studies, their communities, their experiences teaching controversial political topics, obstacles around teaching controversial political topics and the ways in which their communities received the teaching of controversial political topics. I used thematic analysis to analyze the interviews. Each interview was analyzed inductively and deductively and coded over three iterative cycles.

These “controversial” topics come with both explicit and implicit pressure to avoid discussion and deliberation in the classroom. The first finding in this section centers on explicit and implicit pressure on teachers to avoid controversial topics. The second finding highlights the consequences of that pressure on teacher curricular decision making. The third and fourth findings are focused on participants' responses to explicit and implicit pressures to avoid controversial topics. The third finding articulates on the role of tenure in approaching controversial topics in polarized communities. The final finding defines and explores teacher use of political opaqueness.

This work adds to the existing literature on social studies education by providing an analysis of how controversial topics are understood and enacted in the suburban environment. By adding the specificity of context to my research I examine the ways in which controversial topics are defined part by their environment, and teacher interpretation of that environment. Further, this work adds to the literature on deliberative pedagogies and controversial topics by considering the roles that contemporary local and national politics play in enacting controversial topics, and the consequences on the classroom and teaching.

This paper aims to present a case study of the early “formulation” activities that laid the foundation for the Edinburgh Wellbeing Pact, developed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pact aimed to foster partnership between service providers and citizens to prevent crises, empower individuals to manage their health and independence at home and strengthen the health and social care network in Edinburgh.

The study involved a retrospective review of documentary data, including reports, meeting notes, reflections and strategy documents. The analysis was led by the programme lead, who played a central role in the design and implementation of the Pact.

The formulation phase focused on building the Pact’s foundation through dialogues with citizens, staff, communities and stakeholders. It emphasised the development of the Pact’s vision and the establishment of key partnerships. This process was crucial for ensuring collaboration and guiding the transition from ideas to implementation. It led to the creation of key messages for staff, citizens and community partners. The formulation phase also facilitated the transfer of power and resources to citizens and enabled the creation of new funded initiatives, which introduced new service delivery models and strengthened collaboration between public and third sectors.

This case study contributes to understanding innovation in intersectoral practices, co-creation and co-production as strategies for addressing complex health and social care challenges. It provides insights for others engaged in similar initiatives.

Universities have historically stated academic freedom in research and scholarship as core values. Nevertheless, in the pursuit of funding, many universities grant exceptions in sponsored research agreements that restrict publication rights. Examples include national security limitations (e.g., classified research, controlled-unclassified information), proprietary restrictions (e.g., protection of data or commercializable technology), or reputation protection (entities that do not want research released if it harms their image). In the pursuit of research funding, individual faculty may advocate for acceptance of restrictive contract language, even when it means sacrificing their own academic freedom in publication, sometimes arguing that academic freedom includes the right for faculty to accept restrictions. This chapter examines the tension in universities among satisfying the desires of individual faculty to fund research projects, serving the needs of sponsors, and fulfilling the values of academic freedom. We present historical milestones and compare policies enacted at highly ranked research universities in the United States.

This study uses data from the Chinese banking sector to explore the relationship between green credit and risk-taking in commercial banks. It also examines whether the level of regional green development acts as a moderator regarding this relationship.

Using a dataset composed of annual observations from 57 Chinese commercial banks between 2008 and 2021, this study employs both piecewise and curvilinear models.

Our results indicate that when the scale of green credit is low (<0.164), it increases the risk-taking of commercial banks. Conversely, when the scale of green credit is high (>0.164), it reduces the risk-taking of commercial banks. Moreover, this nonlinear relationship impact exhibits bank heterogeneity. Furthermore, the results show that the level of regional green development and local government policy support negatively moderate the relationship between green credit and commercial bank risk-taking. Furthermore, we find that green credit can directly enhance the net interest margin of commercial banks.

This study is the first to provide evidence of a nonlinear relationship between green credit and risk-taking in commercial banks, and it identifies the significant roles of regional green development level and local government policy support in the Chinese context.

Social media platforms are highly visible platforms, so politicians try to maximize their benefits from their use, especially during election campaigns. On the other side, people express their views and sentiments toward politicians and political issues on social media, thus enabling them to observe their online political behavior. Therefore, this study aims to investigate user reactions on social media during the 2016 US presidential campaign to decide which candidate invoked stronger emotions on social media.

For testing the proposed hypotheses regarding emotional reactions to social media content during the 2016 presidential campaign, regression analysis was used to analyze a data set that consists of Trump’s 996 posts and Clinton’s 1,253 posts on Facebook. The proposed regression models are based on viral (likes, shares, comments) and emotional Facebook reactions (Angry, Haha, Sad, Surprise, Wow) as well as Russell’s valence, arousal, dominance (VAD) circumplex model for valence, arousal and dominance.

The results of regression analysis indicate how Facebook users felt about both presidential candidates. For Clinton’s page, both positive and negative content are equally liked, while Trump’s followers prefer funny and positive emotions. For both candidates, positive and negative content influences the number of comments. Trump’s followers mostly share positive content and the content that makes them angry, while Clinton’s followers share any content that does not make them angry. Based on VAD analysis, less dominant content, with high arousal and more positive emotions, is more liked on Trump’s page, where valence is a significant predictor for commenting and sharing. More positive content is more liked on Clinton’s page, where both positive and negative emotions with low arousal are correlated to commenting and sharing of posts.

Building on an empirical data set from Facebook, this study shows how differently the presidential candidates communicated on social media during the 2016 election campaign. According to the findings, Trump used a hard campaign strategy, while Clinton used a soft strategy.

This study aims to examine the influence of geopolitical risk (GPR) on corporate cash holdings in an emerging market, India. It also investigates whether the effect of GPR on cash holdings varies across financially constrained and unconstrained firms, and across the different sectors.

This study uses the fixed-effect regression model to examine the effect of GPR on the corporate cash holdings of 2090 Indian firms from 2003 to 2021. To correct the potential endogeneity issue and ensure the robustness of the results, this study uses two-stage least squares regression, alternative cash holdings proxies, GPR measures and across the different periods (Global financial crisis and COVID-19).

The paper finds that GPR has a positive impact on the cash holdings of Indian firms. The authors also find that the positive relationship between GPR and cash holdings is consistent for financially constrained and unconstrained firms. Furthermore, the results also show that firms in the construction sector maintain higher cash reserves than other sectors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first-ever studies which examines the effect of GPR on corporate cash holding for an emerging economy like India. The use of alternative measures of cash holding, GPR, and estimation methods make this study more robust.

The ageing and disabled population is fast growing, which emphasises the need to effectively modify current homes and environments to support healthy ageing and increasingly diverse health needs. This paper aims to bring together findings and analyses from three adaptations-focussed projects, drawing on perspectives from key stakeholders alongside the lived experiences of service users acquiring adaptations.

Following an Adaptations Framework developed from interviews and focus groups with older people and key stakeholders, the paper discusses barriers experienced by older people and front-line workers in receiving and delivering adaptations through all stages of the process.

This paper reveals how experiences around adaptations might diverge with unseen, hidden investment and need amongst individuals, and how conceptual and cost-focussed evidence gaps impact wider understandings of adaptations delivery. In so doing, this paper highlights how the adaptations process is perceived as a “fight” that does not work smoothly for either those delivering or receiving adaptations services.

The paper suggests a systematic failure such that the adaptations process needs to be rehauled, reset and prioritised within social and public policy if the housing, health and social care sectors are to support healthy ageing and prepare for the future ageing population.

The paper brings together insights from key stakeholders alongside service users' experiences of adaptations to highlight key policy drivers and barriers to accessing and delivering adaptations.