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The purpose of this article is to report on a university’s internally funded research that was set up to examine the success of assessing learning within inclusion strategies across business studies courses. It also presents the responses that were needed and highlighted as a result of the disruption to students’ learning by the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Within the social mobility model of disability, people are disabled by the barriers they face, not their impairment. A multi-method, qualitative approach was undertaken, with our discussion framed from within a reflective critical, conceptualised and sociological perspective.

While the findings revealed how the researched university had made considerable progress in many aspects of its inclusion strategies, the research also revealed some further barriers to inclusion. Some of the barriers were shown to be “cracks in the digital curriculum” that affected not just disabled but all students, whereby students were unintentionally excluded. In this article, we report on how the university had responded to students’ requests, and through a series of small steps, we discuss the positive impact of these actions. Although the changes instigated did help to improve inclusion, the small steps taken also highlighted the need for much more work to be undertaken on the journey to a fully inclusive university. The recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced and/or accelerated the implementation of digital learning. This, in turn, instigated a rise in the awareness of mental illness and the effects of social isolation, which is now much higher than pre-COVID-19.

The main limitation of the study was that the sample was small; however, the in-depth qualitative approach showed how the issues that had been problematic had been resolved and illuminated the further areas for future research.

The research reported here presents the practical steps that were taken in response to the students’ inclusion requests. The students’ requests were addressed, where practical and/or possible, for students to have assessment choice, further support from the well-being team and a further strengthening of local partnerships with the National Health Service and local charities.

The research supports inclusion initiatives in higher education and society.

This study strengthens and/or builds upon the existing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the teaching and learning of all students, and specifically those with invisible disabilities, by presenting the small steps in changes to the curriculum that can improve inclusion practices.

This paper aims to reconsider the role of universities in the context of the grand challenges of the Anthropocene era, namely, climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystems collapse, growing inequalities, welfare deficiencies and social unrest.

The paper uses the “idealized design” methodology, which suggests imagining what the ideal solution would be and then working backward to where the authors are today. In line with this methodology, the paper redefines the idea of the university in the context of the Anthropocene and analyzes the shortcomings of today’s universities. Then, it proposes a solution framework for transforming universities to become planet-positive institutions and discusses the internal and external barriers of this transformation.

This study advances a view of the university as an autonomous learning community and redefines its functions as follows: to generate an universal orientation across disciplines and cultures, to assist the whole person development of its members, to create a new holistic understanding of planetary challenges, including transdisciplinary codesigned, stakeholder engaged and solutions-oriented research, to bring forth responsible practitioners, to enhance the problem-solving capabilities of society and to catalyze progressive changes in human–Earth systems.

The paper presents examples of transformative university initiatives from the USA, Europe and India. It discusses the required changes in university actions, research and policy to cope with the new reality of the Anthropocene era.

This paper aims to consider the proliferation of journalistic articles that declare English Language Arts’ death –Heller’s, 2023 The New Yorker piece “The End of the English Major” as a most recent iteration. It puts recent mainstream publications in conversation, reading them as a genre of elegies that, while largely discussing English at the university level, contribute to a pessimistic milieu around the discipline of English Language Arts (ELA) and its teaching. This paper aims to trouble the common defenses against such “death sentences” to engage this cultural conversation from the field of English teaching to imagine a new conversation.

The paper foregrounds articles from major mainstream news outlets, ranging from 2009 to 2023, as data to take seriously how popular opinions of English, as a subject and a discipline, shape the field of ELA and its teaching. Six articles resulted from the search and were subsequently coded for thematic categories as they emerged.

The essay describes and discusses three major resonances that arose among each of the four texts: financial concerns, STEM and statistics as growing disciplines, and the notion that studying English is superfluous and/or “White.” Considerations of common refutations to the aforementioned resonances and potential positioning for ways forward conclude the essay, working to imagine a new conversation.

This paper engages a conversation affecting many English literacy practitioners, through shifting attitudes and public discourse, that is currently under-discussed in the field more broadly.

The purpose of this study is to explore the shifting power dynamics within an inter-organizational relationship (IOR) over time through an institutional theory lens. Specifically, this manuscript explores power by acknowledging its relationality, temporality and typology through a case study focusing on an international collegiate ice hockey tournament. This study seeks to demonstrate the complexity of power as a multi-dimensional, relational, and temporal concept that can ebb and flow given actors’ positionality.

This study uses a chronological case study that is an appropriate in-depth qualitative framework to explore the how and why of a particular phenomenon. Yin (2018) describes a case study as “investigat[ing] a contemporary phenomenon (the ‘case’) in depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident” (p. 45). Specifically, I used a chronological case study method as it provides the ability to document the chronology of events to determine important factors shaping the phenomenon (Yin, 2018). This includes collecting various types of data (organizational documents, news articles, interviews and observations) to create a robust understanding of a bounded chronological case over time.

Examining power dynamics is important as “power or its absence influences the mechanisms available to partners for initiating, challenging, and/or enforcing institutional change” (Gray et al., 2022, p. 3). This paper demonstrates the complexity of power as a multi-dimensional, relational and temporal concept that can ebb and flow given actors’ positionality. Further, the paper provides a case study showing how power asymmetries in an IOR can shift over time.

This study provides a case study on an IOR wherein multiple international organizations collaborated to create an ice hockey tournament. Through the case study, I demonstrate how different partners navigate power imbalances and changes over time.

This study provides a textbook case study of a successful IOR. Entrepreneurial actors capitalized on a catalyst event to leverage a boundary-spanning document and their professional networks to form a new identity and shared vision through the formation of the tournament. Further, this study provides insight into how an organization in an IOR can work to balance asymmetrical power relations.

As organizations seek to engage in collaborations, leveraging power through their contextuality can help create more equitable arrangements over time. Even when organizations may truly be at a disadvantage when entering an IOR, such as a local indigenous community partnering with an international corporation or non-profit, the status of particular locals or local organizations can be powerful in balancing an imbalanced relationship.

While a wealth of research documents the relational dynamics of IORs, there remains a significant gap in our understanding pertaining to the dynamics of power asymmetries in IOR partnerships. Existing research primarily focuses on the antecedents leading to sport organizations engaging in IORs and the various processes organizational leaders can employ to ensure an IOR’s success. However, several scholars acknowledge a profound gap in our understanding of how partners experiencing a power deficit in an IOR partnership work to balance power asymmetries.

This study aims to improve the market competitiveness of iron and steel manufacturers in developing countries by reducing their production costs.

The research methodology relies on a case study-based approach. The study relies on six steps. The first is the preparation, then the five steps of the six-sigma – define, measure, analyze, improve, control. The qualitative and quantitative data were considered. The qualitative analysis relies on the experts’ judgment of internal status. The quantitative analysis uses the job floor data from three iron and steel manufacturers. After collecting, screening and analyzing the data, the root causes of the different wastes were identified that increase production costs. Consequently, lean manufacturing principles and tools are identified and prioritized using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method, and then implemented to reduce the different types of waste.

The main wastes are related to inventory, time, quality and workforce. The lean tools were proposed with the implementation plan for the discovered root causes. The performance was monitored during and after the implementation of the lean initiatives in one of the three companies. The obtained results showed an increase in some performance indicators such as throughput (70.6%), revenue from by-products (459%), inventory turnover (54%), operation availability (45%), and plant availability (41%). On the other hand, results showed a decrease of time delay (78%), man-hour/ton (52.4%) and downgraded products (63.3%).

The current case study findings can be utilized by Iron and Steel factories at the developing countries. In addition, the proposed lean implementation methodology can be adopted for any other industries.

The current work introduces an original and practical road map to implement the lean six-sigma body of knowledge in the iron and steel manufacturers.

This work introduces an effective and practical case study-based approach to implementing the lean six-sigma body of knowledge in the iron and steel manufacturers in one of the underdevelopment countries. The consideration of the opinion of the different engineers from different sectors shows significant identification of the major problems in the manufacturing and utility sectors that lead to significant performance improvement after solving them.

This study aims to clarify the transformative impact of digital advancements on shopping center operations and to critically analyze the current operation and performance of these technologies. By integrating these two perspectives, the research seeks to provide a detailed insight into both potential and the real-time efficacy of smart technologies, thereby guiding future investment and development decisions in this sector.

Grounded in the innovation diffusion theory, this study formulates research questions aimed at investigating the operation and performance of smart facilities management (FM) tools from the viewpoint of FM professionals. Employing a participatory approach, the research utilized in-depth interviews to classify smart FM tools into four distinct categories. Additionally, eight focus group discussions were conducted to identify, refine and rank Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specific to each tool category, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation framework.

Based on expert interviews, four categories of smart FM tools have been developed: user-centric, maintenance, hygiene and safety, and sustainability oriented. Additionally, specific KPIs for evaluating various aspects of smart FM tools are outlined. Focus group discussions further clarify the KPI rankings across these four categories, emphasizing the complexity involved in evaluating smart FM tools.

This study provides a significant contribution to comprehending innovation diffusion within shopping centers and introduces an innovative methodology for evaluating the performance of smart FM tools.

In this era of technological advancement, the capabilities of devices and telecommunications have changed the pattern of media consumption among consumers. This study examined the research landscape and advancements in OTT services.

This study adopted a hybrid review consisting of bibliometric and thematic analyses to present advancements in the OTT platforms. A hybrid review integrates both systematic and narrative approaches by emphasizing a literature search strategy and the study selection process.

This study focuses on previous literature to understand recent developments in the domain. The authors derive six major OTT themes: OTT infrastructure and technology advancement, OTT consumption behaviour, shifting trends towards OTT platforms, viewers’ engagement in digital media, OTT in the global market, OTT policies and regulatory mechanisms.

The findings of this study will be useful for marketers/stakeholders associated with the entertainment and media industries, such as sales promotion teams, media planners/advertisers, content management companies and policy regulators, to penetrate OTT viewers.

The literature related to OTT is progressively rising, but it remains highly fragmented because of inconsistencies in the methodologies and theories used in the domain of OTT. This study offers directions in terms of theory, methodology and future research on OTT services.

The core notion of this study is to examine the change in tariffs impacts of Pakistan Sri Lanka Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) on the micro-level financial factors like profits, debt ratios and dividend payments.

The investigation has been conducted by using regression analysis. The data of 157 listed non-financial local and international firms are collected from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE).

The results depicted that because of modification in tariffs, various firms are facing trade contest experience, a decline in profitability, surge in debt ratios as well as reduction in dividend payments. However, several firms improve their productivity by importing contemporary technology and other firms, which surge their exports leading to enhanced profitability, reduced debt ratios and surge in dividend disbursement.

To the best of my knowledge, this study is unique in a sense that it identifies the potential exports sectors of Pakistan and helps the decision-makers to develop the trade agreements with other South Asian economies. Moreover, the financial managers are able to create a financial policy for the multinational company to compete in South Asia.