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The purpose of this paper is to examine how servant leadership and political skill combine to impact workplace spirituality and employee creativity.

Participants were working adults recruited by graduate and undergraduate students from a US public regional comprehensive university. Data were collected across three time periods, with a final sample size of 280 participants.

The authors’ findings suggest that servant leaders impact employee creativity by fostering an environment that promotes workplace spirituality. Furthermore, this relationship is strengthened to the extent that the servant leader possesses high levels of political skill.

This study provides a foundation for the interplay between servant leadership and political skill. Therefore, the data collection procedures undertaken in this study (i.e. from sources in multiple organizations) are beneficial. A limitation to this study is the use of a single informant to measure all of the constructs, which may cause a bias in the results.

This study provides a foundation for the interplay between servant leadership and political skill. Therefore, the data collection procedures undertaken in this study (i.e. from sources in multiple organizations) are beneficial.

Although servant leadership research continues to receive increased attention in the extant literature, researchers have tended to focus on the relational aspects of servant leadership. Curiously, the “leader” side of servant leadership has been largely neglected. As a result, some have questioned the construct as a viable leadership model. Greenleaf (1977), however, noted that servant leaders also possess conceptual skills; yet, these skills are rarely included in servant leadership measurements or empirical studies. The authors argue that political skill captures the essence of these abilities, and that including it strengthens the servant leader’s impact on workplace spirituality, ultimately influencing employee creativity.

A growing interdisciplinary literature explores how people can simultaneously hold strong convictions and remain open to the possibility of learning from others with whom they disagree. This tension impacts not only knowledge development but also public discourse within a diverse and disagreeing democracy. This volume of Political Power and Social Theory considers the specific question of how religious convictions inform how people engage in democratic life, particularly across deep political divides. In this introduction, I begin by discussing how a narrow vision of religious citizens as dogmatic believers has led observers to frame religion as a concerning source of democratic distortion – encouraging too much arrogance and not enough humility. Yet this dogmatic believer narrative captures only one aspect of American religion. Juxtaposing a snapshot of dogmatic believers alongside two other snapshots of religious groups engaging in political life raises complex questions about the relationship between religious conviction, humility, and democracy in a time of deep political polarization. I argue that answering these questions requires a sociological approach that is attuned to power, context, culture, institutions, and history. At the same time, I show how attention to the tension between conviction and humility has the potential to enrich the sociological study of religion and democracy, and particularly ethnographic research across the moral/political divide.

To provide a primer on the major project management protocols and examples of how these protocols have been used to manage library projects.

The chapter presents a broad review of the literature on project management in general, and as it has been applied in library settings, including brief histories of each major methodology, its development, component elements, and examples of its use in libraries.

Many of the major project management protocols, such as Six Sigma, Agile, Lean, Scrum, and Waterfall, have been used successfully in library settings across a broad range of areas and project types.

As libraries continue to innovate and expand their services, the management of complex projects and processes has become commonplace. This chapter will serve as a primer on the major project management protocols, highlighting the ways in which they can be used in libraries, and to which types of library projects they have been successfully applied.

Our purpose is to examine the outcomes of using video as a reflection tool in peer-to-peer coaching with rural teachers as part of a literacy coaching professional development project.

This qualitative case study presents findings from a professional development project serving rural educators interested in becoming literacy coaches. Using a peer coaching model, literacy coaching participants video recorded two literacy coaching cycles capturing pre-conferencing, lesson modeling, and post-conferencing. Reflection was facilitated through face-to-face discussion and online technologies (discussion forums and e-mail).

Face-to-face sessions were integral in fostering participant reflection. Technology challenges impacted the extent to which participants engaged in and valued video as a reflection tool. Participants repurposed video reflection for self-identified professional and pedagogical purposes.

Video reflection can be used as a part of multimodal set of tools to collaborate with teachers. Face-to-face interaction is important in supporting rural teachers’ use of video reflection. Teacher educators generally need more on-site authentic involvement to gain emic perspectives when working with the rural sites in order for the video tasks to be more effective and meaningful for the teachers. Repurposing video reflection can be an expression of agency in meeting teacher needs.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the development of research in international retailing over the last 20 years and propose a future research agenda within a conceptual framework.

The paper reviews the development of the retail internationalisation literature.

Explains how different research topics have emerged over the years and how researchers have responded methodologically to the different research challenges encountered.

The paper emphasises the importance of journals such as the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management in the development of the international retailing research domain and discusses the challenge researchers currently have in developing the subject area.

Explores current understanding of the internationalisation process and through the consideration of different activities and processes within the international retail firm proposes a future research agenda.

The paper addresses the achievements of researchers in the area of international retailing over the last 20 years and, within a conceptual framework, explores those lacunae in the knowledge base that require further research.

In the light of recent changes in the international environment, the purpose of this paper is to consider whether the drivers of, and impediments to, retail internationalisation and the business strategy adopted have also changed.

Interviews were conducted with 12 UK and US retailers. These exploratory data were combined with a review of the literature to explore changes in the drivers and impediments of retail internationalisation.

Findings of this study suggest that, while a variety of factors drive retail internationalisation, profit growth is the most dominant motivator. In terms of impediments to foreign expansion, domestic market conditions were a barrier to the initiation of foreign expansion, whilst the regulatory environment and previous experiences presented obstacles in the process of internationalisation. Interviewees also expressed a desire for increased standardisation, while acknowledging the need for a substantial degree of adaptation in response to cultural differences.

The research findings are limited in terms of their generalisability.

Much of the existing research into retail internationalisation was conducted in the 1990s. Given the substantial changes that have occurred over the past 15 years, the value of this paper lies in the updating of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to challenge earlier recommendations and explanations regarding companies’ behaviour after an economic shock and analyses worldwide retail companies’ internationalization processes before and after the 2008 crisis.

Drawing on information published between 2003 and 2012, the authors focus on the 2008 crisis and analyse 1,500 different internationalization moves by 109 companies from 26 countries.

The analyses confirm that the pace of retail internationalization increased after the 2008 crisis, that these companies had mainly moved into countries with newly developing economies, and that the entry modes ranged from high-cost entry modes and low-cost strategies.

This paper provides an initial indication of retailers’ actual internationalization behaviour in the period considered. Such material has not been available previously as international retailing research has primarily focused on theoretical assumptions. By focusing on the current financial crisis, the authors highlight the problem that researchers investigating various company behaviours face when comparing these to the theoretical expectations. By using a worldwide, multisectorial, and longitudinal retailing sample to illustrate the internationalization process, the authors not only generalize companies’ internationalization behaviour, but also challenge earlier recommendations and explanations regarding their behaviour after an economic shock.

To explore the factors crucial to international fashion retailer success and evaluate how internationalisation could be controlled efficiently by a firm.

The study adopts a qualitative approach in the form of case studies of two international fashion retailers. This involved structured interviews with management to explore their knowledge and experiences supported by secondary research such as company and media reports.

Defines the critical success factors especially contingent to their businesses, emphasising the importance of brand management, product development and differentiation to international fashion retailers.

An exploratory study which model needs testing using quantitative methods.

Understanding of how fashion retailers successfully internationalise will increase company efficiency.

Considers the development of international retail thought and the need for an integrated conceptual approach to the process of retail internationalisation. The paper considers the development of international retail thought within the context of international retail activity and subject development and suggests the intellectual influences on the development of retail thought have, at times, constrained the development of a better understanding of the internationalisation process. Having established the parameters of debate, the paper considers the search for a synthesised approach to the understanding of the internationalisation process and integration of retail international theory within broader economic and international business frameworks. In the context of this theoretical material, the paper presents a framework within which international activity may be considered.

The internationalisation of large multinational retailers is well documented and much research attention has been given to their motives and strategies for expansion. Yet, no research in this field has specifically addressed the internationalisation of small‐ to medium‐sized companies (SMEs) operating in the retail industry. The theoretical insights from the literature revealed important gaps in extant research, which relate to the barriers, stimulants, drivers, facilitators, process, and market entry strategy of retail SME internationalisation.

This paper aims to fill these gaps. Since the intention of this study was not to describe, but rather to build theory from an unexplored area of research, an in‐depth case approach was deemed most appropriate. Therefore, the paper presents the findings from a number of case studies of SME retail internationalisation operating from the UK.

Key findings from this study not only confirm that smaller British retailers have both the potential and capability to enter international markets successfully, but provides initial insights into how they overcome the constraints of size and establish an international market strategy. The findings from this study also offer insights into the SME sector of the retail industry in the UK in terms of their experience and adoption of government exporting programmes, and details the main implications for managers of small international firms.

Although knowledge on SME retailer internationalisation, as it stands, is at a very early stage of development, this analysis of actual company activity in the UK retail industry provides important insights into a neglected area of international retail study and should help to develop the body of knowledge on SME internationalisation in general.