This chapter discusses how private military corporations (PMCs) and their employees have been implicated in discourses and practices of sexual violence. I examine how PMCs have…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter discusses how private military corporations (PMCs) and their employees have been implicated in discourses and practices of sexual violence. I examine how PMCs have become seemingly permanent fixtures of international relations since the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, the purpose is to contribute to the ongoing conversations about PMCs and gender. To do this, I examine one instance of sexual violence in the context of PMCs. I argue that, since the legal case was forced into private arbitration, this maneuver reflects critical shifts in the normalizing power of law, away from a model of a social contract toward global neoliberal economics.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing postmodern feminist theory alongside a Foucauldian discourse analysis, I explore the case of one PMC contractor who alleged rape by multiple coworkers in Iraq. I examine the limitations of standpoint feminism in relation to theories and representations of sexual violence.
Social implications
I claim that military outsourcing raises serious concerns for feminists theorizing issues of gender and wartime sexual violence. PMC personnel are unaccountable when they are implicated in cases of sexual violence. Feminist critique is urgent given the various ways PMCs have been implicated in reproducing gender inequality and in sexual violence.
Originality/value
This chapter advances feminist knowledge about wartime sexual violence in a context where PMCs now play a significant role in the reproduction of practices that normalize sexual violence in public and private militarized spaces, both “at home” and “abroad.”
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Matt Hamnett and Alexandra Baker
PwC is currently working with a broad cross‐section of employers in the UK to create a new Higher Apprenticeship for the professional services. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
PwC is currently working with a broad cross‐section of employers in the UK to create a new Higher Apprenticeship for the professional services. The purpose of this paper is to explore the environment and drivers for the creation of the new Higher Apprenticeship framework, the work PwC is leading to develop it and the outlook for Higher Apprenticeships in the professions.
Design/methodology/approach
The information provided in this case study is drawn from the organisation's own work in creating a new Higher Apprenticeship Framework. It expands on research undertaken by PwC.
Findings
Creating a skilled workforce is consistently the number one priority for CEOs worldwide. Whilst graduate recruitment has been the long established route into professions such as accountancy, consulting and law, employers are looking to offer a wider range of different entry routes that enable them to attract and recruit from a broader, more diverse talent pool.
Originality/value
Employers are now playing a more active role in the design and delivery of programmes that will provide them with the pipeline of skilled people they need. The paper highlights how the higher apprenticeship currently in development will respond to these needs and how PwC propose to progress this further.
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Abdelaziz Chazi, Alexandra Theodossiou and Zaher Zantout
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate new robust measures of investors’ preference for the form of regular corporate payout. Then, the paper adds to the empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate new robust measures of investors’ preference for the form of regular corporate payout. Then, the paper adds to the empirical evidence on catering theory by examining managers’ catering to such preference.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the matching method to control for firm characteristics. The authors apply two robustness tests to validate the measures. The authors use the rigorous multivariate analysis.
Findings
US investors’ preference for regular dividends vs regular stock repurchases, being different forms of corporate payout, varies over time. Managers cater to investors’ preference for payout form. The findings are consistent with the catering theory of Baker and Wurgler (2004a). The number of firms that pay cash dividends regularly continue to outnumber the ones that purchase their shares regularly.
Research limitations/implications
The study only uses US data. It does not cover other countries.
Practical implications
The measures can be used in several future research endeavors, such as examining investors’ payout-form preferences in other countries (see Booth and Zhou, 2017) and exploring their determinants, the corporate governance characteristics of firms that cater to investors’ preference vs firms that do not, etc.
Social implications
The study contributes to understanding investors’ preferences and corporate payout behavior which is prerequisite to efficient policy formulation.
Originality/value
The proxies for investors’ payout-form preference control for firm characteristics and are unrelated to investors’ time-varying risk preferences. Also, they are robust to measurement issues. Moreover, the study covers a period of 40 years.
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Alexandra Coso Strong and Dia Sekayi
The purpose of this study is to examine how doctoral students navigate preparing for an academic career, particularly through instructional professional development, in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how doctoral students navigate preparing for an academic career, particularly through instructional professional development, in the context of the entire doctoral program. For doctoral students pursuing an academic position, the dissertation process provides one avenue for developing their skills and identities as independent researchers. Yet, research shows a need to provide support for student’ instructional professional development and to understand how they are shaped into educators and researchers.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study methodology was designed to capture the perceptions and experiences of 21 alumni of an academic career preparation program at a large, public university. In this exploratory, qualitative study, semi-structured interviews and final reports from program coursework were analyzed using a modified analytic induction methodology.
Findings
This study employs elements of self-determination theory and transition theory to interpret doctoral students’ transitions into and through the instructional professional development program under study. The participants sought competence in their teaching by participating in this voluntary and supplemental program. These students exercised autonomy in the pursuit of this professional development and in overcoming challenges to relatedness in the form of non-supportive program structures, including curriculum and faculty.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the graduate education literature on the experiences of doctoral students as they prepare for and transition into their future academic careers.
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Anna Halafoff, Ruth Fitzpatrick and Cristina Rocha
The spread of conspiracy theories and associated vaccine rejection within the wellness industry and spiritual communities during the COVID-19 pandemic attracted significant media…
Abstract
The spread of conspiracy theories and associated vaccine rejection within the wellness industry and spiritual communities during the COVID-19 pandemic attracted significant media and scholarly attention. Informed by the ‘(Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19 in Australia’ project (2020–2021) (Halafoff, Marriott, et al., 2022; Halafoff, Weng, et al., 2022; Roginski & Rocha, 2022), funded by the Templeton Religion Trust and awarded via the International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society (INSBS), this chapter reports on findings pertaining to holistic spirituality, purity doctrines and wellness, arising from a parallel pilot study on ‘Spirituality and Wellness (SWell) in Australia’ (2021). Both studies have revealed a ‘spiritual complexity’ in Australia and internationally, and the authors report on this here, focussed particularly on spirituality’s quest for pristine bodies, and on spiritual ‘moral communities’ (Ganga Kieffer, 2023) exceptionalism and relationality.
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Alexandra K. Abney, Allyn White, Kevin J. Shanahan and William B. Locander
This research investigates new innovative service models that provide opportunities for hearing and deaf individuals to switch roles within a co-created service encounter to allow…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates new innovative service models that provide opportunities for hearing and deaf individuals to switch roles within a co-created service encounter to allow for an enhanced perspective-taking experience. The purpose of this paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of deaf individuals’ experience working within such models using their preferred language, American sign language, to interact with a primarily hearing-majority customer base.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected for two studies through qualitative depth-interviews with both the deaf service employees and the hearing-majority customers from a North American restaurant founded on this innovative service model.
Findings
Results of these studies yield new insights into understanding the value generated for both the minority and majority populations within this co-creation platform. Notably, the deaf employees primarily recognize the transformative value derived from this service experience, whereas the hearing customers note the missing habitual value elements to which they are accustomed in traditional service encounters that inhibit repatronage intentions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to investigate the interpersonal service experience of deaf and hearing individuals within these emerging service models. Further, this research represents an initial attempt to explore a co-creative service experience between two different cultures, the deaf-minority and hearing-majority populations, with differing levels of ability.
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Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
Abstract
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.