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In an environment in which information technology has become a critical link between and among suppliers and customers, organizations were recently threatened by potential systems failures that could have erased the gains of the past decade. Although experts predicted that Y2K could lead to devastating results, those dire predictions turned out to be false. However, we suggest that a careful analysis of IS decision making during the Y2K crisis can provide insights into how and why IS managers make decisions. We argue that two schools of organizational theory provide cogent perspectives on this problem. In particular, the literatures of organizational ecology and institutional theory explain not only the difficulties firms had in recognizing and reacting to the Year 2000 problem, but also the pressures placed on them by constituents aware of this phenomenon. Such conclusions underscore the value of multiple theory bases in exploring what appear to be unprecedented managerial challenges brought on by the changing role of IT.

Public–private partnership (PPP) has been adopted in many areas especially within the architecture, engineering and construction research domain. However, the PPP in critical infrastructure resilience (CIR) has not received the needed attention even though it has been acclaimed to be the panacea for building infrastructure resilience. This paper aims to adopt a systematic review to proactively identify the risks factors that pertains to using PPP as a mechanism to build the resilience of critical infrastructure.

Using a systematic methodology, a total record of 51 academic publications and 5 institutional reports from reputable organizations were identified and analyzed.

The selected literature was subjected to content analysis to retrieve 46 risk factors in PPP in CIR. The outcome of the systematic revealed the topmost risks as corruption, natural and unavoidable catastrophes, wars, terrorism, sabotage, cost overrun issues, a lack of centralized mechanism for coordinating integrated actions, inconsistent government policies, inadequate supervision, high operational cost due to robust and redundant measure, lack of supporting infrastructure, lack of open and integrated communication, unstable government, political interference, lack of PPP experience and legislation change. A conceptual framework was developed by grouping the identified risks under 13 categories.

The outcome of this study will be a guide for decision makers and stakeholders with the responsibility of building the resilience of critical infrastructure.

The study contributes to CIR research area by providing an in-depth knowledge on risks that are inherent in PPP in CIR.

The purpose of this paper is to explore an innovative teaching design to teach accounting management that aims to foster students’ technical and soft skills. The effectiveness of this new teaching design addresses current concerns for universities preparing students for the future.

The paper deploys the qualitative research methodology and applies multiple methods to gather data in a case study. The researchers collected data through pre- and post-surveys of individual students, three half-day observations on the five project teams and a one-hour long semi-structured interview with a focus group.

Five themes emerged in the research to support the effectiveness of the new teaching design. The study also showed that students’ abilities in self-directed learning (SDL) link to their learning experiences. When students were more capable of initiating learning, such ability enriched their practices of soft skills in the team setting.

This one-shot study had a small group of homogeneous participants and had no baseline comparison to identify the increment of students’ soft skills.

The findings provide valuable insights into the course design and implementation of the teaching approach for the future. The paper suggests that fostering students’ SDL will increase the effectiveness of soft skills development.

This empirical research extends current knowledge of teaching soft skills and calls for action on the development of students’ SDL abilities.