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Among emerging countries' foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe, the Chinese and the Indian ones are the more relevant. Therefore, the paper focuses on Chinese and Indian affiliates in Europe, with a twofold purpose: to shed light on their characteristics and behaviour and to analyse some policy issues in the EU stemming from their arrival to Europe.

First, the paper presents a review of the literature; second, it performs a qualitative analysis on the basis of a proprietary dataset. It then pinpoints the salient features of the Chinese and the Indian firms across Europe. Lastly, it focuses on the impacts of their operations on the European economies, and it concludes by a discussion on policy matters.

Four main results stand out. First, the arrival of Chinese and Indian firms in Europe is linked to home country constraints. Second, large European countries are the most favoured destinations. Third, market access is the main attraction factor for Chinese and Indian firms coming to Europe. Fourth, the sectoral distribution of investments by Chinese and Indian companies reflects for a large part the comparative advantage of their home country.

By taking into consideration data at a micro level, the paper gives a deeper view on FDI beyond the current ideas on the subject. It provides valuable insights on the behaviour of Chinese and Indian investors in Europe at a micro‐level. Furthermore, it explores a sensitive issue which is connected to the impacts on the European economies.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for analyzing home and host country determinants and outcomes of emerging multinationals (EMNCs).

The paper applies a conceptual approach combined with analyses of statistics and secondary material.

The paper identifies changing trends and features of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from emerging economies and identifies in particular differences between outflows from Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC).

The paper puts forward a framework for analyzing determinants and outcomes of structures and strategies of multinational companies from emerging economies and surveys contemporary trends and features of outward FDI from these economies.

Despite significant anti-discrimination laws in most countries, gender pay gap still remains a substantial concern. The notion of comparable worth has been promoted for several years by the ILO and a few countries to fight against relatively lower female salaries. The purpose of this paper is to review the rationales for comparable worth and explain how gender biases, generally involved in traditional job evaluation, can be prevented.

To do this, after reviewing the motives, logics and three major applications of comparable worth logics in pay equity policies, the authors expose an analysis of a French sectorial job classification that the authors carried out as experts for establishing a French Equality Ombudsman’s guide.

The findings show how the redundancy and definition of job evaluation criteria, along with the weighting system, contributes to undervaluation of clerks jobs, predominantly held by women. The authors also highlight the main recommendations of the guide to prevent gender bias in job evaluation, that are derived from this case study, among others. The authors conclude on the difficulties of implementing comparable worth in France, in a period of long lasting economic crisis and of weak union power.

The paper is based on a single case study, conducted for policy actors. It was not conducted at first for academic research purposes, and may thus have some methodological limitations. The implications of the research are, however, important at academic level – highlighting the persistence of gender bias – and at policy level, as it provides recommendations for negotiators.

The guide originally aimed at giving guidelines and “good practices” in order to prevent gender discrimination in job evaluation.

The paper draws attention to the importance and difficulty of undergoing such classification changes in times of economic crisis. Stronger legal action seems necessary.

This experience is the first of its kind – promoted by the Ombudsman – in France. It has never been related in an academic journal as far as the authors know.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the conceptual approaches to competence and practice in competence management in France.

Extensive literature review, discussion with academic experts in the French competence network of AGRH and interviews concerning developments following the 2003 national agreement with officials of the major trade unions and employers' associations.

The conceptual approach to competence is formally comprehensive and incorporates key dimensions of the other dominant competence models. Extensive academic debate on competence does not appear to be mirrored in practice within establishments. Nevertheless, competence management has been given a major stimulus by recent legislation designed to promote lifelong learning and competence is at the centre of the reform of the training and qualifications systems.

It is still too early to assess the extent of adoption of competence management overall in the economy but there is increasing evidence that the techniques are becoming diffused throughout the economy from leading edge cases, often larger enterprises, to smaller firms and establishments.

This paper provides valuable information for practitioners engaging with organisations in France.

This paper gives a summary of the state of the art of competence management in France.

The purpose of this article is to explore diversity in competence models across Europe and consider the extent to which there is sufficient common ground for a common European approach to underpin the European Qualifications Framework.

The paper uses a literature review and interviews with policy makers.

Despite the central role of competence in policy initiatives, conceptual approaches to competence vary not only between but also within different member states. This diversity embodies not only language issues but also fundamental cultural differences in approaches to skill formation. Whether the models have sufficient common ground to permit a “best‐fit” European‐wide approach is open to question, although this is clearly an essential prerequisite for removing barriers to labour mobility. Despite initiatives like the European Qualifications Framework there is still no consensus for adopting a common competence model and policy discussions continue to reveal confusion.

The focus on policy discussions at the European level may be a limitation, and readers should see this as the introductory scene setting to more detailed discussions in the following papers of important developments within member states. Beyond this, much is happening at the level of sectors and occupations that is the focus for practical implementation.

The paper highlights the urgent need to develop a coherent conceptual underpinning for competence descriptors in qualifications frameworks that will work as a best‐fit approach across Europe. Without this, occupational and inter‐sector mobility will be hindered.

The paper offers the most comprehensive assessment of European approaches to competence to date.

This viewpoint paper is based on consultancy project in developing strategic marketing plan for building a professional recording studio in Bandung, Indonesia. Nonetheless, previous studies that scrutinize the key success factors in music recording studio industry are noticeably lacking, whereas music artists still rely heavily on recording studio providers to record their music and distribute it to the market. Hence, finding out the critical success factors (CSF) can help recording studio to craft strategic marketing plan within effective and efficient budget. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Methods carried out in this study are based on triangulation which comprises of primary observation, interviews to experts in the respective field, and literature reviews regarding CSF, service quality and service excellence. Five years of primary observations took place in five studios on two major cities in Indonesia which are Bandung and Jakarta of which many prominent musicians were originated. The interviews were conducted to six respondents who have more than ten years of experience in music industry, and have produced at least two albums through professional music recording processes in music studios including recording, mixing, and mastering.

It is found that by exploiting the conceptual theories of service quality and service excellence as the foundations, there are primarily three critical factors in music recording studio industry in Indonesia which are human resources development in primarily technical aspects, communication skills, and servicescapes which involve the recording facilities and also the studio surroundings.

This study only took samples from five studios, two major cities in Indonesia and limited experts opinion. Nevertheless, confirmatory study is expected in the future in order to gain deeper insights or other additional point of view in determining CSF in the recording studio industry. This paper, however, has contributed to the existing literature of service quality, service excellence, and CSF in a narrow scope of industry which is music recording studio.

Managers who wish to start a recording studio business must look deeply into these three critical factors to address the budget effectively and efficiently in initial investment of the studio. Through this study it can be observed that music studio as a service firm can still focus on creating critical values to strive even though the music industry landscape has been deteriorated due to piracy and the development of technology. It is expected that through this study, by understanding the CSF, managers in music recording studio can focus on creating value effectively and efficiently in recording studio business.

This study contributes to fill the gap of empirical discussion in determining CSF in the music recording studio business in Indonesia in the context of service quality and service excellence, which has not been examined by previous scholars.

My early life was punctuated by turning points and transformations that gradually led to a surprising and late-blooming academic career – my first “real” sociology position began when I was 44. Here I trace six different trajectories of scholarly work which have compelled me: feminist women's health and technoscience studies; social worlds/arenas and the disciplinary emergence of reproductive sciences; the sociology of work and scientific practices; biomedicalization studies; grounded theory and situational analysis as qualitative research methods; and symbolic interaction-ists and -isms. I have circled back across them multiple times. Instead of seeing a beautifully folded origami of a life, it feels more like a crumpled wad of newspapers from various times. Upon opening and holding them up to the light in different ways, stories may be slowly discerned. I try to capture here some of the sweetness and fragility of these moments toward the end of an initially stuttering but later wondrously gratifying career.

This Guest Editorial provides contextual insight to the contributions in this special issue that addresses entrepreneurship and economic growth challenge confronting Africa. Although the contributors come from various academic disciplines and adopt different perspectives, they are united in their singularity of focus on entrepreneurship as a pathway for African future. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The papers in this special issue adopt different methodological approaches that help to provide a composite insight to the multidimensional entrepreneurial challenges facing Africa. They review published materials from the government sources and international agencies. They draw heavily on the literature in the field of entrepreneurship.

African countries have made significant progress in stimulating economic growth in recent years. However, they still have a long way to go in terms of institutionalizing entrepreneurial paradigm to foster self-regenerating development. Africa needs to do more by leveraging public policy for entrepreneurial development as a pathway for expanding economic opportunities and alleviating poverty. A policy framework designed to anchor entrepreneurial culture in the economy is a key to African economic renaissance in the twenty-first century.

The originality and value of the papers in this issue hinge critically on the all too often ignored proposition that African countries need to embrace a proven approach to development that is both broad based and citizen driven. Entrepreneurial paradigm will empower citizens to take not only full responsibility, but more importantly inalienable ownership, of the development process. This is the only way to ensure that the ongoing much celebrated growth in Africa is sustainable.

This study aims to adopt a mixed-methods approach (accounting and business data) to analyse the effects of the financial institution’s governance on both the knowledge of social responsibility and the consumer’s attitudes and behaviours, and testing the moderating role of the brand identification in the banking sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this concept has been neglected in previous studies.

Data were collected from a sample of 600 respondents in two major Tunisian cities. Participants were selected on the basis of a convenience sampling in which the structural equation modelling method was adopted through SMART PLS 3.0 software.

The results showed that good corporate governance has a positive influence on the knowledge of the company's social responsibility, which positively influences its brand image. Therefore, the company's brand image positively influences the customer’s satisfaction, which positively influences the recommending behaviour of the financial institutions in the COVID-19 era. However, the brand identification has no moderating effect.

Managers of financial institutions are advised to pay particular attention to good corporate governance, as it is mandatory for these companies to assume social responsibility and make it known to clients. Therefore, it is obvious to create a good image in the mind of the consumers to satisfy them to recommend the company in question. It is interesting to mobilise the period of health crisis (COVID-19) to create a favourable attitude among the customers because they are sensitive when evaluating and ranking financial institutions according to the relationships that exist especially during this period.

In fact, there are many studies that dealt with the banking sector. Some of them dealt with the sector through the institutional accounting section while others dealt with the sector through the commercial and marketing section. Therefore, the first contribution of this research is to test a mixed model made up of accounting and commercial data. This model is among the first to determine the effects of the financial institution's governance on the knowledge of social responsibility and on the consumer’s attitude and behaviour to test the moderating role of brand identification in the banking sector. The second contribution is to test this model in a period of health crisis (COVID-19). The third contribution is the use of a mixed sample of data collected from two regions. Then, the fourth contribution is the addition of tests for the verification, robustness and validation of the results obtained. Finally, the fifth contribution is the addition of control variables to test their effects on the research model.