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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature of family firms and corporate social responsibility (CSR), examining the case of West’n Fresh, a regional Western Australian family firm. Moreover, in adopting stakeholder theory (ST) the firm’s involvement in and resulting benefits from CSR are investigated.

In-depth telephone and face-to-face interviews with three members of the firm, including one of its two owners, were further complemented through onsite observations and secondary data from the firm’s website and media reports.

Entrepreneurial CSR emerges as a critical element in the family firm’s business philosophy, whereby through innovative practices the ownership is able to create a balance between the firm’s financial objectives and socially responsible initiatives. In particular, the development of food products creates business opportunities while at the same time addresses the needs of different consumer groups, in particular, aged care individuals. These findings have alignments with the four theses of ST; for instance, the recognition of various stakeholder groups by the firm’s ownership, and the initiatives to improve their quality of life clearly suggest associations with normative thesis.

Although the field of family entrepreneurship has grown significantly, many under-researched aspects of this discipline remain. For instance, family business research, including on CSR conducted in Western Australia, a state with a very strong economic significance, and with multiple links to the outside world is very limited.

The purpose of this study is to examine organisational learning (OL) among firms involved in global-trade relationships. The study adopts the stakeholder theory (ST) and the knowledge-based theory (KBT) of the firm to illuminate the research and facilitate the understanding of the areas under investigation. The study, therefore, makes contributions to the extant international business and strategy literature, both in new empirical evidence and in theoretical refinement.

In-depth, unstructured, face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with owners/co-owners of nine Western Australian firms operating internationally.

Collectively, participants perceive improvements in trade relationships through increased understanding and knowledge. Importantly, OL is significantly affected by systematic and dramatic/strategic quantum change. Alignments with ST and KBT emerged, emphasising the usefulness of these frameworks to understand owners/co-owners’ best-practice stakeholder management. Furthermore, the study proposes a refinement of these frameworks to facilitate understanding of the participating firms’ OL-related strategies.

While there is a rich body of literature on OL, various knowledge gaps have been identified in contemporary research. The study provides value by contributing to new knowledge in these areas and by proposing a refinement of the used theoretical frameworks in explaining OL among Western Australian global firms. In addition, despite Western Australia’s geographic proximity to various overseas consumer markets, very few empirical studies have examined the above areas in the context of this state’s firms. By focusing on Western Australian firms, the study also provides an element of originality.

This study aims to examine the human resources (HR) knowledge and cross-cultural and interpersonal skills needed by HR managers/directors to administer the integrated resort and hotel (IR&H) organizational talent.

This paper uses a qualitative method in the form of extensive interviews.

The labor-intensive nature of the IR&Hs have forced these organizations to be innovative in terms of retaining their top talents and to look overseas for foreign workers to ensure smooth operations.

The research is limited to two Asian geographies and the high regulatory nature of the industry correspondingly limits the number of HR executives in operation within IR&Hs.

This paper provides insights for current and future Asian-based IR&Hs policy planners and HR managers.

The paper provides an understanding of national and organizational skills shortages and their impact upon work and workers.

No previous comparative research in relation to Singapore and Macau has been conducted.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the extant body of the entrepreneurship and business management literature, investigating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its implications for firms’ competitiveness. The cases of four different firms are examined through the lens of the resource-based view of the firm and role theory.

Face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with the owners and managers of four model firms identified in Western Australia.

While financial outcomes clearly stand out as the end goal for engaging in CSR-related practices, the importance of firm managers’ entrepreneurial role emerges in using existing resources to exploit business opportunities to ultimately achieve competitiveness, benefit the organisation, the community and society. Management’s ability to reconcile financial objectives and CSR practices give rise to the notion of entrepreneurial CSR.

The study demonstrates that management’s entrepreneurial drive, skills, knowledge, expertise or strategic strengths can identify substantial opportunities. Furthermore, the investment of resources to develop socially responsible products and services can help achieve CSR and the firm’s bottom line. Finally, learning about participants’ motivations for engaging in CSR could identify areas, concepts and directions to be considered by entrepreneurs, compared/contrasted to previous research or even operationalised by enterprises of different sizes elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations between the resources of a Western Australian regional family firm exporting to Asia and innovation through the lens of the theory of innovation and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm.

In-depth, un-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews were conducted with five members of the firm, including the co-owner. A visit to the business facilities complemented the data collection process.

The importance of tangible and intangible resources, such as forward thinking or investments in technologies, human capital and research is clearly illustrated; these resources positively influence innovative practices. Associations between the findings and the theoretical frameworks were identified. For instance, the imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable attributes comply with the RBV of the firm, and the hypothesised four dimensions of innovation. Importantly, the significance of strategic partnering emerges as an extension of these attributes.

This study addresses some knowledge gaps, first, contributing to the body of research on family firms’ adoption of innovation. In addition, the study contributes to the literature on regional Western Australian family firms operating internationally. This state makes a significant contribution to Australia’s economy, and its close geographic proximity to various important consumer markets highlights future opportunities for family firms in international trade. Despite such potential, research on global family firms operating in this state has been almost non-existent.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a personalised view by the Editors of the Rapid Prototyping Journal.

It collects their years of experience in a series of observations and experiences that can be considered as a snapshot of where this technology is today.

Development of these technologies has progressed according to application, materials and how the designers have applied their creativity to such a unique manufacturing tool.

The paper predicts how the future of additive manufacturing will look from the perspective of three key elements: applications, materials and design.

The paper aims to present key insights for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage from implementing data analytics solutions and artificial intelligence (AI).

This conceptual paper builds on prior empirical and conceptual research, and it offers anecdotal evidence from a best-practice case study of Liverpool Football Club.

Beyond the well-known companies in profiting from AI, such as Amazon, this paper presents a surprising best-practice example for achieving a competitive advantage from combining data analytics and AI with human expertise. Liverpool Football Club is a leading soccer club from England, and it has experienced a major revival in terms of sporting success and financial performance in recent years. The club’s emphasis on data analytics and AI only contributed to this impressive evolution when it was complemented with the emotional intelligence and people skills of its present manager Juergen Klopp. Along with new conceptual arguments, this example of integrated intelligence offers important insights for managers and executives in companies from many industries – far beyond sports management.

The conceptual arguments and case example illustrate that the competitive benefits of implementing standardized AI solutions in an isolated way will often be relatively limited. Many AI solutions will be standardized in the near future, and they may easily be applied by many firms. Thus, even those companies that are considered as AI pioneers may not be able to sustain their competitive advantage unless they develop an integrated intelligence architecture, which combines human and AI. This integration of data analytics and AI with the human intelligence and expertise of a firm’s employees offers the basis for a sustainable advantage because it is difficult to match for competitors. Thus, the paper offers new theoretical insights and direct managerial implications with regard to profiting from AI and data analytics.

In earlier numbers of this magazine we have conducted symposia on the subject of libraries in schools, and the various contributions have proved informative and interesting. The field is now broadening under the provisions of the new Education Act, whose schedule on building regulations allows for the project of a library room. No doubt the accommodation aspect will duly be fully described in an official memorandum. Just now, however, the opportunity is looming big for the systematic development of really useful libraries in secondary schools. The contributors to the present symposium represent educationists as well as librarians, and we are glad to present their views.