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This study aims to determine whether engagement in a football programme can positively impact the recovery journey of the mental health service users involved from the perspective of the “Kickstart 2 Recovery” (K2R) programme stakeholders. There are many challenges faced by the people with mental health problems, a significant one being social exclusion. Football is a socially valued occupation in Ireland (Moran, 2019) and the K2R programme is an initiative run to combat experiences of isolation and exclusion that those with mental health difficulties may experience.

A descriptive phenomenological approach was taken to the study with the use of semi-structured interviews as the research method. In total, twenty one interviews were carried out and Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Two themes represent the findings of this paper: the need for pathways and social inclusion, connection and flexibility. These reveal that facilitators are focused on supporting recovery but are unsure of how to overcome barriers to social inclusion. Sports partnerships and programme facilitators have a role to play in accessing community resources, challenging social stigma and creating exit pathways from the group.

This study reveals the challenges footballers with mental health difficulties experience when attempting to become more included in their communities and suggestions on how football programmes, such as K2R, could support their inclusion. These findings add to the body of research analysing the issue of social inclusion for people with mental health difficulties.

This paper reports on research into Australian school principals' leadership. It explores an emerging construct – that of ‘readiness to lead’ – and showcases the development of a tentative tool for determining school principals' readiness to lead.

Seven principals from Australian and International Schools were interviewed about their leadership strategies, intentions and expectations for impending school reform. Qualitative analyses using grounded theory and an interpretivist constructivist paradigm were applied.

The construct of ‘readiness to lead’ emerged during initial analysis and a tool was developed from a compilation of literature on leadership. Findings revealed that five principals were well-aligned with the strategies, intentions and expectations the research literature indicates are characteristic of good leadership. These principals could be regarded as ‘ready to lead’ their schools in significant school reform. An unexpected finding was that the concepts of ‘hope’ and ‘trust’ also played a significant role in leadership. ‘Hope’ appeared important as a major strategy for the less-well aligned principals, whereas mutual ‘trust’ appeared to be evident in the principals with stronger leadership readiness.

The tool warrants peer review and validation; data revealed an emerging construct and review is welcomed. The authors are continuing to research and investigate in this field, and invite further academic dialogue.

The study has explored the fecundity of the tool for analysis, and evaluated the principals' preparedness to lead reform. Having a tool to determine whether and to what degree school principals are ready to lead would be advantageous for the profession.

During the 1990s many states used budget surpluses to refinance public education and provide property tax relief. This paper uses a case study of Kansas to assess the sustainability of state-initiated property tax cuts. It finds that the cuts are not fully sustainable over time because of court and federal mandates that require additional spending on education, economic fluctuations that reduce the ability of state budgets to maintain a given share of education spending, and demands for local control to allow school districts to spend more or less than state-mandated levels. The paper also argues that the property tax is essential to economic efficiency and local control.

Since 2008, the Global North universities and the rural district of Chilanga, Kasungu in Malawi, have endeavored to create a dialogic, inclusive, and reciprocal knowledge-transfer project. Numerous years of consultation with community members resulted in the creation of Transformative Praxis: Malawi, a project dedicated to bettering human conditions in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. Through participatory action research (PAR), the Malawian community strongly indicated the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and social entrepreneurship in the areas of Education, Health, and Development. Although local women were prominent in all stakeholder meetings, a growing suspicion emerged that the inclusive intent of our research-based work was actually supporting existing male-oriented power structures, which exist despite ongoing assurances of the active participation of women in decision-making, and the purported matrilineal societal nature of Malawi. Through a progressive series of critical incidents connected to literature on PAR and women in impoverished communities, this chapter chronicles the manner in which local Chilanga women unexpectedly and unconventionally solidified their participation and authentic leadership in a Global North and South initiative based in Malawi.

This study aims to assess how department store websites can add online retail brand equity. A quick, relatively easy and low-cost diagnostic tool for stakeholders (e.g. retailers, investors) is presented.

A content analysis of department store websites in the USA and Latin America was conducted.

The findings show that Latin American and US department store websites exhibit acceptable use of online retail brand equity dimensions related to emotional connection and trust. In contrast, compared to their US counterparts, Latin American department store websites show weak usage on some of the dimensions of responsive service nature, online experience and fulfillment. The results also show that higher online retail brand equity is positively associated with average daily time on site. This indicates the usefulness of this index for developing effective websites to creating online retail brand equity.

This study suggests that Latin American department stores should improve three dimensions of online retail brand equity: responsive service nature, online experience and fulfillment. The online retail brand equity index presented can serve as a diagnostic tool for department store managers to monitor the online retail brand equity they are building on their websites. It is also possible to analyze the websites of competing department stores and monitor the long-term impact of modifications made to their websites and those of competitors.

This paper proposes an easy-to-apply index to assess online retail brand equity through website design partially. In addition, this research is the first to evaluate how Latin American department store websites, compared to those in the USA, are building online retail brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distribution of dwelling airtightness test results for a developer, between 2007 and 2011. The changes in airtightness test results over time are discussed, and links between the airtightness test results and the construction technique are investigated.

A data set of airtightness test results was statistically analysed by applying probabilistic model of the distribution and using Bayesian parameter estimation techniques.

The inferred background distributions, those estimated to describe dwelling performance before secondary sealing, suggest an improvement in airtightness between 2008 and 2011, the mode decreases from 5.46±0.09 m³/m²h to 4.12±0.07 m³/m²h with a corresponding shift in practice towards a more target-driven approach. The most airtight dwellings are constructed from reinforced concrete frame, followed by “traditional” (dry lined masonry), timber frame and lightweight steel frame.

This study is limited by the size of the available data set (901 dwellings), and by the fact that the data set contains a larger proportion of flats to houses; however, the metadata has enabled the exploration of the link between construction practices and airtightness.

Developers need better guidance surrounding how to meet more stringent airtightness requirements through improvements to the primary air barrier, with incentives and support to deliver changes in practice. Furthermore, if a large number of dwellings undergo secondary sealing, this may have implications for the long-term efficiency of the dwelling stock.

This analysis investigates two issues that have not previously been studied on a significant number of dwellings: the changes to the distribution of airtightness results over time and the link between construction methods and airtightness.

Deviant consumer behavior (DCB) has serious negative effects on organizations, employees and other customers. While research to date has largely focused on understanding why consumers engage in deviant behaviors, less focus has been placed on exploring how to deter them. This paper aims to shift the conversation from research exploring why consumers engage in deviant behaviors to understanding how DCB could be deterred.

In this conceptual paper, a research agenda of deterrence tactics is provided with associated propositions to guide future research in the field of DCB.

A deterrence–neutralization–behavior (DNB) framework is proposed to underpin the seven deterrence tactics outlined in this research agenda. The DNB framework illustrates the positive relationship between neutralization techniques and engagement in DCB, because the techniques reduce the level of cognitive dissonance associated with performing a deviant act beyond an individual’s deviance threshold. The framework adds a new proposed moderating role of deterrence tactics. Deterrence tactics are mechanisms that will reintroduce cognitive dissonance, previously reduced through a neutralization technique, by presenting the consumer with a competing piece of information that challenges their attitudes, beliefs or behavior. Therefore, the authors propose that certain deterrence tactics could diminish the positive effect of different neutralization techniques on DCB if the tactics challenge the justifications consumers are using to excuse their actions – subsequently reintroducing cognitive dissonance.

Practically, this paper is the next step in an effort to provide evidence-based solutions for managers seeking to reduce the negative impact that deviance has on the organization.

To date, research has focused on understanding why DCB occurs with limited attention on how it can be deterred. The value in this paper is in proposing a series of deterrence tactics that are theoretically matched to established antecedents and neutralization techniques associated with DCB. Overall, this paper provides a future research agenda with propositions to build knowledge on effective deterrence tactics for curbing instances of DCB.

Reflexivity supports research teams in developing and implementing interdisciplinarity perspectives, but there is still limited literature on this topic. To fill this gap, we explore how reflexivity can support a research team in its interdisciplinary efforts to create new knowledge for disaster risk reduction.

We present the reflexive journey of our interdisciplinary research team consisting of Ecuador- and UK-based researchers from the social sciences, physical sciences and the arts and humanities and conducting multi-hazard research on Quito. By triangulating data obtained from different material collected during the reflexive journey, we discuss examples of how our team employed reflexivity towards interdisciplinarity.

The reflexive journey allowed our interdisciplinary team to acknowledge and give value to its diversity; to discuss disciplinary language differences, and to gradually develop interdisciplinary working practices and conversations. The journey demonstrates how reflexive practices within research teams allow researchers to overcome disciplinary differences and promote interdisciplinarity to reach research outcomes.

Our reflexive experience shows that adopting reflexivity can be effective in both enhancing interdisciplinarity and addressing the complex nature of risk.

With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, competitive data science platforms like Kaggle are gaining momentum. From a host's perspective, the platforms offer access to a large crowd of data scientists who can solve their data science problems efficiently and cost-effectively. From the participant's perspective, the platforms provide the opportunity to apply their skills to real-world problems, interact with other data scientists, and win prizes. The chapter provides an overview of competitive data science platforms and assesses their potential for business and academia. A series of opportunities and challenges of data competitions are outlined, and a concrete case is illustrated. The chapter also demonstrates common pitfalls that hosts of data competitions need to be aware of by discussing the relevance of problem definition, data leakage, and metrics to evaluate different solutions.

While age is receiving increased attention in the literature on workplace diversity, it remains under researched. Intergenerational contact and its relationship to ageism require further research to understand their mechanisms and impacts. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Using semi-structured interviews in the Norwegian technical industry, this paper explores how generations are formed and how this influences intergenerational contact.

Through the lens of ageism, the findings reveal that generational stereotypes are strongly held by respondents, and may affect how members of the generations interact in the workplace. Further, the data demonstrate that both age and generation are socially constructed, and age discrimination is perceived by both older and younger workers.

The study has relevance for managers who are overseeing organizations with considerable age differences.