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We conducted the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB) practice analysis to examine perceptions of US public relations practitioners and educators regarding the essential competencies for entry-level and mid-career professionals. This is a trend analysis survey that is conducted every five years to assess changes in required competencies.

The survey was distributed via email to organizations affiliated with the UAB. Two variations of the survey were available to differentiate between practitioners and educators. The study was conducted from February through March of 2024.

We found practitioners’ expectations for others exceeded their own actual performance levels. This may be attributed to social comparison bias. We have provided recommendations for updating the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) and certificate exams based on our findings. For example, we recommend senior professionals adopt a nurturing leadership style when mentoring young professionals. The study also revealed that educators overestimated generative artificial intelligence (AI) use in the workplace, as practitioners exhibited a slower rate of adoption of AI. The literature and theories that guided the paper were AI use, the history of accreditation in public relations and the diffusion of innovation theory.

This research paper provides insights related to the diffusion of AI competencies in the workplace. Additionally, this research adds to public relations literature by revealing the gap in expectations of senior professionals for beginning and mid-career professionals and their own job performance.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore perceptions of the impact of program participation on parenting styles and behavioral changes using observations and in-depth semi-structured interviews with Black and Coloured staff and mothers at a community-based organization (CBO) in the Western Cape Province (WCP) in South Africa (SA). Purposive sampling was utilized in this research via the CBO and narratives from a total of twenty-three (twelve mothers and eleven staff) interviews form the basis of this manuscript. Data was collected between January – February 2017 and was analyzed through the phenomenological and inductive thematic analysis approach. The staff interviews revealed that child abandonment and neglect and the abuse of women are the two main environmental contextual factors that impact program participation. According to staff, improved self-esteem and positive life changes were identified as successful outcomes of participant involvement. The parent interviews provided examples of emotional issues such as domestic abuse and personal issues with alcohol and drugs as individual factors that impact their program participation. Changes in parenting styles was identified as successful outcomes among parent participants. The goal of this study was to provide much-needed insight into this community by presenting a variety of voices, specifically Black and Coloured men and women, that are underreported in the literature. Findings from this research adds to the knowledge of community-based parenting programs (CBPPs) for low-income and underserved populations in SA and internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of how traditional media and social media framed the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

The researchers examined newspaper articles pertaining to the Sochi Olympics and Tweets containing #SochiProblems to determine if differences or overlap existed in terms of themes and frames. A thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative software Leximancer.

An analysis of 2,856 newspaper articles and 497,743 Tweets revealed three frames across the two media platforms including: the setting, the politics, and the games. There was both a divergence and convergence of content. While there was an echo chamber in terms of discussions regarding political controversies, organic content related to conditions and accommodations existed primarily on Twitter.

This study sought to investigate whether organic content on Twitter could withstand the transference of sentiments that emerge in traditional media. This study adds to the current body of the literature by examining whether there is a convergence or divergence of content across media platforms pertaining to an international sporting event.

The purpose of this paper is to validate that young American experiencers perceive cashmere as the most luxurious animal fiber, to investigate if because expensive it is perceived as more luxurious (Veblen theory), to learn how they know about its intrinsic values, lastly to explore if articulating the story behind luxury goods can enhance shopping experience, thus building a sustainable competitive advantage for retailers.

This research was conducted using a survey to gather quantitative data followed by focus group. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to a group of almost 200 young American experiencers.

The results show that the subjects had a significant lack of knowledge about the provenance of cashmere (the fibre) and its intrinsic attributes. Once the subjects were told about the characteristics, the provenance and the whole process of the supply chain starting with the farmers combing the goats to the delivery of the end goods, it seems obvious that articulating the story behind luxury goods would enhance the shopping experience and provide a sustainable competitive advantage for retailers.

This survey was conducted on a sample of 196 respondents, from one specific geographic area. It would benefit from being extended to a wider scope of demographic and geographic including Europe and Asia.

This study supports that time has come for retailers to shift from marketing visual images to the story telling.

Films focusing on girls and women with anorexia have not found major producers and distributors in Hollywood, yet movies on subjects such as suicidality and bipolar disorder have been showcased. Eating disorders affect approximately 30 million people in the United States alone, and it has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, so this invisibility seems incongruous. The authors theorize that Hollywood avoids this subject because of ontological anxiety. Movie plots are schemas and young females are inextricably associated with fertility and futurity. An anorexic’s appearance contradicts and nullifies this symbolic role because anorexia often leads to infertility and death. Psychological studies and philosophical arguments claim that a belief in an afterlife and the regeneration of humankind create coherence and meaning for individuals. An anorexic’s appearance and behavior represent images of self-destruction – images that inflame the viewer’s unconscious and primordial fears about the annihilation of the species. By avoiding the topic of anorexia, Hollywood defends against its symbolic fears of mortality but diminishes the importance of the subject through its absence; it ignores its place in women’s social history and erases its place in American history. Because of Hollywood’s social reach and because greater visibility is correlated with a reduction in stigma, the authors conjecture that a film on this subject would inspire necessary attention to women’s roles, public mores, public policies, and the social good.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what type of knowledge enhances the frequency of strategic renewal for organizations operating in high velocity environments. It also investigates whether strategic renewal frequency is beneficial, rather than harmful in such environments.

The study followed a two-step data collection process involving pilot interviews and an on-site survey data collection procedure. The authors first conducted face-to-face pilot interviews with 16 fashion retailers lasting 30 min to 2 h. They then tested their hypotheses by using a sample of 152 South Korean fashion retailers, as the fashion industry is a prototypical high velocity environment.

Firms that have a higher rate of strategic renewal frequency outperform those with a lower one. Moreover, the frequency of strategic renewal mitigates the ill effects of lack of legitimacy not imbued by a franchisor’s backing. Finally, firms can increase the frequency of their strategic renewal efforts by accessing knowledge from their main customers more efficiently.

The results of this study provide a refined picture of the role of knowledge acquisition efficiency and strategic renewal frequency in the pursuit of competitive advantage in high velocity environments.

Megaprojects present an intricated pattern of leadership activities, which evolve over their planning and delivery and comprises several stakeholders. A framework is useful to navigate this complexity; it allows to identify and cluster the key elements. This paper aims to introduce a novel framework based on boundary spanners to describe the structural pattern of shared leadership in megaprojects.

A systematic literature review about boundary spanning and shared leadership is used to identify and cluster the key elements of shared leadership in megaprojects. The systematic literature review provides a rich theoretical background to develop the novel shared leadership framework based on boundary spanners.

There are three key dimensions characterizing shared leadership topology in megaprojects: stakeholders, boundary spanning leadership roles and project phases. The novel framework shows how project leadership dynamically transfers among different stakeholders, showing the importance of shared leadership as a leadership paradigm in megaprojects.

The novel framework epitomizes shared leadership in megaprojects by exploring its antecedents with social network metrics. This paper stresses that shared leadership is the envisaged form of leadership in megaprojects. By modeling complex project leadership in a simple, yet effective way, the framework fosters critical thinking for future research. The modeling introduced by this framework would also benefit practitioners in charge of megaprojects.

The paper moves the project leadership research to the network-level by taking boundary spanners as shared leadership roles in megaprojects. It shows how shared leadership is a valuable management tool for planning and delivery megaprojects.

A retail brand is an asset of value to the stakeholders. Nurturing it enhances quality and stability of earnings. Franchising it across emerging countries provides an opportunity for growth. The challenge, however, is to ensure that the brand stays “connected” with the local markets and “relevant” during changing times. Current research is highly inadequate in guiding the retail brands to stay vibrant when traveling to emerging markets. This research aims to look at how a successful fashion brand in the UK is struggling to grow its retail business through franchise in the Middle East. While the opportunity is vast, the retail brand has been struggling for it has not stayed “relevant”. The paper seeks to present a framework for monitoring its performance so the retail brand can “stay alive”.

Qualitative research was done to understand the profile of the walk‐in customers, their shopping behavior, spending motives, and lifestyles. Quantitative research was done to ascertain how the retail brand was perceived in comparison with other brands in the choice set. Further, the study investigated if the shoppers’ profile and preferences varied across different outlets located in different malls.

By carrying out the analyses, distinct segments were deciphered. It has been noticed that the customer profiles for the retail brand studied varied across different retail locations. Variations in their shopping preferences implied that different merchandising and in‐store promotion activities are required at different outlets to connect with different segments.

The research addresses the gaps in existing literature. The study emphatically confirms that a retail brand franchised cannot take its existence for granted. The study also presents a framework – a dashboard of retail metrics, for measuring, monitoring, evaluating and rejuvenating the performance of retail brands.

This chapter treats the luxury hotel concept and practice and its recent trends in the tourism industry. This niche market is expanding rapidly with changing global income structures and increasing complexity of the hospitality sector. Its clientele comprises quality-seeking, prestige-striving, and high-spending customers. The chapter first explores the concept of luxury in relation to hotels. It further groups various associated assets into tangibles and intangibles to discuss their recent trends across the world. It is suggested that companies and destinations active in the luxury hotel market or contemplating entry take these trends into account to gain and/or maintain competitiveness.