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This paper aims to investigate the mathematics self-efficacy of students who are non-maths specialists. The project explores the student experience in the context of a maths module with a blended design, comprising both online content and face-to-face teaching. The aim was to reflect on the role of blended learning in this context.

Using a mixed-method analysis, the study uses data gathered via student surveys and discussion forums, as well as module grades, to provide evidence regarding whether the online component of the module enables students to master the required maths skills. The data are examined under four themes that emerged as critical to improving the self-efficacy of students: flexibility, the interactivity of the online platform, the module's blended design and the functionality of the platform.

The findings are that the blended approach increases academic self-efficacy in the area of mathematics, also enhancing the student experience. These benefits arise from the combination of allowing the individual mastery of technical skills in the private and stress-free environment provided by the online platform and access to social resources in the classroom setting.

The paper details the influence of self-efficacy on academic performance and the effectiveness of a blended learning approach, in the area of mathematics. It provides insight into the importance of providing multiple opportunities for students to become autonomous as they develop academic self-confidence through the mastery of maths skills.

This paper aims to explore the increasing role of financialisation on investment decisions in the power generation industry in Great Britain (GB). Such decisions affect society, and the relative role of financialisation in these macro-levels decisions has not been explored from a historical perspective.

The paper draws on historical material and interview data. Specifically, we use an approach inspired by institutional sociology drawing on elements of Scott’s (2014) pillars of institutions. Applying concepts stemming from regulative and normative pressures, we explore changes in investments over the analysis period to determine forces which institutionalised practices – such as accounting – into investment in power generation.

Investments in electricity generation have different levels of public and private participation. However, the common logics that underpin such investment practices provide an important understanding of political-economics and institutional change in the UK. Thus, the heightened use of accounting in investment has been, to some extent, a contributory factor to the power supply problems now faced by the British public.

This paper contributes to prior literature on the effects of financialisation on society, adding power generation/energy supply to the many societal level issues already explored. It also provides brief but unique insights into the changing nature of the role of accounting in an industry sector over an extended timeframe.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, if, similar to other management initiatives, new public management may be a repackaging of already existent concepts. Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s as an innovative way to manage public sector elements, new public management affected both the ownership and management of public sector companies, services and utilities. Minimal research has been undertaken previously, using historic archival sources of public entities, to explore if elements of the concept originated prior to the 1970s.

This research draws on archival records from a publicly owned electricity company, covering about three decades from 1946, during which a large investment project was undertaken by the company. This study draws on key tenets of what is today called new public management, examining prior research to ascertain if similar elements were present in the case organisation.

When reviewing the progress of the investment project, many of the key elements of new public management emerged, even during the early part of the project.

There is little historical research on the origins of new public management, and the findings here suggest that it may not be entirely new. While this does not at all invalidate existing research, it suggests that new public management may be to an extent a repackaging of previously extant techniques. This opens up possibilities for future historic research in terms of how and why it was repackaged, and also what was/was not repackaged.

Accountants are portrayed as important advisors of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, increasing numbers of SMEs now use software for their transactional and compliance-related accounting work. This latter work is considered to be the “entry ticket” for accountants serving in advisory roles. This study aims to examine whether the relevance of accountants as advisors to SMEs has been lost.

Drawing on the resource-based view and applying a qualitative cross-sectional field study, interviews with small businesses in the European craft brewing/distilling sector are the data source.

The study’s analysis paints a concerning picture of the use of external accountants by SMEs. While not suggesting that accountants are incapable of offering value-adding advice, the findings suggest that the involvement of potentially value-adding accountants by SMEs is rare. The interviewees note that they would not approach their accountants for advice due to the existence of more cost-attractive alternatives. The study finds that external accountants are not imperfectly imitable and can be substituted, particularly by social media and community groups.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the role of accountants in the craft brewing/distilling industry and one of the first to assess empirically the importance of accountants as advisors to SMEs with audit exemptions and to consider the increasing threat of substitution by software. The findings suggest that accountants have lost relevance as advisors to the businesses studied, or have never had much relevance.

This paper aims to explore the concept and practice, of dignity as understood and experienced by older adults and district nursing staff. The paper adds a new, nuanced, understanding of safeguarding possibilities in the context of district nursing care delivered in the home.

The research used an ethnographic methodology involving observations of care between community district nursing clinicians and patients (n = 62) and semi-structured interviews with nursing staff (n = 11) and older adult recipients of district nursing care (n = 11) in England.

Abuse is less likely to occur when clinicians are maintaining the dignity of their patients. The themes of time and space are used to demonstrate some fundamental ways in which dignity manifests. The absence of dignity offers opportunities for abuse and neglect to thrive; therefore, both time and space are essential safeguarding considerations. Dignity is influenced by time and how it is experienced temporally, but nurses are not allocated time to “do dignity”, an arguably essential component of the caregiving role, yet one that can become marginalised. The home-clinic exists as a clinical space requiring careful management to ensure it is also an environment of dignity that can safeguard older adults.

District nurses have both a proactive and reactive role in ensuring their patients remain safeguarded. By ensuring care is delivered with dignity and taking appropriate action if they suspect abuse or neglect, district nurses can safeguard their patients.

This paper begins to address an omission in existing empirical research regarding the role of district nursing teams in delivering dignified care and how this can safeguard older adults.

Sport ticket sales is often positioned as a “foot in the door” to the sport industry due to ample job opportunities, but anecdotal reports of high turnover raise questions of the efficacy of recruitment, training and retention efforts in sport sales. The purpose of this study was to determine attrition levels among entry-level ticket sales personnel, observe whether entry-level sales positions lead to other non-selling positions within sport organizations and determine if education and market related variables are related to job tenure.

LinkedIn profiles were analyzed for 1,122 entry-level ticket salespeople listed in media guides between 2015 and 2019 in the “Big Four” North American professional sports leagues. Names were obtained from 26 NBA, 21 MLB, 20 NHL and 12 NFL teams. Survival analysis provided defection rates and demonstrated the relationship between those rates and key variables.

One in every four entry-level ticket salespeople defected within the first year and one in every two defected within 26 months. Only 8% moved on from ticket sales to a non-sales role within the sport industry. Increases in cost of living, working for an NFL team and having sport industry experience prior to taking a sales position decreased the likelihood of defecting, while increased distance between the salesperson's university and the team's location increased the likelihood of defecting.

This study applies survival analysis to a sport human relations context to understand turnover in a specific occupational discipline and establishes the turnover rate for sport sales positions.

This essay employs a visual approach to explore some of the ways that spatial practices become markers of a globalising and glocalizing world. Images are offered that reflect some of the symbolic competition created by more and less recent migrants as they lay claim to ‘contested terrains’ by changing what they look like. Although often dismissed as mere “marking” of territory, such ordinary practices by migrants of symbolic home or community building are crucial to understanding global cities. One indicator of their importance is the, often hostile reactions by the dominant society to them. A brief review of some of the most important theoretical perspectives on these interrelated phenomena, such as those of Saskia Sassen, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, isolates common expectations about the visibility of resulting competing spatial practices in shared multiethnic residential and commercial environments. It is argued that many of the contradictions created by the concentration of global capital can be seen in the neighborhood streetscapes of global cities. From Georg Simmel, through Henri Lefebvre, and Lyn H. Lofland, the visible, and the symbolic, have been central to urban analysis. Therefore, the ubiquitous aspects of what Jackson called ‘vernacular landscapes,’ such as commercial signs and graffiti in Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, London, New York, and Rome are addressed.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the workplace experiences of current and former underrepresented ticket sales employees.

The study utilized survey methodology to answer the research questions. Purposive sampling was used to identify potential respondents: individuals who were either currently employed as sport ticket sales employees or had been previously. The researchers examined online media guides from North American major league sports teams and identified ticket sales representatives who were compiled into a database and then cross-referenced through social media platform LinkedIn. Individuals were located via LinkedIn profiles and sent an anonymous, electronic survey which included a combination of Likert scale and open-ended questions regarding respondent experiences working in ticket sales departments.

Survey responses from 511 ticket salespeople revealed negative experiences related to management and career advancement opportunities, as well as significant differences in negative experiences for underrepresented populations regarding mentorship and culture.

Sport sales managers desire to expand employee diversity (Wells et al., 2019) and improve overall retention rates, but if a clear understanding of organizational vision toward diversification is not established within sports teams, managers are less likely to embrace diversity initiatives. Thus, it is imperative to understand the lived experiences of underrepresented ticket salespeople in order to improve workplace culture and effectiveness.