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The purpose of this paper is to build on the foundational theories of personality and motivation to explore the role of competitiveness and of ethnicity in relation to student academic performance. Survey data from 328 students across four sites (Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong and Korea) provided self-rated responses to items measuring personality, motivation, competitiveness and ethnicity.

Stepwise multiple regression was used to identify the variables that predicated student academic performance, including testing for interaction effect of ethnicity. Both student self-reported data and independently assessed performance measures were used to avoid common method variance.

This study affirmed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are significantly associated with academic performance. The personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism are significantly associated with a student’s competitiveness. The interaction of competitiveness and ethnicity is significantly and positively associated with performance.

The variable of student competitiveness requires further research to better understand its role in academic performance. Researching ethnicity at the micro level allows the acknowledgement and investigation of “intra-national diversity” (Tung, 2008; Tung and Baumann, 2009).

This study is original in its approach in that it combines the concepts of motivation, personality, competitiveness and ethnicity in relation to student academic performance. While previous studies have explored these concepts individually and often at the macro level, a crucial contribution of this study is that competitiveness and ethnicity (as opposed to national culture) are examined at a micro level. The authors demonstrate the combined importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (carrot and stick) in driving performance and introduce the new motivation, competitiveness and performance model which recognises that competitiveness, as a driver of performance, is moderated by the learners’ ethnicity.

In the higher education sector, the evaluation of learning and teaching projects is assuming a role as a quality and accountability indicator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning and teaching project evaluation is approached and critiques alignment between evaluation theory and practice.

The emergent realism paradigm provides the theoretical framework with a pragmatic approach to mixed-methods data collection. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts of interviews with 15 project leaders.

Four key themes on project evaluation emerged: how evaluation is conceptualized, particularly the overlap, even conflation, between evaluation and research; capability building within the sector; resourcing in terms of time and money; and the role of an action-oriented approach to evaluation. The authors conclude that misalignment exists between evaluation theory and the practice of project evaluation and that this relationship can be further inhibited by a project leader’s perception of evaluation.

A series of strategies for developing capacity across the higher education sector for project evaluation are presented. These include the development and provision of: a time allocation for evaluation in future and ongoing project plans with procedures to revisit the project and assess impact; models of how to incorporate evaluation into the research cycle; constructive feedback on evaluation reports from the university funding body; and networking opportunities to disseminate learnings from project evaluations.

This study focusses on the under-researched area of evaluation of learning and teaching projects in higher education, providing research-based evidence for strategies to develop sector capacity.

The chapter explores how tourism creates even more dependence as spaces become gentrified and too expensive for local occupation through colonial tropes, and accumulation models. Tourism consumes gently. In the wake of Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Dorian, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico have experienced an accelerated strike on their natural and social resources: from land deals and tax concessions to power infrastructure and school closures. Debt has plagued the countries; the policies designed to get them out of debt prior to the natural disasters, then converted into man-made disasters, have only deepened dependence and indebtedness. In fact, both have become externalized communities where land is being accumulated through dispossession. Tourism is more than just hotels and resorts; it is now the gated communities and private islands that build on coloniality and inequalities. Tourism, disaster capitalism, and green grabbing accumulate by dispossessing locals of land in the name of improving their economic health. Economic well being seems to result in loss.

The purpose of this paper is to aim at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of strategic supply chain management and logistics (SCML) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM).

To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date across both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in SCML in global organizations from a human resource management (HRM) viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and Co-Evolutionary theory of global organizations were adopted.

Top management teams (TMT) are crucial to manage SCML successfully in today’s global organizations. Research on this intersection should draw attention to find antecedents, consequences and the process showing how those talented people grouped in dispersed teams can be a source of competitive advantage. Six different areas of research are proposed. It is proposed that future research should focus on the human capital (HC); meaning those key individuals of an organization that make things happen. In the near future, the global organization’s competitiveness will be shaped by how the organization manages its HC in SCML. Methodologies such as meta-analysis are suggested to summarize the extant literature on IHRM when applied to SCML in global organizations.

The search was conducted in SSCI-ISIWoK and Scopus databases. As a limitation, some articles and other scientific contributions not abstracted there were not included. Nevertheless, both searches enabled obtaining balanced results between scope and richness of content.

Only a marginal portion of literature reviews have been conducted by using mixed methods in the fields of IHRM and SCML. The results will be useful for scholars of both fields in their attempts to enlarge the knowledge boundaries in these areas. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, this research may provide an integrative framework for global organizations to build a competitive advantage based on managing HC and its SCML strategically.

As the internationalization process dictates the existence of cross-country networks it is essential to explore avenues that allow emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) to share and receive knowledge that can benefit them locally and globally. The purpose of this paper is to explore this conundrum by addressing the significance of creating a global mindset in individuals and across the multinational corporation. In the paper the authors articulate the mechanisms that influence global managers’ abilities to engage effectively with other global managers across borders.

This is a conceptual and theoretical piece.

The authors argued that global managers engage in reciprocal learning processes to obtain new, innovative knowledge about other countries’ environments and business practices. The authors furthermore suggest that the effectiveness of new knowledge creation is dependent upon the appropriate input, throughput, and output competencies of those involved in the reciprocal learning process.

Proper people management plays a crucial role in fostering an environment where employees’ commitment will lead to organizational innovation. Propositions foreshadowing in the new, innovative knowledge creation process across cultural and personal levels are articulated.

This study contributes to the conversation on international career development and its antecedents. Drawing on experiential learning theory and social cognitive theory, the current comparative study investigates the extent to which students' pre-existing international experience (IE) drives their cultural intelligence (CQ) development and influences global career intention for human resource planning purposes.

This study has a comparative nature and adopts quantitative research methodology, which includes survey measures of CQ index, IE and intention to work abroad variables. Quantitative data are collected from a sample of more than 400 business students of leading Australian and Russian universities.

This study showed that IE variables are positively related to the level of CQ facets; the authors showed that Motivational CQ is the strongest predictor for the Intention to work abroad for both countries; the authors proved that students' IE is positively related to an Intention to work abroad for both countries and is partially mediated by CQ for Australia; and study showed that geographical isolation facilitates higher intention to work abroad than political isolation.

Deeper understanding of students' international career intentions and its antecedents will allow practitioners to provide better preparation for local/global careers and will allow students to make more informed and decisions. Companies would benefit from the ability to predict applicants' intention to work abroad. Stronger awareness of own preferences and available trajectories will allow students to select the best fit for them.

This study extends the conversation on international career development and its antecedents in the students' domain by strengthening measurements of IE and advancing the understanding of relationship between previous IE and individual facets of CQ. An empirical data from isolated locations – Russia (politically) and Australia (geographically) – bring a new timely contribution about a role of the isolation in shaping international career intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a solution to the challenges of professional service firms (PSF), which are referred to as cat herding, opaque quality and lack of process standardization. These result from misalignment in the mental pictures that managers, employees and customers have of the service. The study demonstrates how the process of articulating a shared service concept reduces these challenges.

A narrative methodology is used to analyze the perspectives of old management, new management and employees during organizational change in a PSF – a website design company growing to offer full-service branding. Group narratives are constructed using longitudinal data gathered through interviews and fieldwork, in order to compare the misaligned mental pictures and show the benefits of articulating the service concept.

Professional employees view growth and change as threats to their culture and practice, particularly when new management seeks to standardize processes. These threats are revealed to stem from misinterpretations caused by miscommunication of intentions and lack of participation in decision making. Articulating a shared service concept helps to align understanding and return the firm to equilibrium.

The narrative methodology helps unpack conflicting perspectives, but is open to claims of subjectivity and misrepresentation. To ensure fairness and trustworthiness, informants were invited to review and approve the narratives.

The study contributes propositions related to the value of articulating a shared service concept as a means of minimizing the challenges of PSFs.

This chapter discusses the Brazilian redevelopment policy denominated urban operation. First implemented in São Paulo in the 1980s, it was included in the Brazilian federal urban legislation in 2001 as an instrument to promote the redevelopment of great urban areas through public–private partnerships. On the one hand, the local public administration would provide incentives to investments in a given project, especially by selling construction rights; on the other hand, the value captured would be reinvested in the same area, following a list of works that may include urban infrastructure and services. The main benefits expected are structural change without onus for the public administration; a more balanced urban growth, estimulating higher density in areas well served by urban infrastructure; and real estate valorization. Nevertheless, this chapter critically analyzes its early experiences in São Paulo, demonstrating an entrepreneurial and speculative logic of spatial production. In this sense, the chapter is structured in four parts. The first one presents the legal instrument, while the following two sections explore the two main aspects of its functioning: great urban projects and public–private partnerships. In the final section, the Urban Operation Faria Lima will be assessed, especially on its attempts to promote São Paulo as a global city. If it is not possible to generalize from this particular experience, it exposes the necessity of discussing how the instrument, now a federal policy, may be implemented in other Brazilian cities, which type of redevelopment it may promote and for whom.

There is a substantial void in the understanding of the effect of talent management (TM) practices specifically targeted at females on firm performance. This paper investigates the relationship between female-focused TM and firm performance with the aim of demonstrating the importance of gender diversity in firms.

The authors developed and empirically tested a contextually embedded model using data from 103 multinational corporations in Russia to examine the effect of female-focused TM on firm performance.

The authors found an overall positive relationship between female-focused TM and firm performance. The authors’ analysis also revealed significant positive effects of female-focused talent development and talent retention, but not talent attraction, on firm performance.

This paper contributes to the vibrant TM scholarship by focusing on female-focused talent attraction, development and retention practices.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the authors aim to examine the role of talent management (TM) practices in talent migration from developed countries to Ghana that may enhance country’s economic development through knowledge transfer. The paper also investigates the determinants of migration to the African countries.

Discussing the importance of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), and how TM practices may contribute to global migration, the authors develop a set of propositions and build a theoretical framework showing how firms from Ghana can push SIEs to a longer stay in Ghana stimulating inward migration by implementing TM practices.

The authors claim that in the Ghanaian context expatriates may become migrants by overcoming negative perceptions about Ghana as a destination. Besides the authors argue that talent attraction and talent retention practices with governmental support, play an important role in inward migration to Ghana.

New agenda for talent managers in Africa, namely addressing the possibilities for expatriates’ retention by developing and implementing TM practices to ensure knowledge transferring from developed countries is suggested.

The theoretical framework provides a useful starting point for explaining the interconnections of TM and the conversion from expatriation to the global migration phenomena by African countries that broaden the TM scope beyond individual and organizational aspects. The authors state that TM systems take on the principal role of addressing talent migration especially in the African context and are capable of converting expatriates, specifically SIEs, into migrants to solve important tasks related to knowledge attraction to developing countries.