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The purpose of this paper is to explore how potential exposure to missionary activity impacts both English language proficiency and labor market earnings of male and female immigrants to the USA.

This study uses the pooled files of the American Community Survey (2005–2009). To estimate the relationship between the missionary activity of both Protestants and Catholics on an immigrant’s English language proficiency using a linear probability model and their labor market earnings using the human capital earnings function that is estimated with an ordinary least squares model. Among other relevant variables, the analysis controls for the colonial heritage of the immigrant’s country of origin.

Overall, and within colonial heritages, the results indicate that male and female immigrants from countries with a higher concentration of Protestant missionaries tend to exhibit higher levels of English language proficiency and earnings, and those from countries with a greater concentration of Catholic missionaries exhibit lower levels of both, compared to countries with lower concentrations of missionaries. Furthermore, a greater proficiency in English enhances earnings. One of the important implications of the findings in this paper is that a “missionary variable” often used in other studies is too aggregate and may mask important findings because of strikingly different effects of Protestant and Catholic activities and characteristics of the missionaries.

This study explores for the first time how, through a missionary concentration variable, potential exposure to missionary activity impacts the English language proficiency and earnings of immigrants.

A rapid increase in global smartphone ownership and digital health technologies offers the potential for mobile phone applications (apps) to deliver mental health interventions. The purpose of this paper is to bring together evidence reporting on mental health mobile apps to gain an understanding of the quality of current evidence, the positive and adverse effects of apps and the mechanisms underlying such effects.

A systematic search was carried out across six databases, for any systematic reviews or meta-analyses conducted up to 2020. Review quality was assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews.

Across a total of 24 articles, a variety of clinical outcomes were assessed. Most compelling support was shown for apps targeting anxiety symptoms; some evidence favoured the use of apps for depression symptoms. Less evidence was available for the remaining clinical symptoms such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disorders and substance use. Overall, there was limited evidence pertaining to adverse effects and change mechanisms and a lack of quality reporting across a large proportion of included reviews. The included reviews demonstrate the need for further robust research before apps are recommended clinically.

This paper makes a valuable contribution to the current status of research and reviews investigating mental health mobile apps. Recommendations are made for improved adherence to review guidelines and to ensure risk of bias is minimised.

Addressing occupational stress and fostering employee wellness helps meet a host of organizational stakeholder expectations including high quality of work life (employees), reasonable return on investment (investors), increased productivity (management), and competitiveness (owners). Despite being dynamic in nature, stress and wellness are often studied using a static perspective. One reason for the scarcity of dynamic empirical research is the limited knowledge and use of the tools available to assess change over time. To address this limitation, four tools used to assess change and dynamics of occupational stress and well-being are described: growth models, latent change score models, spectral analysis, and computational modeling. First, we begin by discussing growth curve models and then transition to latent change score models. We then expand into spectral analysis, a tool used to determine cycles of ups and downs that repeat regularly. Last, computational modeling is discussed, where computers and simulations are used to understand a dynamic process. For each tool, we give examples of how they have been used, make recommendations for future use, and provide readers with suggestions and references for how to complete analyses in software and programs, most of which are freely available (i.e., R, Vensim).

The mental healthcare is experiencing an ever-growing surge in understanding the consumer (e.g., patient) engagement paradox, aiming to vouch for the quality of care. Despite this surge, scant attention has been given in academia to conceptualize and empirically investigate this particular aspect. Thus, drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm, the study explores how patients engage with healthcare service providers and how they perceive the quality of the healthcare services.

Data were collected from 279 respondents, and the derived conceptual model was tested by using Smart PLS 3.2.7 and PROCESS. To complement the findings of partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modeling (SEM), the present study also applied fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions to explore substitute conjunctive paths that emerge.

Findings show that patients’ perceived intimacy (PI), cohesion and privacy enhance the quality of mental healthcare service providers. The results also suggest that patients’ PI, cohesion and privacy have indirect effects on the perceived quality of care (PQC) by the service providers through consumer engagement. The fsQCA results derive that the relationship among conditions leading to patients’ perception of the quality of care in regard to mental healthcare service providers is complex and is best reflected as multiple and conjectural causation configurations.

The findings from this research contribute to the advancement of studies on patients’ experiences by empirically examining the unique dynamics of interaction between consumers (patients) and mental healthcare service providers, thereby enriching both the literature on social interactions and the understanding of the consumer–provider relationship.

The results of this study provide practical implications for mental healthcare service providers on how to combine the study variables to enhance the quality of care and satisfy more patients.

A significant research gap has ascertained the inter-relationship between PI, cohesion, privacy, engagement and PQC from the perspective of mental healthcare service providers. This research is one of the primary studies from a managerial and methodological standpoint. The study contributes by combining symmetric and asymmetric statistical tools in service marketing and healthcare research. Furthermore, the application of fsQCA helps to understand the interactions that might not be immediately obvious through traditional symmetric methods.

The advancement of digital technological breakthroughs in the construction industry is dependent on connecting the attributes of the intended consumers to the technologies. Thus, this study aims to look at the relationship between construction app acceptance and the digital qualities of construction professionals (CPs) to determine whether understanding the connection can assist predict construction app user behaviour.

This study’s theoretical approach was derived from the European Union digital competence model, which supports the hypothesis that the traits associated with digital competence enable digitally competent CPs to embrace construction apps. Six hypotheses were developed to investigate the theories, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to predict the acceptance of construction apps based on the CP’s attributes.

The investigation’s findings revealed that the CP’s attributes can explain at least 50% of the proportion of variance in 34 construction apps. The use of a smartphone (Mean Score = 3.30; Factor Loading = 0.609), technological orientation (Mean Score = 3.55; Factor Loading = 0.663), information technology skills (Mean Score = 3.48; Factor Loading = 0.649), information on construction innovation (Mean Score = 3.73; Factor Loading = 0.528) and interest in R&D (Mean Score = 3.48; Factor Loading = 0.531) are the digital characteristics that can essentially forecast the acceptance of construction apps. The data backs up the notion that CPs would gain digital competency before accepting construction apps. This is because a digitally savvy CP will most likely embrace construction apps.

Frameworks for accelerating digital technologies and innovations in the construction industry have been unveiled in this study. The research also gives recommendations for the evaluation, design and implementation of a more attractive construction app. This study also has implications for investigating the impacts of risk aversion, personal connection, social influence, technological curiosity and digital nativity as predictors of construction app uptake.

The findings of this study serve as an index for prioritising digital traits for CPs and characterising a digitally proficient construction professional. The findings provide recommendations for organising, training and supporting construction personnel’ digital competencies. The research is useful for developing and implementing instructional digital training programmes.

This study is unusual in that it provides clear insights on construction apps as well as variables for building great user-experience apps for CPs, which are both limited in the literature.

The study set out to determine: (1) what were the searching characteristics of end users in a non‐academic environment and explain this in the light of their information needs; (2) whether these characteristics were those that were ascribed to end users in the professional literature; (3) whether they differed materially from those of information professionals working in the same fields. Searching characteristics were interpreted in their widest sense to include: command utilisation/knowledge; search success and satisfaction; volume of searching; searching style/ approach; duration of searches; file selection; willingness to delegate and levels of training. These issues were explored in relation to two practitioner groups — journalists from The Guardian newspaper, and politicians from The House of Commons. Comparative data were also sought from information professionals in these two organisations. A mixture of social and statistical methods was used to monitor end‐user and professional searching, though transactional log analysis was strongly featured. Altogether the searching behaviour of 170 end users was evaluated in the light of the searching behaviour of seventy librarians. The principal findings were that: in some respects end users did conform to the picture that information professionals have of them: they did search with a limited range of commands; more of their searches produced no results, and search statements were simply constructed. But in other respects they confounded their image — they could be very quick and economical searchers, and they did not display metres of print‐out. However, there were variations between individual end users, and it was often possible to find an end‐user group that matched an information professional group on one aspect of online searching or another. The online behaviour of end users was very much related to their general information seeking behaviour; and to the fact that they were not trained.

Introduction Relativism of all shades and kinds is in fashion. For some decades, it has been trying to enter the very bastion of the academic heartland by questioning the prevailing cognitive realism in the philosophy of science (Kuhn, Feyerabend). More recently a somewhat different and stronger version of relativism has made some extraordinary advances in literary criticism (the movement of “deconstruction”) and spawned some controversy in the field of law (critical legal studies). The same tendencies have now emerged in architecture (Jencks). More alarmingly, perhaps, in the social sciences we observe a brand new interest in so‐ called “post‐modern” perspectives: post‐modern ethnography in anthropology (Tylor), new voices in sociology (Lash and Urri), and, of course, also the novel ideas representing economics as discourse with a distinctly post‐modern flavor (Amariglio; Rossetti; Milberg; Ruccio).

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the comprehensiveness of competing higher education sustainability assessments. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been increasingly communicating their sustainability commitments to the public. To assist the public in evaluating these claims, a broad range of actors have assessed the sustainability of HEIs.

The paper uses an evaluation framework (the GRI-HE) consisting of criteria developed by the Global Reporting Initiative and the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future to analyze the comprehensiveness of nine publicly-available frameworks that have been used to assess HEI sustainability.

While finding that in general these assessments are not comprehensive and particularly lack coverage of the social and economic dimensions of sustainability, the paper identifies the Pacific Sustainability Index and Sustainability Tracking and Assessment Rating System (STARS) as the most comprehensive assessments in the sector.

This study does not assess the quality of the match to the GRI-HE’s criteria, only whether they match to a reasonable degree. The analysis highlights areas where each HEI sustainability assessment framework can add criteria and improve their comprehensiveness and validity. Future research should explore the causes and relative importance of the gaps in these frameworks.

The paper provides a valuable discussion and demonstration of the use of comprehensiveness as a proxy metric for the validity of sustainability assessments. This analysis is the first detailed, comprehensive and transparent analysis of HEI sustainability assessments based on a broad-based and widely accepted set of criteria.

This is an exploratory and qualitative study to consider approaches to capture, analyse and monitor perceptions from big data, to inform and contribute to place management research and practice of botanic gardens (BGs). This paper aims to address the ongoing significant threat to BGs due to funding being cut and the need to inform and develop sustainable revenue streams for their survival.

Guiding research questions for this study were: ‘What are the perceived strengths and areas for development for 2 BGs via a Leximancer Automatic Content Analysis (ACA) of TripAdvisor online reviews; and do they match BGs purpose of scientific research, conservation, display and education?’ A content analysis of 582 online reviews from 2007 to 2017 follows qualitative methodology techniques using a combination of manual and automatic text analysis (Leximancer text mining software). These approaches enabled a comparison of online TripAdvisor reviews with Likert-type or rating scale items of 1 to 5 stars.

Insights revealed the use of Leximancer and TripAdvisor (or similar innovations) as tools for potential place management, place marketing communications and monitoring purposes. Predominant perceptions extracted from reviews are not concerned with documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific discovery, conservation, display and education. Reviews clearly focus more upon aesthetics, facilities and services, which support previous studies. Overall, reviews highlighted positive sentiments towards the BGs.

Limitations link to limited data across two BGs, synthesis and meaning of complex perceptions, matters of subjectivity and time needed to interpret information. Implications enable insights into BG “place” gleaned from big data in the form of user-generated content and electronic Word-Of-Mouth using Leximancer; viewed as a measure alongside management action plans. Future studies could strengthen debate and action regarding the use of Leximancer, and also public perception of BGs’ core functions, importance and value. The research supports potential to monitor and transform perceptions, values and beliefs. Outcomes could eventually inform policy and generate a much-needed shift in funds and resources for BGs by highlighting their relevance and value to society.

An empirical and methodological contribution via peer reviewed studies of visitor perceptions via online reviews of Britain’s BGs “place” and “space” analysed with Leximancer have never been published. This study critically explores potential visitor and place management needs of BGs. Managers can make better use of big data from social media platforms/digital channels, using a novel type of data analytical software like Leximancer for strategic planning; with more informed approaches to place management, innovation and development. A key contribution of this study is this ACA methodological approach for place management.