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Population ageing, coupled with economic uncertainty and a shifting workforce structure, has directed the attention of public and organizational policy makers toward the potential contribution of older workers and skilled migrants in meeting labor supply shortages in ageing populations. This chapter presents labor supply and demand scenarios for 10 OECD countries and examines trends in the labor force participation of older workers against the backdrop of changes to the nature of work in an era of globalization, casualization, and, increasingly, automation. Brief analysis of each country’s situation and policy responses indicates that China, Japan, and Korea stand out as being at particular risk of being unable to maintain growth without undertaking drastic action, although their areas of focus need to differ. A limitation of the study is that GDP projections used in labor demand analysis were based on historical rates and represented past potential and a long-run average of historic economic output. Future research might also undertake comparative analysis of case studies addressing different potential solutions to workforce ageing. A key implication of the study is that there is a need to take a blended approach to public policy regarding older workers in a changing labor market. Where migration has historically been a source of labor supplementation, this may become a less viable avenue over the near future. Future shortfalls in labor imply that economies will increasingly need to diversify their sources of workers in order to maintain economic growth. For public policy makers the challenge will be to overcome public antipathy to migration and longer working lives.

The New Zealand Serious Fraud Office (NZSFO) was set up in 1989 in response to issues arising out of the 1980s financial crisis, in particular the share‐market crash of 1987. In the short period of about a year the total sum thought to be involved in corporate fraud schemes in New Zealand had increased dramatically, from NZ$10m–15m before 1988 to NZ$50m–70m in 1989. Consequently, the Department of Justice proposed setting up a specialist institution and legal mechanisms for the investigation of serious or complex fraud.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the Irish community pharmacy sector in the context of power relationship theory. Specifically, the paper analyses the relationship between dispensary software vendors and the independent community pharmacist; and explore dominant industry partners' influence on individual pharmacies in terms of technology adoption. The core objective is to ascertain whether the potential for a cooperative construct can be realised in this milieu. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive literature review precedes a full investigation and analysis of the Irish community pharmacy sector's competitive environment, in the context of the pre‐mentioned power relationship theory. Findings – This research uncovered a potential alternative to the industry's existing power imbalance in the form of a cooperative construct between a team of independent community pharmacists and an employed software vendor. The purpose of this partnership was to ensure the installed software focused on the pharmacist's strategic needs rather than those of the dominant partners. The paper goes on to discuss the failure of this partnership in the context of independent pharmacist's future competitive survival. Research limitations/implications – Data collection was limited to the community pharmacy sector in the Republic of Ireland. Therefore, care should be taken in making generalisations from this study. Practical implications – In the absence of cooperative constructs, power relationship imbalances will continue to exist in this competitive environment, to the detriment of the small firm. Originality/value – Little research has been completed in the area of small business cooperative constructs as a means of competing successfully in a power relationship scenario. This paper goes some way to redressing this.

The purpose of this paper is to unfold factors anchored in visitors’ experiences possibly determinant of the success or failure of cultural festivals.

The studied data included 931 experience descriptions, 23 interviews and 51 empathy-based stories collected from 17 cultural festivals around Finland during the summers of 2012 and 2013. The nature of the study was exploratory, the theoretical framework was social constructionism, and the analysis was done using Foucauldian discourse analysis. The Method of Empathy Based Stories, a non-active role-playing technique, was used in the data collection.

The identified success factors were the programme, good quality food, sense of community, chill-out opportunities and building blocks of one’s identity. The factors that might cause failures were commercialised and low-quality programme, the low quality of services, commercialism demonstrated by elevated ticket and service pricing, VIP services confronting egalitarianism, crowd control and queueing and anti-social behaviour.

Three areas of particular interest were: how to nurture identity construction and personal well-being, how to enhance egalitarianism within the festival community, and how to promote the desired code of conduct without applying unnecessary rules and restrictions. If successful in these, the festival could boast of features that are not easy to replicate and that could create a competitive edge.

Empathy-based stories combined with discourse analysis contributed new insights on the issues of the success and failure of festivals. The empathy-based stories were particularly useful in retrieving informants’ perceptions of the future and for identifying factors that might cause failures.

This paper examines the effect which the rent assessment process has on the level of rents and rental values in the commercial property market in England and Wales, by asking: is there an accepted definition of open market rental value which is consistently adhered to, irrespective of the context in which the rent is assessed? How, in theory, do the procedures by which an assessment of open market rental value is arrived at differ as between a new letting, a lease renewal, and a rent review? Is there any evidence to suggest that any theoretical differences in the operation of the various rent assessment procedures are borne out in practice? In particular, is there any evidence that in new lettings and lease renewals lease terms are changed after the rent has been finalised? Is there any evidence to demonstrate that there are different levels of rent which are sufficiently consistent to be referable to the context in which the rent was assessed? If so, does this produce difficulties in the valuation process which may not be presently fully appreciated? In addition to a review of the relevant literature, the primary research undertaken for the study was a survey of surveyors and solicitors involved in commercial lettings and rent reviews and the compilation of a database of rental valuations and transactions.

The purpose of this research is to focus on how students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds encounter online learning environments, and to assess the extent to which cultural factors impact on learners' engagement with online learning.

The study explores how a culturally diverse cohort of students engage with the organisational, technological and pedagogical aspects of online learning depicted in Conole's (2004) “framework for e‐learning”. A total of 241 students in online learning programs in a large university in South Australia were surveyed, yielding a response rate of 65 percent.

Analysis indicated that cultural differences do have an impact on participant satisfaction with organisational and technological issues, with local respondents indicating significantly more positive perceptions than international respondents. Significant also was a reported lack of peer engagement and intercultural communication.

First, the study was restricted to students in one large university in Australia, using one in‐house online learning system, and studying business courses. Future research could replicate the study across a range of universities and across different countries, which would enhance generalisability. In addition, researchers can expand the model used in this study, testing other variables which impact on online learning.

These differences in reported engagement with online learning reflect differences in students' experience of online courses as culturally inclusive, and have implications for the quality of online education. These reported experiences may be linked to the amount of communicative interaction among students.

The paper examined the cultural aspects of student engagement with the organisational, technological and pedagogical components of online learning. Its findings suggest a direction to improve the quality of learning for all students by constructing a culturally inclusive online learning environment.

Despite indicators being regarded as ideal tools to help achieve sustainability in tourism, their application within Ireland remains under researched. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to advance the knowledge base in the hospitality and tourism field by presenting baseline research from the first application of all 43 of the indicators that make up the European tourism indicator system (ETIS) in county Clare, Ireland.

This study used the pre-existing visitor, enterprise and resident surveys that accompany the ETIS indicator system in a number of honey pot destinations within county Clare. This approach was complemented further through desk research to gather the necessary data on all 43 core indicators of the ETIS.

While the application of the ETIS in county Clare constitutes a significant advancement towards evidence informed planning for tourism. There does exist a number of information gaps relating to specific core indicators of the ETIS. Which, if not monitored and benchmarked over time, could have serious ramifications for the future sustainability of tourism in Ireland.

This paper not only discuss the findings from the application of all 43 core indicators of the ETIS in one specific destination but also develops new knowledge on the use of tourism indicators and the move towards evidence informed planning for tourism. Furthermore, this study contributes significantly to the theoretical development of our field, as the ETIS has not been applied in its entirety throughout Europe.

While much attention has recently been focused on the problems facing Internet start‐ups, the challenge of e‐business affects a much broader constituency of organisations. For established companies, the key challenge is one of change. Such companies must rethink fundamental aspects of company strategy, which may lead to a radical overhaul of existing ways of doing business, with company structure and culture becoming much more customer‐focused. Resistance at all company levels may need to be overcome, with a need to build commitment and consensus around e‐business strategies. However, companies must also deal with a paradox in e‐business change. As the “dot.com” crash showed, there are many strengths in “bricks and mortar” companies. Evolving a new business model based around “e‐enablement” must therefore avoid the “baby and bathwater syndrome”. Only by recognising and rising to these challenges and dilemmas, and devoting sufficient time, resources and expertise to them, will companies make a success of their e‐business ventures.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.