Abhishek Mukherjee, Jonathan M. Scott, David Deakins and Paul McGlade
In exploring how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) overcame COVID-19 restrictions by deploying their specific dynamic capabilities to pivot their business models, this…
Abstract
Purpose
In exploring how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) overcame COVID-19 restrictions by deploying their specific dynamic capabilities to pivot their business models, this article explains the novel approaches that SMEs take and how they have responded to the financial challenges that arose from the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The article adopts a dynamic capabilities lens to explain: (1) the specific financial effects of the relatively “short” (seven week) COVID-19 lockdown during March and April 2020 on SMEs; (2) the barriers they faced; and (3) how they overcame these barriers. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews with the owner-manager or a senior manager in each surveyed SME. The interview data were analysed using NVivo.
Findings
Analysis of the findings revealed five key factors: (1) the capability of SMEs to access external resources, especially entrepreneurial finance; (2) their ability to reconfigure resources and plan for the longer term, yet retain flexibility; (3) how entrepreneurial learning provided the capability to deal with the “unplanned” events/uncertainty; (4) the importance of networking and sources of information; and (5) the remarkable optimism for a future recovery, despite the difficulties of the trading period.
Originality/value
This research fills a unique niche, as no previous studies have examined the resilience and dynamic capabilities of SMEs during a complete lockdown and business shutdown of this magnitude. This context, unprecedented in the history of modern economies, offers a new lens through which to understand the mechanisms of business survival and adaptation in times of severe disruptions. No previous studies have been conducted in unique circumstances during a time when SMEs were faced with such a strict lockdown with travel and business completely shut down.
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Outlines the service provided by Opportunity Youth, a unique personal development and health and social awareness programme delivered to 16‐18‐year‐olds undergoing youth training…
Abstract
Outlines the service provided by Opportunity Youth, a unique personal development and health and social awareness programme delivered to 16‐18‐year‐olds undergoing youth training in four community workshops in North and West Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opportunity Youth employs peer educators alongside professional health workers to provide a formal programme on social skills, relationships, sex education and alcohol/drugs awareness in parallel with an informal counselling and advice service. It provides a universally accepted and user‐friendly service for marginalized youth, offering, in most circumstances, a “one‐stop‐shop” within the context of youth training. The model is a flexible one and could be transferred to any context, but particularly where young people provide a captive audience, for example in schools and colleges. Suggests that health education for young people, by young people, supported and facilitated by professionals with health promotion experience, provides a new direction in health education for young people.
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Merata Kawharu, Paul Tapsell and Christine Woods
Exploring the links between resilience, sustainability and entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective means exploring the historic and socio-cultural context out of which a…
Abstract
Purpose
Exploring the links between resilience, sustainability and entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective means exploring the historic and socio-cultural context out of which a community originates. From this perspective, informed insight into a community’s ability to adapt and to transform without major structural collapse when confronted with exogenous challenges or crises can be gained. This paper explores the interplay between resilience and entrepreneurship in a New Zealand indigenous setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors provide a theoretical and case study approach, exploring four intersecting leadership roles, their guiding value system and application at a micro kin family level through a tourism venture and at a macro kin tribal level through an urban land development venture.
Findings
The findings demonstrate the importance of historical precedent and socio-cultural values in shaping the leadership matrix that addresses exogenous challenges and crises in an entrepreneurship context.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to New Zealand, but the findings have synergies with other indigenous entrepreneurship elsewhere. Further cross-cultural research in this field includes examining the interplay between rights and duties within indigenous communities as contributing facets to indigenous resilience and entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This research is a contribution to theory and to indigenous community entrepreneurship in demonstrating what values and behaviours are assistive in confronting shocks, crises and challenges. Its originality is in the multi-disciplinary approach, combining economic and social anthropological, indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives. The originality of this paper also includes an analysis of contexts that appear to fall outside contemporary entrepreneurship, but are in fact directly linked.
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Ulrike Pröbstl-Haider and Nina Mostegl
The effects of climate change are no longer a distant, slow-paced, future phenomenon. Due to the high dependency on reliable snow conditions, the tourism sector in Austria will…
Abstract
The effects of climate change are no longer a distant, slow-paced, future phenomenon. Due to the high dependency on reliable snow conditions, the tourism sector in Austria will need to rapidly implement adaptation measures to forego further negative impacts. However, the framing of the subject in tourism is already difficult and complex. Despite an increase in climate change awareness, the necessary collective change seems to be deliberately tardy and adaptation processes are slowly considered in political decision-making. Strategic documents on tourism policy are still lacking clear information about this challenging task and suitable strategies. Against this background, the chapter at hand discusses instruments and pathways to deal with wicked problems using climate change and winter tourism in Austria as an example. The adaptation processes for winter tourism make it possible to describe different strategies, such as normative authoritative ones, evidence-based technocratic problem-solving, incremental adjustments or participatory processes and to analyse them using case studies. It becomes clear that evidence-based, normative or participatory approaches all have their strengths and weaknesses. While, on the policy level in Austria, the discussion about the right instruments has just started, a closer look at the project-based level shows the significant potential of a bottom-up approach. However, what is required is more exchange between governmental levels, a transparent distribution of responsibilities, detailed adaptation monitoring and reliable climate-proofing of new and existing policies. Currently, it is the bottom-up processes that show more courage for change and effective implementation of measures against global warming.
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Eugenie A. Samier, Eman ElKaleh and Waheed Hammad
This chapter provides a critical and comprehensive review of the internationalisation literature. It starts with a brief discussion of the main factors and features that need to…
Abstract
This chapter provides a critical and comprehensive review of the internationalisation literature. It starts with a brief discussion of the main factors and features that need to be considered when internationalising the educational administration and leadership field. This is followed by a critique of the internationalisation of education and the many challenges that hinder the achievement of proper internationalisation. The third section provides an overview of the internationalisation models and practices in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology and political science, which is followed by a discussion on the internationalisation of education organisations in different countries with some examples from Arab and non-Western countries. The final section presents a critical review of literature on internationalising the curriculum and how culture competency and knowledge acquisition are key factors in achieving effective internationalisation. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book collection and the main ideas and concepts discussed in each chapter.
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Byoungho Ellie Jin, Heesoon Yang and Naeun Lauren Kim
Built on the prototype and cue theories, the purpose of this study is to understand how a country's prototypical brand, a corporate brand that most consumers associate with a…
Abstract
Purpose
Built on the prototype and cue theories, the purpose of this study is to understand how a country's prototypical brand, a corporate brand that most consumers associate with a country (e.g. Samsung), contributes to forming two dimensions of country image – overall country image (i.e. macro country image) and product-specific country image (i.e. micro country image) – and how country image impacts the product quality evaluations of Korean cosmetics, along with the moderating effect of national culture.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 491 US and Chinese consumers ages 20 and older and analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings confirmed the positive influence of prototypical brand image on macro and micro country image. Macro country image also had a positive effect on micro country image. However, only micro country image yielded a positive influence on the quality evaluations of Korean cosmetics. Analyses of the moderating effect of national culture showed that the positive influence of prototypical brand image on macro and micro country image was found to be stronger in China than in the US.
Originality/value
These findings provided new theoretical perspectives for country image studies, and practical insights for companies and governments, especially those in countries whose country image is less distinctive, to help develop effective marketing strategies.
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Tarila Zuofa and Edward G. Ochieng
This paper aims to extend the extant knowledge on virtual teams by examining the challenges of virtual project teams in organisations in Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to extend the extant knowledge on virtual teams by examining the challenges of virtual project teams in organisations in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Totally, 20 interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. Validity and reliability were achieved by first assessing the plausibility in terms of already existing knowledge on some of the virtual project team issues identified by participants.
Findings
The findings from this study confirmed the growing relevance of virtual project teams in highly competitive global business environments. It emerged that some of the challenges identified in the study had some level of congruence with those previously identified from similar studies from other geographical locations. The findings also suggested that challenges in virtual project teams can be linked to the organisation, the project team and the virtual environment or even a combination of all.
Practical implications
The present study corroborates the position that managing virtual project teams requires additional efforts to attain their objectives through effective communications and the adoption of appropriate technology.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its exploration of virtual project team challenges in a sub-Saharan Africa country (Nigeria). By identifying the challenges associated with virtual project teams, stakeholders will be better able to successfully establish and manage virtual project teams better.
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Laetitia Teixeira, Maria João Azevedo, Sara Alves, Cátia L. Pires and Constança Paúl
In Portugal, the three main kinds of care services available for older people are nursing homes, day centers and home care services. The use of these care services is mostly based…
Abstract
Purpose
In Portugal, the three main kinds of care services available for older people are nursing homes, day centers and home care services. The use of these care services is mostly based on complex socioeconomic and functional criteria; however it is not clear if this placement corresponds to a higher/lower risk of adverse outcomes. The purposes of this paper are: to characterize clients of each type of service; to estimate the proportion of individuals at perceived risk of each adverse outcome according to type of service; to assess the ability of the Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC) to identify the risk profiles according to type of service.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample comprised individuals aged 65+ (n=224), receiving care at home, in day centers or in nursing homes. The identification of individuals at risk for three adverse outcomes (institutionalization, hospitalization and death) was performed using a short pre-screen instrument (RISC).
Findings
The RISC identified mental state issues as the unique factor that differentiated clients according the type of care services (χ2 (6, N=224)=20.96, p=0.002), with day center presenting the lowest percentage of mental health concerns and nursing home presenting the highest percentage (44.44 and 71.91 percent, respectively). Additionally, a gradient was found between perceived risk of adverse outcomes (institutionalization and hospitalization) and care of levels required.
Originality/value
The RISC can be used to discriminate people in different settings of care and can be helpful in the selection of groups at risk that will benefit more from available services.
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Astrid Ancely, Sara Laurencin-Dalicieux, Catherine Baussois, Anthony Blanc, Cathy Nabet, Charlotte Thomas and Géromine Fournier
The purpose of this study is to describe the oral health status of inmates. The secondary aims were to compare recidivists with first-time offenders and also study the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe the oral health status of inmates. The secondary aims were to compare recidivists with first-time offenders and also study the impact of psychoactive drugs on the oral health status.
Design/methodology/approach
This retrospective study included 120 male inmates from a French prison. Data from the medical and the dental questionnaires and examinations were collected and analyzed.
Findings
The results showed that overall, the inmates had a poor oral health despite their young age. This population was at high risk regarding caries and periodontal diseases due to sedentary behaviors, improper diet, drug, alcohol and tobacco consumption. In total, 93% of inmates had at least one decayed untreated tooth and 95% had periodontal disease. The use of psychoactive drugs seemed strongly related to oral health status degradation. However, the comparison between recidivists and first-time offenders showed few differences.
Practical implications
The need for periodontal and dental care is considerable in this population and increased in this environment where risk factors such as addictive behaviors and poor eating habits are common. The impact of psychoactive drugs on oral health should also be taken into consideration.
Social implications
Unfortunately, even though strategies for the prevention and management of oral health in prisons have been put in place for some years, the results still seem insufficient.
Originality/value
There are still few studies that analyze the impact of this medication on oral health in prisons.