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Many marketers are missing an efficient means to grow their businesses and gain a competitive advantage by blindly implementing broadscale strategies and ignoring geographical segmentation. This introduces “Cluster Marketing,” a focused, local markets strategy based on two important principles of war: “economy of force” and “mass.”

In Hong Kong, over 20,000 private residential buildings will be 50 plus years old by 2039. However, building maintenance has not been owners’ popular interest because of the high cost as well as the complexities in justifying whether the quantities and prices of the maintenance works are reasonable. This paper therefore aims to validate the practicality of adopting Scan-to-BIM: Terrestrial Laser Scan (TLS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) to perform quantity take-offs (QTO) for estimating building maintenance costs.

A 64-year-old tenement building was selected to conduct a case study. In this instance, the building had undergone a Scan-to-BIM survey approach to generate QTO for the bills of quantities for external painting works. The Scan-to-BIM approach includes site visit, positioning of scanning equipment, assignment of circular scan routes, point cloud registration and identification of residual error. After that, time, cost and quality data were logged into contrast with QTO on as-built plans for external wall plastering works.

The “time”, “cost” and “quality” of the Scan-to BIM practice were then examined and compared with the prevailing practices of manual measurements on as-built drawings. As noted from the results, the initial cost of Scan-to BIM is high, owing to the cost of equipment, software and capable available operators. However, the authors identified that the time and cost can be significantly minimised by developing and implementing efficient practices such as preparing a detailed scan plan, equipping modeller with quantity surveying knowledge, using automated object recognition and 5D BIM software packages such as Vico Office and CostX.

The upshot is that Scan-to-BIM could be one of the measures to advance the clarity in the QTO and estimated price of the maintenance projects.

The practicability of Scan-to-BIM has received limited attention on existing building maintenance project. The Scan-to-BIM approach was examined using a case building of a 64-year-old tenement building. The approach demonstrated in this research study is promised to advance the clarity in the QTO and estimated price of maintenance project.

Policy makers, professional associations and scholars continue to advocate for the integration of enhanced clinical experiences for future teachers’ preparation. These recommendations reflect the growing recognition that few events in preservice teachers’ education are more significant than their experiences in the classrooms of veteran peers. Aware of the fact that the field of teacher education needs examples of effective clinical experiences, the authors examined the “critical, project-based” (CPB) model, employing Photovoice activities in a dropout prevention course in a secondary education partner school at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

Aware that the field of teacher education needs examples of effective clinical experiences, the authors examined the CPB model, employing Photovoice activities in a dropout prevention course in a secondary education partner school at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article they detail a practitioner research examination that explores the experiences of 12 preservice middle/high school teachers, reporting on these individuals’ considerations of general pedagogies, writing instruction strategies and teaching personas.

Results suggest that preservice teachers might best identify pedagogical practices that are consistent with their nascent teaching identities via experiences that occur in school-university partnerships in which future teachers are positioned as pedagogues.

This manuscript explores the use of the “CPB” clinical experience model, identifying the impacts of this approach for preparing future teachers.

This study aims to examine how being part of a WhatsApp community of doctoral researchers over a five-year period influences the author’s well-being, learning and professional development.

This study adopts a digital autoethnographic approach, using the author’s own contributions to a WhatsApp group of doctoral researchers as data.

For the researcher, WhatsApp plays a significant and positive role in fostering community. The group engenders a sense of connection in a “backstage” community, where feelings can be shared honestly and reassurance received, thus supporting well-being. In this community, it is easy to seek advice about research. It also provides a low-stakes environment in which to learn how to offer advice to others, the experience of doing so contributing to professional development as a doctoral supervisor.

The insights gained will be useful for doctoral researchers considering the potential value of peer support and also for those supporting and supervising them.

This paper provides a rare glimpse into a peer-led WhatsApp community of doctoral researchers. It adds to the literature that uses rhizome theory as a theoretical lens, showing how rhizomatic principles and ideas around assemblages can be helpful in analysing multiple aspects of WhatsApp groups and other similar online communities.

Despite the online shopping trend, many women still prefer in-store experiences for trying on and buying clothes. The body positivity movement endorsed by many brands implies that all women, even those with lower body appreciation, should feel included in this setting. However, studies have yet to quantitatively explore the mediating role of women’s positive body image between clothing size and in-store experiences. To address this gap, this study examined the in-store experiences of 642 women from largely Western nations (Mage = 45.96, standard deviation (SD) = 9.31) who self-reported as straight-, mid- and plus-sizes and the mediating role of body appreciation.

Participants completed online questionnaires with measures including clothing size, body appreciation, in-store experiences and preferences for in-store changes.

Women of mid-size and plus-size were more likely than women of straight-size to report lower body appreciation, which led to a greater desire for guidance from staff about styles but less likelihood to approach them, higher discomfort going up a size and lower confidence trying on clothes. In contrast, straight-size women generally felt more comfortable and confident in-store clothes shopping. A direct link between clothing size and lower purchase intentions without in-store representation was found; however, body appreciation did not mediate this link. Preferences for in-store changes included better support from sales staff and more inclusive imagery.

This study indicates that in-store clothes shopping may not feel like retail therapy for women who identify as mid-size or plus-size and experience low body appreciation. It highlights the need for comprehensive reform within the fashion retail industry by prioritizing inclusivity through better staff support and in-store representation for all sizes.