Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between income inequality and economic growth, both in linear and non‐linear specifications.

The paper has employed annual time series data over the period of 1971 up to 2005. Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) bounds testing approach has been used for cointegration and error correction model for short run behavior. Unit root problem is handled by the use of augmented Dickey‐Fuller unit root test.

The analysis findings are sharply contrasted to the significant association between income inequality and economic growth found in 1994 by Alesina and Roderick and by Persson and Tabellini. The empirical evidence provides support for the existence of Kuznets inverted‐U as well as inverted S‐shaped curve in Pakistan.

This paper opens up new directions for policy‐making authorities to equalize income distribution in the case of a small transition economy like Pakistan.

This paper convincingly argues that there is a need for case‐by‐case study on such a project in view of each country's unique characteristics. This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature with reference to Pakistan, being a pioneering attempt that employs ARDL cointegration approach.

In a world with over 8 billion people, ensuring sustainable food sources is paramount. This chapter explores the pivotal role of aquaculture in addressing the challenges of marine conservation and sustainable resource use. Aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14, aquaculture emerges as a solution to relieve pressure on wild fish stocks and enhance food security. The chapter emphasises the rapid growth of this sector and underscores the importance of international cooperation and policies like the Global Ocean Treaty in ensuring marine biodiversity. While acknowledging the potential of aquaculture, the chapter delves into environmental concerns surrounding fishmeal and fish oil in feed. It advocates for innovative technologies and ingredients to establish a circular bioeconomy. The significance of higher education in advancing sustainable aquafeed technology, breeding, and genetics is highlighted, with a discussion on milestones achieved by experts like Dr John E. Halver and Professor Simon J. Davies. Examining technological advances, the chapter explores molecular genetics, transgenics, and gene editing, particularly CRISPR biosciences, as transformative tools for enhancing aquaculture productivity and sustainability. Environmental impacts are addressed, proposing solutions such as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and Multitrophic Aquaculture Systems (MTA) to minimise ecological footprints. Throughout, there is a strong emphasis on the integral role of research and education in fostering sustainable aquaculture practices. The chapter advocates for specialised courses and programs in higher education to prepare the next generation for the challenges and opportunities in aquaculture, ensuring its contribution to global food security and environmental stewardship.

Cultural entrepreneurship research examines how actors upend the status quo by gaining the legitimacy and resources needed to advance novel ways of doing things. Extant studies, however, rarely spotlight an important tension: the pursuit of legitimacy and resources needed to advance adoption is often at odds with the desire to safeguard endeavors from external influence. While entrepreneurs are largely associated with the promotion of endeavors, they are also inclined to preserve meaningful values and practices, uphold family or ethnic legacies and traditions, and protect the integrity and authenticity of cultural products. Many of these valued outcomes are put at risk when endeavors diffuse beyond their cultural hearth and garner the interest of outsiders. How do entrepreneurs promote endeavors while protecting them from unwanted external influence? This paper sheds light on the motives, activities, and strategic approaches to entrepreneurship of actors that are both change-makers and culture-bearers. It elucidates trade-offs between evangelizing activities that promote rapid adoption of endeavors (i.e., the “hare”) and shepherding activities that safeguard the integrity of an endeavor (i.e., the “turtle”). It proposes and calls for research into alternative solutions that transcend the two approaches.

In the past five years, state education agencies (SEAs) have increased the number of social and emotional learning (SEL) policies, oftentimes engaging stakeholders across the state. However, few use multiple sources of stakeholder engagement data to develop and improve their SEL standards and resources (Yoder, Dusenbury, Martinez-Black, & Weissberg, 2020). This chapter describes the experience of a nonprofit research organization supporting an SEA and a volunteer workgroup in Washington state to gather and use several forms of stakeholder input and feedback in developing statewide SEL guidance for K-12 educators. Operating from a research–practice partnership framework (Coburn & Penuel, 2016), the team assisted the workgroup members in applying both an ecological systems theory perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and an equity lens to their work through an iterative process of data collection, interpretation, and use. This chapter describes the process and outcomes of this research–practice partnership and provides examples of how the workgroup incorporated stakeholder input and feedback into the development of SEL guidance and resources. We offer insights and lessons learned from these efforts to expand the perspectives represented in SEL research and policymaking. Our aim is to highlight the importance of stakeholder engagement to ensure that SEL guidance considers the priorities and values of diverse communities, especially historically marginalized communities. We hope to encourage more research–practice partnerships to investigate and amplify community perspectives in SEL.

States that owing to foresight and planning by Portuguese business executives, most firms in Portugal survived the difficult 1970s and 1980s and, as a consequence, are stronger in today’s competitive internal and external challenges. Sets out the methodology used and gives data analysis and results in a descriptive way, with the use of explanatory tables. Closes by stating that time‐based differentiation may offer new ways for firms competing in highly differentiated markets.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on challenges faced in human resource (HR) integration in subsidiary mergers of western corporations in Poland. The paper seeks to investigate the central themes in HR integration in terms of the role of the HR function and the implications for the local workforce.

A qualitative method research design was adopted with semi‐structured formal and informal interviews, participant observation, and secondary/primary data analysis.

Findings provide insights into the challenges of integrating the subsidiaries of western corporations based in transition economies and why problems might emerge from the collaboration between local and foreign managers. Specifically, the analysis suggests that a success of the HR integration might be particularly at stake in circumstances of a low HR power in a subsidiary and a low multiculturalism of the foreign investor.

The main study limitation concerns the fact that investigations concerned perspectives of local managers. It would be interesting in future research to observe the HR processes as perceived by both local executives and foreign parent decision‐makers.

The paper's findings may help managers and change agents to understand the specific challenges to HR integration of subsidiary mergers.

The results shed light on HR integration in subsidiaries of corporations from western economies based in emerging or developing regions. Specifically, in circumstances of a low HR power in a subsidiary and a low multiculturalism of the foreign investor, officially proclaimed friendly mergers may turn to hostile takeovers and drastic changes risk implemention without a clear understanding of the local context. Then, HR integration risks having a dysfunctional impact on the workforce and consequently, failing to deliver expected synergies and, in the long‐term, cause M&As failure.

The existing concept in the building rating scheme especially in developing countries was more focused on the environment, economic, social and culture. The new approach of the classroom condition index (CCI) assessment scheme has its uniqueness in environmental and social aspects because of high building performance in secondary school buildings. The requirements set by the Ministry of Education Malaysia include providing a conducive learning environment, especially for students who are considered as the main users of classrooms in school buildings. Currently, the school administration needs to manually record the condition of the classroom to increase its comfort level. The lack of a structured scheme for classroom assessment makes it difficult for school administration to focus on the overall classroom condition (physical environmental aspect) in the school building. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for classroom conditions by proposing a CCI assessment scheme for a secondary school building in Malaysia.

Mixed methods were used to carry out the study. The first stage of this study concentrates on developing a system for CCI that relates to physical elements in the classroom. This is done by reviewing the literature on the classroom physical performance, as well as a comparison between several building rating systems locally and abroad. The structure of the proposed CCI scheme is grouped into four main themes, namely, space management quality (SMQ), building condition (BC), indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and teaching and learning quality (TLQ). In addition, there are 12 categories and 23 indicators listed under this theme. The second stage focuses on formulating assessment categories with their relevant performance indicators. This phase undergoes a validation process by conducting a survey (questionnaire) toward the classroom’s main users, which are students and teachers. This is to ensure the accuracy of classroom conditions in the school building. A semi-structured interview was also conducted among building experts. They are building surveyors, building engineers, building designers and building performance experts to support the main findings in the second stage. Relative importance (RI) index approach has been applied to show the indicators weighting and ranking are used as data collections method by using Statistical Package of Social Science software to examine the RI of each category and indicator, respectively.

The findings show that prominent RI and balanced weights are formed from these four main themes. They are SMQ (19.9%), BC (26.6%), IEQ (33.2%) and TLQ (20.3%). The outcome of this study will contribute to a detailed assessment scheme for CCI at the secondary school building. The contribution of the CCI Assessment Scheme is more comprehensive and holistic than the conventional assessment process for BCs. It focuses specifically on classroom space as it is the most important area to achieve a high level of comfort comparing to other spaces in the school building. This holistic approach encompasses all types of classrooms. The concept of one tool fits all is seen as no longer a relevant adaptation in this context. This proposed tool is to be used only for the classroom (as the name CCI implies) and it cannot be used for the other types of spaces, for instance, teacher room, library, meeting room, toilet, canteen and, etc. This is because different spaces represent different physical indicators to be classified. This, in turn, contributes to a conducive learning environment for students in the school.

This paper provides the current information, knowledge and findings related to the classroom physical indicators in developing the assessment scheme for the classroom environment. It will assist both technical and non-technical experts to clarify the current condition of classroom physical performance that ideally may affect the students’ learning environment. The novelty of CCI development is not only on the adopted method but it also includes the ideas on next generation model of rating system that ideally need specific indicators and weighting to be generated into an intelligent computerized system.