Ralitza Nikolaeva, Sean Field and Aliya Tskhay
The study examines the diversity of ethical motivations for investments in fossil fuels amid growing calls to decarbonize. Faced with the dilemma between energy needs and net-zero…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the diversity of ethical motivations for investments in fossil fuels amid growing calls to decarbonize. Faced with the dilemma between energy needs and net-zero commitments, managers need to reconcile seemingly irreconcilable external pressures. The purpose is to provide insights into the ethics justifying their investment decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on ethnographic research, participant observation and interviews with oil and gas executives, private equity partners, managing directors, bankers, lawyers, consultants and engineers in the US and the UK.
Findings
The findings show how managers in the oil and gas ecosystem motivate their actions in response to external pressures for decarbonization. The leitmotif is that they do the right thing even if they acknowledge that not all stakeholders agree. The findings provide insights into why net-zero pledges have failed to stem the flow of capital into fossil fuels.
Practical implications
The authors propose a nuanced engagement with stakeholders that goes beyond risk-return calculations on investments in hydrocarbons. Recognizing the diversity of ethical perspectives, money managers have the opportunity to engage institutional constituents as owners of the collective pools of capital rather than just as beneficiaries in making investment decisions.
Social implications
Money managers should be more engaged with stakeholders whose well-being depends on the funds' investments. They could facilitate the creation of partnerships with public and private organizations such as banks, national funds, city governments, pension funds, foundations, universities and religious organizations. It would be beneficial to all stakeholders to understand the nuanced and varied ethical frameworks that inform hydrocarbon investment and divestment decisions.
Originality/value
The article uses timely in-depth interview data on an issue of existential importance. The authors contribute a better understanding of how and why institutional investor capital is flowing into hydrocarbons at a time when calls to divest are louder than ever.
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Librarians using dBase II will be familiar with its retrieval problems, particularly from complex fields. dBase II has two commands for searching: locate acts sequentially on the…
Abstract
Librarians using dBase II will be familiar with its retrieval problems, particularly from complex fields. dBase II has two commands for searching: locate acts sequentially on the main file and so can take a long time, depending on the size of the file. FIND requires that an inverted index file be set up, which it then searches quickly.
Games and learning research has diverged into “games for learning” and “games as learning” research. This paper aims to provide a third framing, “games with learning”, that can…
Abstract
Purpose
Games and learning research has diverged into “games for learning” and “games as learning” research. This paper aims to provide a third framing, “games with learning”, that can help address the lived experiences learners have with these media outside of formal, instructional contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a critical analysis of the current games and learning field, considering what has been missed by recent research in the field and how we might benefit from further consideration of what Bernard Suits calls the “lusory attitude” or voluntary choice to accept inefficiencies in achieving goals. The paper analyzes dominant rhetoric of educational game research, with the intent of revealing the implicit assumptions about play and choice that much recent “games for learning” and “games as learning” work may have ignored.
Findings
The paper reveals that the further consideration of learning through extant play with games (characterized here as “games with learning”) can be a means of shifting the direction of educational games research toward investigations of how games are played “in the wilds” of out-of-school contexts. The paper advocates for a shifting of focus from compulsory contexts to the study of voluntary game play.
Social implications
The paper argues for the complex value of games and gameplay in non-institutional settings, and advocates for further research to understand games in non-institutional spaces.
Originality/value
The key argument is that games and learning to date has focused inordinately on how games can further educational design, rather than how the use of games can reveal important new contexts for learning.
Kai-Sean Lee and Chen-Wei (Willie) Tao
Informed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems view of creativity and Chad Borkenhagen’s conceptualization of open source cooking, this study explored how a group of extraordinary…
Abstract
Purpose
Informed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems view of creativity and Chad Borkenhagen’s conceptualization of open source cooking, this study explored how a group of extraordinary pastry chef used Instagram to openly express creativity, disseminate knowledge and reveal culinary secrets. The subsequent impacts of such actions were also assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitatively driven mixed-method approach was conducted using a nested mixed-method design. A total of 2,456 Instagram posts were visually analyzed alongside a series of interviews with elite pastry chefs over a two-year period.
Findings
Analysis distilled three themes that delineated how elite pastry chefs express creativity and share knowledge mindfully, ethically and altruistically on Instagram. The findings also converged to form a new theoretical model, “systems view of culinary creative sharing,” which accounts for the multifaceted considerations of culinary knowledge sharing on social media.
Research limitations/implications
Findings converged to form a systems view of culinary knowledge sharing. This is peculiarly useful for scholars who are interested in developing a greater understanding about “where and how” creative ideas and knowledge originate, disseminate and receive corroborations in the contemporary digital era.
Originality/value
This study highlighted that a new praxis of open sharing looms large in the culinary profession. This praxis symbolizes a movement away from the traditional mindset of safeguarding culinary secrets and toward a more transparent and open philosophy toward knowledge sharing in the culinary community.
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Howook (Sean) Chang, Chang Huh, Tiffany S. Legendre and John J. Simpson
A growing number of travelers seek well-being when traveling. As concerning about outdoor air pollution in tourism destinations escalates, little is known about indoor air…
Abstract
Purpose
A growing number of travelers seek well-being when traveling. As concerning about outdoor air pollution in tourism destinations escalates, little is known about indoor air pollution in hotel guestrooms. The purpose of the present study is to assess particulate matter (PM) pollution in US hotel guestrooms and to provide baseline indoor PM readings in occupied and unoccupied rooms.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of field tests and experiments monitoring PM levels were conducted in the guestrooms overnight – with and without occupants – using the sophisticated, industrial-grade PM-monitoring equipment.
Findings
The results revealed that PM levels were very low when rooms were unoccupied or when guests were asleep. However, unhealthy PM mass concentrations were observed in occupied rooms when guests engaged in physical activity such as showering and walking around or while room attendants cleaned rooms. Among the physical activities, room cleaning caused hazardous indoor PM pollution, reaching 1,665.9 µg/m3 of PM10 and 140.4 µg/m3 of PM2.5 although they tended to be brief.
Research limitations/implications
Leveraging increasing guest demand in well-being is essential for sustainable business and further growth. Indoor air quality must be recognized as an important factor to be controlled for well-being and health of guests and employees. Major hotel brands should take it into consideration as they infuse well-being DNA into their products and culture.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical investigation of PM pollution both in occupied and unoccupied hotel guestrooms in the USA, which reveals unhealthy PM pollution associated with the routine human activities in occupied guestrooms.
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Marta Ortega Vega, Chris Attoe, Hannah Iannelli, Aleks Saunders and Sean Cross
Public mental health training can effectively support well-being at a population level. The application of this type of training is increasingly prevalent, however, training…
Abstract
Purpose
Public mental health training can effectively support well-being at a population level. The application of this type of training is increasingly prevalent, however, training evaluation is currently limited and inconsistent. This paper aims to summarise the characteristics of public mental health training available in England, presents key quality criteria for this training and identifies gaps in training provision.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a pragmatic mixed-methods approach including database and Google Searches, focus groups and survey methods. The data analysis included a structured data extraction template for the training availability scoping and thematic analysis of the survey and focus groups.
Findings
This paper identifies a total of 74 training courses targeting workplace employees, young people and the general population. Most courses were delivered face-to-face (54), followed by e-learning (16) and blended modalities (4). This paper derives four core quality principles, focussing on the training approach, key features of training, trainer attributes and evaluation. There were no significant gaps in training provision, although areas for future development included consistency in public mental health terminology, systems and populations requiring additional training and the logistics of training delivery, etc.
Originality/value
The results contribute to the evidence base of interventions that are currently available, supporting the efforts to evaluate the impact of training provision in this area. This paper provides a novel approach to assessing training quality and discuss areas for development and innovation in this field.
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Mie Augier and Sean F.X. Barrett
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of James G. March’s key ideas and extend and integrate them with the works and ideas of John Boyd, whose work is highly relevant to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of James G. March’s key ideas and extend and integrate them with the works and ideas of John Boyd, whose work is highly relevant to, yet neglected by, behavioral and evolutionary perspectives on decision-making, organizations and strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper integrates and synthesizes ideas in behavioral organization studies with those of John Boyd.
Findings
The authors suggest that when integrated, Boydian and Marchian ideas can enrich the understanding of particular ideas and mechanisms identified in behavioral organization studies and help broaden the intellectual and interdisciplinary range of the field in consonance with March’s vision for it.
Originality/value
The authors combine and integrate ideas central to the field of organization studies with those of an “outsider.”
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THE NINETIENTH ANNIVERSARY of Sean O'Casey's birth and the recent acquisition by the New York Public Library of the papers of his literary estate afford an opportunity to view…
Abstract
THE NINETIENTH ANNIVERSARY of Sean O'Casey's birth and the recent acquisition by the New York Public Library of the papers of his literary estate afford an opportunity to view, once more, the remarkable achievements of a dramatist of universal distinction. A passionate believer in the cause of man's dignity and freedom, whose plays touched off riots and sparked off controversies, whose works wrung the beauty and passion and heartaches from the experiences of everyday life and ‘whose lips were royally touched’—to quote J. C. Trewin's recent colourful phrase—O'Casey was, with Shaw, one of the few incomparably great playwrights of the present century. Not without his detractors: one critic's jibe that O'Casey is ‘an extremely overrated writer with two or three competent Naturalist plays to his credit, followed by a lot of ideological bloat and embarrassing bombast’ is the kind of factitious reaction one expects from critically immature minds. Shaw's plays, at first, were slighted, but they survived, and today are flourishing; predictably, O'Casey's will enjoy a similar fate. O'Casey is a world dramatist in the widest sense, because he viewed the theatre in the same epic way as Shakespeare and the rest of the Elizabethans.
The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's experiences of youth justice supervision with particular reference to the efficacy of participatory practices. This paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's experiences of youth justice supervision with particular reference to the efficacy of participatory practices. This paper is based on findings from a study concerning the extent and nature of children’s participation in decision-making in youth justice. The paper uses Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, as a heuristic/practical device, to investigate children’s ability to express agency and shape or influence the content and format of interventions and approaches in youth justice.
Design/methodology/approach
The researcher’s interest in understanding the perceptions and experiences of youth justice supervision led to the adoption of the qualitative approach and specifically in-depth interviews and participant observations. The researcher interviewed front-line professionals (n = 14), operational managers (n = 6) and children under youth justice supervision (n = 20). This study involved 15 months of fieldwork undertaken between 2016 and 2017 at a youth offending service in England.
Findings
Several young people were seeking to exert minimal energy to achieve a type of passive compliance with court order requirements, adopting a “ready-to-conform” mindset. Professionals were concerned that they were also participating in this type of “game playing”.
Practical implications
A relationship-based practice that is conducive to meaningful participation can help to facilitate positive changes to lifestyles and circumstances. This paper exposes its pivotal role in bolstering children’s involvement in supervision, reducing passive compliance and preventing inauthentic transactional arrangements from forming.
Originality/value
In spite of the significant interest in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, his “thinking tools” have seldom been used to investigate the experiences, attitudes and behaviours of youth justice professionals and those under youth offending team supervision at.
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Kim De Boeck, Maria Besiou, Catherine Decouttere, Sean Rafter, Nico Vandaele, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Prashant Yadav
This paper aims to provide a discussion on the interface and interactions between data, analytical techniques and impactful research in humanitarian health supply chains. New…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a discussion on the interface and interactions between data, analytical techniques and impactful research in humanitarian health supply chains. New techniques for data capturing, processing and analytics, such as big data, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, are increasingly put forward as potential “game changers” in the humanitarian field. Yet while they have potential to improve data analytics in the future, larger data sets and quantification per se are no “silver bullet” for complex and wicked problems in humanitarian health settings. Humanitarian health supply chains provide health care and medical aid to the most vulnerable in development and disaster relief settings alike. Unlike commercial supply chains, they often lack resources and long-term collaborations to enable learning from the past and to improve further.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a combination of the authors’ research experience, interactions with practitioners throughout projects and academic literature, the authors consider the interface between data and analytical techniques and highlight some of the challenges inherent to humanitarian health settings. The authors apply a systems approach to represent the multiple factors and interactions between data, analytical techniques and collaboration in impactful research.
Findings
Based on this representation, the authors discuss relevant debates and suggest directions for future research to increase the impact of data analytics and collaborations in fostering sustainable solutions.
Originality/value
This study distinguishes itself and contributes by bringing the interface and interactions between data, analytical techniques and impactful research together in a systems approach, emphasizing the interconnectedness.