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In light of a largely negative discourse, this study aims to identify the various ways in which PhD mums have been supported in a range of contexts to develop a comprehensive typology of positive support, as well as to identify patterns that transcend institutional, national and disciplinary borders.

The study is guided by ecological systems theory which allows for the investigation of the various interrelated systems that influence (in this case) doctoral researchers. A mixed-methods survey elicited the first-hand experiences from recent and current PhD mums across the world.

The authors have identified a range of potential supports for PhD mums, but note a careful balance is needed to ensure that PhD mums are supported in their roles as both mother and doctoral researcher, where support in one domain does not contradict nor ignore support for the other.

This study complements the existing knowledge body, which consists mainly of localised studies, by providing a birds-eye view of issues that transcend national, geographic and disciplinary borders. A topography provides a visual map of the various sources of potential support and the complicated relationships between them.

Within a higher education system in Japan that is often regarded as insular, but which is increasingly striving to become more global in its outlook and makeup, we are classified as ‘international researchers’. Shannon entered Japan as a foreign migrant who was raised and educated in Australia, while Yusuke returned to his home country after 12 years abroad. This chapter provides an account of our personal experiences as two early career researchers beginning our academic careers in Japan.

This paper reviews the current literature of knowledge management systems (KMS) studies in organizations. The authors systematically review the literature according to the principle of innovation studies approach, i.e. variance and process approaches. The purpose of this paper is to identify the current state of KMS studies in organizations. By doing this, the way is paved for the authors to find the research gaps, which would facilatively suggest the direction for future research. The authors hope that this review will be regarded as a source for those who share mutual interests in KMS research and could stimulate further research being conducted in the area with different approaches in the future.

Journal articles published within the period 2003‐2013 were collected. The articles were sourced mainly from Emerald, Science Direct, IEEE, MIS Quarterly, as well as some other academic databases. The search was conducted using such keywords as “knowledge management system” “knowledge repository” “knowledge management tools” “system for knowledge management” and “knowledge‐based system”.

It was found that the majority of KMS studies primarily pertain to adoption, diffusion, usage, and implementation, which are fundamentally based on a variance approach. The studies based on a process approach, however, are found to be scarce and still lacking. The authors highlight the findings and provide a critical review of the current approach, as well as commenting on the traditional theories that have been applied, unified, and modified for the studies of KMS in organizations. The authors also suggest some appropriate approaches to studying KMS in organizations and future directions for further research in this field.

The paper has produced a certain result of review studies from the existing literature during the period 2003‐2013. However, the review mainly focused on different approaches that looked into the classification of study schemes and theories being applied for research, while not focusing on other aspects that may be relevant to the area of studies.

The result of this review highlights some gaps in the literature in terms of findings and critical observation of the theoretical and methodological approaches to the research of KMS studies in organizations. Directions for future research are suggested.

Diversity in boards has gained attention as a reflection of societal imbalances. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of diversity in terms of both gender and nationality in management boards of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on firm performance from an upper echelons perspective. The authors also examine how board-specific characteristics influence the structural makeup of boards in gender and nationality diversity terms.

The authors focus on the UK because of its individualistic society and flexible labour market and assess 309 SMEs in the manufacturing industry over 2009–2019. A 3-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator is used to analyse the data, the Shannon index to measure board diversity, return on assets as proxy for firm performance, and owner-manager presence, board member age and tenure are the board-specific characteristics of primary interest.

Both gender and nationality diversity contribute to firm performance and represent distinct upper echelon characteristics that change the cognitive and psychological dynamics of boards. Firms with larger boards do not perform better, but diverse boards reduce the narrowing view of CEOs. Yet the presence of owner-managers, despite their performance-enhancing contribution, holds firms back from benefitting from diversity as a strategic choice.

This study extends the upper echelons theory to include board diversity as an important aspect that should become more central in upper echelon thinking when understanding firm performance. The authors’ findings suggest that theoretical developments in search of understanding firm behaviour must proceed by accounting for diversity and not simply focusing on decision-making styles.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate work values research with the Job Demands–Resources model to assess the role that work value orientations play in self-employed workers’ subjective well-being.

The paper analyzes unique data on freelancers participating in an online labor market (n=9,984).

Intrinsic work values are associated with greater subjective well-being, whereas extrinsic work values are associated with lower subjective well-being. Consistent with the buffer hypothesis, intrinsic work value orientation reduces the negative effect of working hours on worker’s well-being, and extrinsic orientation enhances the negative effect.

This paper calls into question the importance of working conditions relative to worker values when assessing the role that job demands and resources play in the new economy. As work becomes more demanding and employment relations more flexible, personal resources such as work value orientations may become increasingly important for worker’s well-being.

Alternative education settings (AES; i.e., self-contained alternative schools, therapeutic day treatment and residential schools, and juvenile corrections schools) serve youth with complicated and often serious academic and behavioral needs. The use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and practices with Best Available Evidence are necessary to increase the likelihood of long-term success for these youth. In this chapter, we define three primary categories of AES and review what we know about the characteristics of youth in these schools. Next, we discuss the current emphasis on identifying and implementing EBPs with regard to both academic interventions (i.e., reading and mathematics) and interventions addressing student behavior. In particular, we consider implementation in AES, where there are often high percentages of youth requiring special education services and who have a significant need for EBPs to succeed academically, behaviorally, and in their transition to adulthood. We focus our discussion on: (a) examining approaches to identifying EBPs; (b) providing a brief review of EBPs and Best Available Evidence in the areas of mathematics, reading, and interventions addressing student behavior for youth in AES; (c) delineating key implementation challenges in AES; and (d) providing recommendations for how to facilitate the use of EBPs in AES.

Although there are more primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) than research-oriented institutions (ROIs) in the United States and more professors work at PUIs than ROIs, most research on gender inequality among faculty has focused on ROIs. Do patterns of women’s numeric scarcity, gender-hostile work climates, and difficulties with work-life balance found at ROIs hold true for PUIs? This chapter examines one PUI to address this question.

We analyze data from four sources: an archival database of all professors at the institution, interviews with full and associate professors, and two surveys.

Similar to ROIs, our study found women were less likely to achieve higher ranks, and take longer than men to do so. However, we find greater numbers of women and few gender differences in perception of climate, so numeric scarcity and gender-hostile climate cannot explain persistent lags in women’s advancement. Instead, we find women struggle with work-life balance more than men, especially in science disciplines. Thus, gender parity in advancement has yet to fully emerge, despite more women in the faculty and a more equitable climate than at ROIs.

Differences between faculty cohorts are intensified at the PUI because of changes to the institution’s mission, but our research demonstrates that not all gendered patterns found at ROIs apply to PUIs.

PUIs that increasingly emphasize scholarly output should enact family-friendly policies to support all professors, including on-campus or subsidized childcare, flexible scheduling, family leave, and dual-career hiring policies.

This chapter demonstrates that there are important differences between ROIs and PUIs that must be taken into account if we are to understand and remedy gender inequality in academia.

The average employee spends a total of 18.6 h every two months on password-related activities, including password retries and resets. The problem is caused by the user forgetting or mistyping the password (usually because of character switching). The source of this issue is that while a password containing combinations of lowercase characters, uppercase characters, digits and special characters (LUDS) offers a reasonable level of security, it is complex to type and/or memorise, which prolongs the user authentication process. This results in much time being spent for no benefit (as perceived by users), as the user authentication process is merely a prerequisite for whatever a user intends to accomplish. This study aims to address this issue, passphrases that exclude the LUDS guidelines are proposed.

To discover constructs that create security and to investigate usability concerns relating to the memory and typing issues concerning passphrases, this study was guided by three theories as follows: Shannon’s entropy theory was used to assess security, chunking theory to analyse memory issues and the keystroke level model to assess typing issues. These three constructs were then evaluated against passwords and passphrases to determine whether passphrases better address the security and usability issues related to text-based user authentication. A content analysis was performed to identify common password compositions currently used. A login assessment experiment was used to collect data on user authentication and user – system interaction with passwords and passphrases in line with the constructs that have an impact on user authentication issues related to security, memory and typing. User–system interaction data was collected from a purposeful sample size of 112 participants, logging in at least once a day for 10 days. An expert review, which comprised usability and security experts with specific years of industry and/or academic experience, was also used to validate results and conclusions. All the experts were given questions and content to ensure sufficient context was provided and relevant feedback was obtained. A pilot study involving 10 participants (experts in security and/or usability) was performed on the login assessment website and the content was given to the experts beforehand. Both the website and the expert review content was refined after feedback was received from the pilot study.

It was concluded that, overall, passphrases better support the user during the user authentication process in terms of security, memory issues and typing issues.

This research aims at promoting the use of a specific type of passphrase instead of complex passwords. Three core aspects need to be assessed in conjunction with each other (security, memorisation and typing) to determine whether user-friendly passphrases can support user authentication better than passwords.