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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decision to export in relation to financial issues, specifically the impact of corporate financial structure on a firm’s export propensity (the likelihood of a firm becoming an exporter) by firm size.

A multivariate probit model is applied to a sample of 8,019 Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System (SABI). The analysis is performed separately for small, medium and large firms.

The paper evidences, by firm size, a positive link between ownership concentration and export propensity, although for SMEs if shareholder concentration is very high it can be counterproductive. In addition, a high degree of liquidity influences the probability of entering export markets, while those firms that face high costs as result of their export activity may need to become indebted in order to secure the necessary financial resources. However, the strength of these latter effects differs in SMEs.

This paper broadens the understanding of the relationship between firms’ export propensity and their financial health and ownership concentration, an internal factor not previously considered in the international business literature despite its relevance for firm’s decision to export. The paper highlights that their influence is not uniform but affects firms of different sizes in different ways. This is of interest and value to scholars, investors and policy makers worldwide, since handling corporate financial structure and international strategies needs to be addressed in today’s global business environment.

The purpose of this paper is to arrive at a different understanding of reshoring in Asia vis-à-vis the Western context of competitiveness, through a case study of the Swedish company FM Mattsson.

Empirical studies with semi-structured interviews have been conducted both in Sweden and China to gain an in-depth understanding of the case company’s reshoring activities.

The findings point at reshoring as a competitive means to respond to the dynamics of internal (firm-specific) and external (country-specific) factors. Reshoring comes as a dynamic process by reshuffling resources inside and outside of the firm that strives for continuous competitiveness. Organizations need to meet the challenges of changing environment, especially the dynamic business competition in Asia, and reshoring is a way.

This paper contributes to the literature by perceiving reshoring as a dynamic process of competitiveness development. Reshoring is not seen as one-off short-term decision-making on cost and location but as a long-term process in response to the dynamic internal and external challenges ahead.

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the players' contribution and economic value in the soccer industry. Media visibility records provide us with comparable metrics to identify talent and make hiring decisions – these records can jointly capture sport (on-field) skills and other attractive (off-field) abilities.

This paper presents a valuation method that applies media visibility appraisals to estimate “theoretical values” of the transfer fees paid for hiring soccer players. The estimations are performed by analysing the evolution over time of the media exposure of about 5,000 individuals of more than 200 clubs.

The study’s empirical results reveal that, along with sport performance, the players' media status also affects their economic valuation, which explains why the clubs – in search of greater economic returns – fiercely compete for the most popular players. The paper also identifies the main factors determining the players' economic value. In predicting the players' transfer fees, some variables are statistically significant: individual media visibility, media visibility share of the player within his team, contract duration, status of the hiring team, years of experience, player's age at the end of the contract and the domestic league of the hiring team.

Professional sports provide reliable measures on individuals' performance that may help in the hiring process of workers. This paper identifies gifted soccer players while taking into account their skills as media leaders and the economic implications. Insofar as players' talents determine their teams' sport and economic achievements, the transfer fees paid for players must then be seen as a crucial factor. Measuring individual talent and being able to translate this talent into productivity levels entail serious methodological and empirical challenges.

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) aims to reevaluate standardized-state testing. Previous research has assessed its impact on schools, educators, and students; yet, youth’s voices are almost absent. Therefore, this qualitative analysis examines how youth of color perceive and experience standardized-state testing.

Seventy-three youth participated in a semistructured interview during the summer of 2015. The sample consists of 34 girls and 39 boys, 13–18 years of age, of African American, Latino/a, Jamaican American, multiracial/ethnic, and other descent. It includes 6–12th graders who attended 61 inter-district and intra-district schools during the 2014–2015 academic year in a Northeastern metropolitan area in the United States that is undergoing a racial/ethnic integration reform.

Youth experienced testing overload under conflicting adult authorities and within an academically stratified peer culture on an ever-shifting policy terrain. While the parent-adult authority remained in the periphery, the state-adult authority intrusively interrupted the teacher-student power dynamics and the disempowered teacher-adult authority held youth accountable through the “attentiveness” rhetoric. However, youth’s perspectives and lived experiences varied across grade levels, school modalities, and school-geographical locations.

In this adult-dominated society, the market approach to education reform ultimately placed the burden of teacher and school evaluation on youth. Most importantly, youth received variegated messages from their conflicting adult authorities that threatened their academic journeys.

Salespeople are at the forefront of the external environment where they act as the first responders to critical events and their resulting business turbulence. How the salesforce responds to turbulence is, therefore, of great interest both theoretically and in practice. The paper aims to rekindle interest in agility selling, which is the most adequate behavioral sales model to exploit environmental uncertainty.

An organizational autoethnography complemented with data from in-depth interviews with key salespeople involved in turbulence resulted in the development of eight case studies.

Salespeople use agility selling through four possible responsive roles. They amplify, innovate, cooperate or mitigate turbulence to exploit its ensuing opportunity or minimize its negative effect for both the supplier and the customer. The article enhances the agility selling model by putting three core abilities in the forefront: (1) forecasting turbulence from critical events, (2) responding to changes quickly and adequately and (3) exploiting changes as opportunities.

The article argues that critical events are the cause of the turbulence that the salesforce must deal with before it hits the dyad. Agility selling represents an untapped research opportunity in business-to-business sales, and sales management, as well as within the overall agile organization.

Sales organizations would greatly benefit in implementing training of agility selling’s core abilities because responsiveness is a valuable tool for salespeople in times of turbulence.

The study is the first to empirically demonstrate the existence of agility selling.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how commercially‐off‐the‐shelf sensors and stimulators, such as infrared rangers and vibrators, can be retrofitted as a useful assistive technology in real and virtual environments.

The paper describes how a wearable range‐vibrotactile device is designed and tested in the real‐world setting, as well as thorough evaluations in a virtual environment for complicated navigation tasks and neuroscience studies.

In the real‐world setting, a person with normal vision who has to navigate their way around a room with their eyes closed will quickly rely on their arms and hands to explore the room. The authors’ device allows a person to “feel” their environment without touching it. Due to inherent difficulties in testing human subjects when navigating a real environment, a virtual environment affords us an opportunity to scientifically and extensively test the prototype before deploying the device in the real‐world.

This project serves as a starting‐point for further research in benchmarking assistive technology for the visually impaired and to eventually develop a man‐machine sensorimotor model that will improve current state‐of‐the‐art technology, as well as a better understanding of neural coding in the human brain.

Based on 2012 World Health Organization, there are 39 million blind people. This project will have a direct impact on this community.

The paper demonstrates a low cost design of assistive technology that has been tested and evaluated in real and virtual environments, as well as integration of sensor designs and neuroscience.

Two new members of staff are joining BLRDD in September: Lawrence Howells, who is at present working in the Science Reference and Information service, will become a project officer, and Ros Cotton, who is currently working in the Library Association Library, will be the new dissemination officer.

The incorporation of digital technologies into higher education in recent years has transformed the teaching and learning landscape, notably in the field of English language instruction. This study investigates the best practices and challenges linked with the digital transition in higher education English teaching and learning. The digital revolution has enabled new educational approaches, increasing the accessibility and effectiveness of English language instruction. The use of interactive multimedia tools, online platforms, and adaptive learning systems has personalized education, responding to a wide range of student demands and encouraging active engagement. Furthermore, virtual classrooms, video conferencing, and collaborative online spaces have crossed geographical boundaries, encouraging global collaboration and cultural interaction among students. However, this shift has not been without its difficulties. Disparities in access among students based on socioeconomic status or geographic location have expanded the digital divide. Furthermore, due to the rapid growth of technology, educators must get ongoing training in order to effectively apply and adapt to new technologies, providing a difficulty in faculty development and support. This chapter investigates successful and best practices in digital transformation, highlighting the significance of pedagogical alignment, learner-centered approaches, and inclusive practices. It also emphasizes measures for overcoming problems, such as infrastructure investment, equitable access, digital literacy promotion, and continual professional development for educators. Finally, this chapter emphasizes the importance of matching technical innovation with pedagogical objectives in order to optimize the digital transition in English language education. Taking a proactive and inclusive approach to this shift can open up new pathways for effective teaching and learning experiences, preparing higher education students for a rapidly expanding digital world while tackling the associated issues.