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During the late 1900s, there was a notable trend of rapid urbanization worldwide, coinciding with a rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Agricultural production driven by expanded trade is recognized as a major contributor to global pollution and biodiversity depletion. Additionally, tropical deforestation resulting from agricultural activities significantly impacts global greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter aims to examine the interrelationships between crop production, livestock production, transport services, and CO₂ emissions from 1998 to 2019. To achieve this goal, the study begins by conducting stationary tests to determine the order of integration for the variables under consideration. Following this, panel unit root tests are employed, and subsequently, panel cointegration tests are conducted to identify any long-term relationships among the selected variables. The findings reveal a significant long-term relationship among crop production, livestock production, transport services, and CO₂ emissions.

This paper aims to report on a study that used the practice theory lens to understand how Chinese ethnic culture influences restaurant workers' learning through engagement in everyday work practices.

A multiple case study approach was used. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and site observations. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify how workers learnt the sayings, doings and relatings in their workplaces.

The findings show that the ethnic culture of the participants influences and enriches their learning in practice settings such as small Chinese restaurants.

The understandings presented here need to be verified through more research in different regions and nations. In addition, cross-cultural studies on other ethnic restaurants may contribute to deeper understandings of the influences of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The research contributes to understanding the influence of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The understandings gained from the findings of this study form a useful basis for curriculum development and instructional design of training programmes for practice-based as well as work-integrated-learning components of vocational curriculum. Furthermore, awareness of the strengths of the ethnic culture is of interest to owner/managers of small Chinese restaurants to afford supportive learning environments for workers.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel type of switched flux PM machines with two separate stators.

2D-FEA is employed to analyze the electromagnetic performance of the proposed machines. Moreover, the results are validated by experiments.

The proposed machine has higher torque density, less unbalanced magnetic force on the modulating steel piece and uses less PM volume.

The proposed machine is a low-cost novel topology with different rotor pole combinations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how attitudes and subjective norms predict channel migration across the three channels based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA).

A self‐administered questionnaire was administered to the participants comprised of staff, faculty, and students from four different universities in the southern and midwestern USA. The survey instrument was administered online and a total of 503 completed surveys were obtained.

TRA was successful in predicting channel‐migration intention in brick‐and‐mortar stores, catalogues, and the internet. Utilitarian beliefs were more relevant in predicting attitude toward channel migration for all three channels. Normative beliefs for bricks‐and‐mortar stores and catalogues were significant in predicting subjective norms, the relationship was negative. Attitude and subjective norms were the predictors of the channel‐migration intention for all three channels.

These findings may not be generalizable to the study population because the sample was restricted to a small area. Additionally, the survey was administered online, which made it difficult to calculate the response rate.

The paper adds insights into the subject by examining channel‐migration behaviour using TRA.

This work takes a decolonial and, specifically, an antiracist approach to thinking about teaching and learning in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) within the settler-colonial Canadian context, a context in which Euro-centric developmentalist narratives predominate. To address this situation, a team of academics, along with the College of Early Childhood Educators and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, carried out antiracist professional learning with the early childhood sector in Ontario, Canada. Four two-hour sequential on-line sessions were offered. Three hundred professionals participated. This knowledge transfer initiative focused on sharing information and providing a platform for educators to ask questions, learn, and unpack their own positionalities in challenging race and racism in early learning pedagogies and curriculum. Pre- and post-session surveys were distributed, the results of which are discussed in this chapter. Strengths and weaknesses of this initiative are considered, along with impact and next steps.

Like other nations in Asia, mainland China has undergone continuous reforms in its economic, political and social institutions over the past two decades. These changes are also reflected in its education system, which has been both the target of government reforms and an agent for social change. In this context, China's Ministry of Education has cast school principals as key actors in leading and managing change in schools at the local level throughout the country. The purpose of this paper is to explore how Chinese school leaders successfully respond to the implementation of educational reform.

In this paper the authors explore how school leaders in one city in South China perceive their roles and actions in fostering successful change. The study employed extensive literature review with qualitative interviews of five school principals who had demonstrated success at leading change in their schools.

The findings of both the literature review and interview study unexpectedly found more similarities than differences between how leaders contribute to successful change in China as compared with the Western literature.

The research findings are limited by two main features. First, the sources analyzed in the literature review were of highly varying quality. Moreover, relatively few employed replicable analytical methods capable of generalization. These limitations of the literature mean that the results of the review can only be interpreted as suggestive rather than conclusive. Second, the interview study was framed as an effort to further explore the trends of the literature review. Although the findings from the small-scale interview study were consistent with the broader Chinese literature, the research design suffers form the same limitations as the general literature. Therefore, these findings must also be treated as emergent rather than explanatory.

The paper identifies directions for future research and discusses implications for school leaders in implementing educational change in China.

The originality of this study lies in its attempt to synthesize a previously inaccessible literature on change leadership in Chinese schools. Despite China's rising role as a global leader, the literature in educational leadership and management remains sparse and largely unknown to Western scholars. Therefore, the study's limitations are balanced by the need to provide better descriptions of current practices employed by leaders as they attempt to improve China's schools.

This study aims to examine companies’ socially responsible behaviors by studying the relationship between different proxies of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and earnings management (EM) with emphasis on companies’ pro-environmental behavior and business ethics domain.

This meta-analysis synthesized the results from 31 studies with 110,024 firm-year observations concerning the relationship between CER and EM. The study has used corporate environmental disclosure index, corporate environmental performance ratings (CEPR), corporate environmental performance indicator and environmental regulations as proxies for CER to investigate the meta-results. Furthermore, the research then used emission level (measured using per capita CO₂ in metric tons), human development index for economic development, number of environmental mandatory policies (measured using Carrots and Sticks Report 2023) and western vs eastern culture as moderator variables.

The findings of this study revealed a significant negative relationship between CER and EM. Among different combined proxies of CER, CEPR reveal a significant and negative relationship with EM. Furthermore, the study suggests that future studies can explore this understudied area using proxies of EM, i.e. real EM, earnings persistence, value relevance and accounting conservatism.

This study offers insights to managers for transparent auditing and supports CER as a long-term sustainability plan. The regulators need to develop a global framework for environmental responsibility that does not compromise the quality of nonfinancial disclosers.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for investors to make more informed decisions regarding green investments and suggest implications for policymakers to promote policies related to environmental sustainability and corporate transparency, thereby benefiting both investors and society. On a global scale, this study contributes to discussions concerning the alignment of corporate behavior with long-term environmental and financial integrity.

The meta-analysis addresses the long-standing two-decade debate of 2003–2023 on whether companies use CER as a transparency tool or use it as a greenwash to conceal their unethical earnings practices. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive view to measure CER using different proxies to examine corporate ethical earnings behavior.