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Individuals' attitudes and their adoption intentions of central bank digital currency: Combining theories and analytics for deeper insightsLeveraging a multi-theoretical and multi-method approach, this study investigated the factors influencing individuals' attitudes and intentions towards adopting central bank digital currency (CBDC). Data from Nigeria, a pioneering CBDC nation, were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling, which revealed that affordance-based positive valences, including seamless transactions, time convenience, and the societal positive valence of financial inclusion, are the strongest predictors of positive attitudes and, subsequently, usage intentions. Perceived financial cost emerged as the most significant barrier. Lifestyle compatibility demonstrated a moderate positive association with attitude. Further, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis identified four necessary conditions for high usage intentions: seamless transactions, trust in the central bank, positive attitude, and the societal positive valence of financial inclusion. Additionally, six alternative configurations sufficient for high usage intentions were also revealed. These findings offer valuable insights for both theoretical research and policymakers, informing strategies to facilitate early CBDC adoption.
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Windows of Insight: A Review on Stained Glass Research TrendsThis study uses Scopus data from 1855 to 2023 to examine key trends and developments in stained glass research, showing a notable increase in academic work after 2000. This growth is linked to advances in digital technology and wider global access, allowing for interdisciplinary research combining materials science, engineering, and cultural studies. New technologies, such as hyperspectral imaging and laser cleaning, have significantly improved conservation methods. The study also shows an increasing contribution from the United States, alongside the continued leadership of Europe, with more diverse sources of funding reflecting global investment in stained glass research. By offering a comprehensive, long-term analysis, this review fills gaps in previous studies by addressing the lack of integrated research across different fields and regions. It provides useful insights for future research, policy-making, and conservation efforts, highlighting the global importance of stained glass. The findings emphasize its continuing relevance to art, technology, and cultural heritage preservation.
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The reality of authentic leadership: the rugby football league challengePurpose/rationale: The aim of this paper is to increase the understanding in the area of authentic leadership (AL) within executive leader practice in a UK commercial sport national governing body (NGB). Design/methodology/approach: Ten interviews were conducted with members of the organisation’s management group. The interviews were utilised to gain new insights into the levels of executive leader AL within a commercial sport governance environment. Interviews were analysed using an interpretive approach, and a thematic structure relating to AL in the commercial NGB context. Findings: Authentic elements within the executive leadership team’s practice were dependent on the organisational context and the impact of external factors on individuals and the NGB. Full engagement with the AL construct is curtailed by organisational structure and objectives. Practical implications: The findings and related existing literature, notably the debate on the universal acceptance of the AL construct, are integrated into the paper to contribute to the discourse on the leadership construct in a sport governance environment. Research contribution: The study contributes to the growing body of sport leadership within NGB literature and provides insights into the paradoxical nature of leadership and the executive leader ability to fully engage with all elements of the AL construct.
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Digital Innovation in Sport – Barriers and Opportunities for Branded Fitness Apps for FansThe COVID-19 pandemic is challenging the growth and future of businesses globally and technological innovation, via digital means, has been identified as a key factor for brands to survive the pandemic. However, whilst the majority of decision-makers in sports clubs recognise the value of innovation, less than half have a clear strategy in this area generally let alone in digital innovation. This chapter examines the opportunities and barriers for sporting brands in adopting digital innovations to engage fans. Using a branded fitness smartphone app as an example of a digital innovation to stimulate discussion, we interviewed 13 decision-makers in sport primarily working in marketing, communications and managerial roles within professional sports clubs. Following thematic analysis, the themes from the interview data were, perceived benefits, barriers to adoption, and overcoming barriers. The study also presents potential solutions to enable sports clubs to overcome such adoption barriers in the future. It provides important managerial and tactical recommendations to sports clubs. The need for a clear strategy for digital innovation is identified and we conclude that digital innovation is missing from typologies of sport innovation, reflective of its overlooked importance within the sector and call for greater recognition.
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A netnography of international students studying in the UK: Leveraging social capital to enhance employabilityThis study utilises a netnography approach to investigate the perceptions of employability and social capital among Indian and other international students and prospective students. There is a strong relationship and understanding between the UK and India who both place great emphasis on the value of University study and studying abroad. Both countries have high quality Universities and value the idea of cultural and international exchange of staff and students. Whilst there are a range of studies regarding international students, little is known about international students and their perceptions and motivations for studying abroad with regards to employability. Employment and seeking further opportunity are generally a considerable motivator for students wishing to study abroad and Indian students are no exception. In recent years, changes from the UK government to Visa and post study work rules have had positive and negative effects to student’s employability, networks and mobility. Furthermore, the rise of Artificial Intelligence and other disruptive technologies has also challenged what we know about the job market. The concept of widening one's network is also seen as critical to finding and securing skilled and desirable jobs. The concept of social capital and building relationships is seen as critical in many cultures. By incorporating social capital theory, our research focuses on bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. The primary research question addresses the perceptions and influences of Indian students regarding employability through social media research using a netnography approach. Social media influencers are also ever present on platforms and sometimes influence students in their perceptions of employability and study abroad. We also highlight the role of social capital in connecting these influencers with the students.
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Achieving Purnam through Equitable Education: A Pathway to Wholeness in Health Service ManagementThe concept of Purnam, or wholeness, emphasizes achieving balance and fulfilment (Chatterjee, 2022). In the context of education, Purnam entails providing equitable opportunities and support for all students, regardless of their background. This paper explores how equitable education can help achieve Purnam, particularly for international students from India. International mobility of student from India to the rest of the world has been a key feature of the power shift from global North to Global South. For Indian students coming to study in the UK for the first time, it is the duty of these host Universities to foster Purnam and satisfaction for international students. By examining theoretical frameworks such as Vygotsky's Social Constructivism, Deutsch's Social Interdependence theory, and Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, the paper delves into the importance of collaborative learning in fostering wholeness. The discussion will also address the unique challenges faced by international students and propose strategies for bridging cultural gaps in education. Finally, the paper highlights the significance of management education in healthcare as a means to achieve Purnam for both students and the healthcare sector.
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Gender Stereotyping in Student Perceptions of Teaching Excellence: Applying the Shifting Standards TheoryExisting characterisations of student conceptions of teaching excellence (TE) implicitly position it as an objective construct. This study investigated gendered differences in student-submitted nominations (n = 418) for an excellence award in a mid-sized university in England. Biernat’s shifting standards theory, which proposes that evaluative standards can shift due to stereotyping effects, was used to interpret the findings. Chi-square tests revealed significant effects of gender on the distribution and thematic content of nominations. Results suggested that students were more likely to nominate teachers of the same gender, but also that male students were disproportionately less likely to nominate a female teacher. Student conceptions of TE generally conformed to gender biases, particularly for male students. These findings indicate that students’ perceptions of high quality teaching are inextricable from sociocultural influence. Future research can continue to engage with the shifting standards theory to investigate the influence of gender and student perceptions of high quality teaching.
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Out of sight but still in mind: Developing an expectation for surprises by formalising unknowledge in a contemporary risk-assessment frameworkExtreme events like the credit crunch, the September 11th attacks, the coronavirus pandemic, and Hamas’ attack on Israel each have in common that they should not have come as a surprise, yet still did. One reason surprises happen is that a risk assessment reflects the knowledge of the assessors, yet risk also includes uncertainties that extend beyond this knowledge. A risk assessment is thus susceptible to surprises as it focuses attention on what is known. Developing an expectation for surprises is key to their avoidance and requires that risk assessors specifically consider their ‘unknowledge’—i.e., what they do not presently know about an event, outcome, or activity and its potential consequences and triggers. One way to emphasise the need for risk assessors to consider unknowledge is to explicitly include it as a separate component in risk-assessment frameworks. This paper formalises the inclusion of unknowledge in a contemporary risk-assessment framework.
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Enabling skills for the industrial decarbonisation supply chainA skilled workforce is critical to delivering the ambitious UK Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy and unlocking the value the transition to a net zero economy will bring. The United Kingdom’s historical contribution, both positive and negative, to industrial revolution within and outside its borders cannot be ignored. As the pioneer of industrialisation, the UK has, through time, made a disproportionate contribution to the accumulation of greenhouse gasses, it is thus fitting to commit to investing in people, innovation, technologies, and infrastructure to meet not only its domestic decarbonisation goals, but also to play a leading part globally.
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Strategic Sport DevelopmentThe field of sports development is becoming ever more professional, with the levels of expertise in planning and efficiency required of those working in private or national sports institutions higher than they have ever been. In response to this, strategic sports development has emerged as a means of applying business strategies to the context of sports development. Strategic Sports Development is the first book to directly address this important new field. The book comprehensively explains the strategic concepts and techniques that sports students and practitioners across the UK and internationally need to understand. It includes: national and local case studies that appraise existing strategic management practice in sports development separate full introductions to sports development and business strategy a range of tasks and resources that encourage the reader to develop knowledge, skills and competencies through the application of theory to practical examples the application of strategic management principles to the development of sport and development through sport everything the reader needs to engage meaningfully with the relevant National Occupational Standards for the sport development profession. Strategic Sports Development is designed to help students develop the practical skills needed to contribute to development strategy in a vocational context, and give practitioners the confidence and know-how to improve the strategic development of their sports organization. This book is essential reading for all students and practitioners of strategic sports development, and a valuable resource for students of sports management or development in general.
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Developing a supportive community of practice: a doctoral case studyThis paper employs a qualitative case study to suggest how the research journey of doctoral students can be improved in educational institutions by encouraging the formation of small and informal Communities of Practice (CoP). It examines themes emerging from the feelings and opinions of four part-time professional doctorate students about their study experience and participation in their emergent CoP. A peer group developed where the students share their experience, expertise, insight, and knowledge in a caring and supportive, but informal, forum. CoP could become an effective tool to aid retention, identity development and wellbeing of postgraduate level students, factors which have been previously identified as key areas of risk. An autoethnographic approach was used to review the feelings, perceptions, and opinions of the four case study group members about their experiences of the informal CoP to date. Thematic analysis of transcripts and WhatsApp communications was used to reveal the perceived common benefits and gains from participation in the informal CoP such as joy, safe spaces, and identity development, aligning members experiences to a CoP lifecycle. The study found small group formation at doctoral programme induction, and encouragement for students to organise their own regular study days using of social channels, may impact overall success. Application and adaptation of this doctoral CoP model could form the basis for future research and a model for academic institutions to suggest to new and existing students Keywords/key phrases: community of practice, lifecycle, professional doctoral students, support, identity.
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Gender stereotypes in artificial intelligence within the accounting profession using large language modelsThis study investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) perpetuates gender stereotypes in the accounting profession. Through experiments employing large language models (LLMs), we scrutinize how these models assign gender labels to accounting job titles. Our findings reveal differing tendencies among LLMs, with one favouring male labels, another female labels, and a third showing a balanced approach. Statistical analyses indicate significant disparities in labelling patterns, and job titles classified as male are associated with higher salary ranges, suggesting gender-related bias in economic outcomes. This study reaffirms existing literature on gender stereotypes in LLMs and uncovers specific biases in the accounting context. It underscores the transfer of biases from the physical to the digital realm through LLMs and highlights broader implications across various sectors. We propose raising public awareness as a means to mitigate these biases, advocating for proactive measures over relying solely on human intervention.
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An integrative model for understanding cryptocurrency investment‐related behaviours: A comparison between millennials and pre‐millennialsThis article adopts the value‐attitude‐behavioural (VAB) and attitude‐behaviour‐context (ABC) theoretical lenses to develop an integrative model to examine attitudinal and behavioural responses to cryptocurrency investment. It also investigates the moderating role of generational differences (pre‐millennials vs. millennials). The study showed that perceived value is closely associated with the attitude towards cryptocurrency investment which, in turn, is strongly associated with the willingness to make and recommend cryptocurrency investments. Results further reveal that contextual factors such as convertibility and sugrophobia, which reflect the fear of being duped, strongly influence individuals' willingness to recommend cryptocurrency investments to others. Finally, results indicate that generational differences play an important moderating role.
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Learning beyond dialogueImagine an academic teacher explaining the meaning of a concept to a group of research students who are expected to make sense of it, and variously employ to it as lenses to better understand the findings of their empirical project. Each of them learns something, but the exact ‘meaning’ of what they learned does not fully overlap neither with what others have learned nor with the content communicated by the teacher: after all the teacher only explained the main notion, but left the task of conceptualizing their data to the students. Assuming our teacher is receptive to other ideas their understanding of the notion in question may be enriched by the interpretations emerging from the students’ conceptualizations. Inasmuch, as we may be tempted to normalize such a learning and perceive it as just what ‘real learning should be about’, we must admit that such a procedure is not free from a strong assumption: communicated and received contents do not overlap and are not being intended to do so. Those conversational exchanges are productive in a sense that they have a capacity to transform the learner (and potentially teacher as well) rather than just render them anodyne conduits to a learned content. This dialogic premise behind the dominant body of scholarly work on management learning deserves a closer scrutiny, which will be undertaken in this short article. The point is not to query whether non-dialogic learning is feasible – we know that it is – but rather to consider whether through (by and large) shunning the instances of non-dialogic learning, as well as often overlooking the research contexts in which dialogic inquiry is not expedient we may inadvertently favour certain societal and organizational discourses at the expense of others, and whether there are lessons about (management) learning which we may fail to learn as a result.
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Physiological responses of fire service training instructors to live fire trainingAbstract available in hard copy
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An exploratory study of AI participants' views on using AI in business hotelsThis study presents a novel approach to exploring the viewpoints of AI bots regarding the utilization of AI in business hotels using thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted with AI bots serving as the subjects. The rationale for this approach is that AI bots have undergone extensive training using a wide range of data from different internet sources. Therefore, having an interview with an AI bot can be viewed as an interaction with an entity that embodies collective viewpoints and information derived from the internet. The study has unearthed crucial themes that offer invaluable insights to industry participants and policymakers, contributing to the expansion of existing literature by generating novel knowledge and fostering a comprehensive understanding. The pioneering approach of incorporating AI bots as participants in interviews opens up fresh avenues for future research endeavours and engenders discussions and debates concerning the use of AI bots as participants.
