• From bean-counter to lion-tamer: an ethnographical investigation into the lived experience of UK ACA chartered accountants and their career boundaries

  Wall, Tony; Gibbs, Brian; McLachlan, Carol P. (University of Chester, 2023-02)

  The accountancy profession of the twenty first century, and the roles therein, are rapidly evolving, transforming, and potentially contracting. As digitalisation deepens, the acceleration of Artificial Intelligence, robotics and distributed ledger accounting threaten to finally sound the death knell for the traditional ‘bean-counter’ stereotype. The purpose of this study was to examine the career boundaries of contemporary chartered accountants, to consider how boundary expanding is expressed in practice. Employing an ethnographical approach, the study investigated the lived experience of accountants’ career boundaries through the auto-ethnographical lens of the researcher, a chartered accountant herself. The research unearthed a rich and diverse collection of boundary-stretching and boundary-contracting case studies, spanning a full career generation, and contributes a new model of ‘career boundary elasticity’ which has implications for the accountancy profession.
• Understanding consumer perceptions of expiry dates for cosmetics

  Davies, Gary; Ullah, Farid; Wang, Yujiao (University of Chester, 2023-06)

  The topic of cosmetics expiration is under researched in the marketing literature, and consumers can lack awareness about it. However, cosmetics expiration is important because it represents a consumer health issue, as illustrated by several papers published in medical journals. The aim of this research is to understand the role of cosmetics expiration date – specifically the Period After Opening (PAO) in cosmetics marketing, and how it influences consumer behaviour in the UK and China markets. This is the first study in a marketing management context that has investigated the role of PAO in consumer behaviour. The research adopts a mixed method approach and employs three studies: qualitative interviews in both countries (the UK and China), a quantitative experimental design in the UK, as well as a large survey in China. The data are analysed using NVivo, SPSS, AMOS and Fuzzy logic. The main findings and contributions to knowledge are: From the qualitative work: 1) A perceived risk framework is useful to an understanding of consumer attitudes to PAO in cosmetics. Self-brand connection (SBC) risk and environmental risk should be added to the existing risk framework. 2) Two major positionings in the cosmetics market can be identified: brands which emphasise the science behind their production and brands which emphasise their use of natural ingredients. 3) Some differences in PAO attitudes emerged by country (China versus the UK). In the UK study, psychological risk emerged as the most important in explaining overall risk, which is compatible with prior work. For UK respondents, the longer the PAO, the higher their purchase intention, irrespective of the brand type, thereby demonstrating that PAO can be a marketing signal as well as a statement of shelf life. In the China study, however, social risk emerged as more important, which can be explained by cultural differences. Different segments exist in the China market, defined by brand type, PAO, price and product type. PAO again emerged as a marketing signal. Both the UK and China studies indicate PAO and perceived risk can interact, and that such interaction can help explain the relationship between brand image and purchase intention. Specifically, perceived brand warmth is not as strong a predictor of purchase intention for cosmetics as prior work suggests it should be, and the interaction between PAO and perceived social risk in China and psychological risk in the UK helps explain why.
• Poverty and Austerity: An Introduction

  Moraes, Caroline; McEachern, Morven; O’Loughlin, Deirdre; University of Bristol; University of Chester; University of Limerick

  This chapter offers an introductory overview of relevant literature at the intersection of poverty and austerity, seeking to frame this edited collection and its unique interdisciplinary contributions. The chapter traces the evolution of, and interconnections between, poverty and austerity politics, reflecting critically on their increasingly pervasive and enduring impacts on individuals, markets and society. To guide the reader, this introduction provides an overview of how the book is organised and each of its chapters, explaining to students and researchers the theories, methods, policy applications and empirical contexts addressed in the book.
• Theorising Resilience in Times of Austerity

  O’Loughlin, Deirdre; Szmigin, Isabelle; McEachern, Morven; Karantinou, Kalipso; Barbosa, Belem; Lamprinakos, Grigorios; Fernández-Moya, María E.; University of Limerick; University of Birmingham; University of Chester; Athens School of Economics and Business; University of Porto; University of Colorado

  Resilience is an important theoretical construct that helps to conceptualise the ways individuals and organisations attempt to countervail the effects of poverty and austerity. As a response to prolonged crises, such as the global economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter focuses on tracing the psychological, behavioural, sociological and spatial perspectives of resilience, advancing our current understanding of resilience theory within the marketing and consumption context of crises and austerity. The chapter reviews recent research exploring the importance of resilience, and more specifically the notion of persistent resilience in response to long-term stressors, such as unemployment, triggered by the austerity measures imposed by European governments following the global economic crisis as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. In advancing previous research in this area, we offer a broader perspective by underlining the impetus for businesses and communities to employ a range of resilience strategies while also highlighting the importance for individuals to develop a sustainable set of resilience capacities to help creatively navigate the market and flexibly adapt to the long-term effects of intense and long-standing crises.
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  Co-movement clustering: A novel approach for predicting inflation in the food and beverage industry

  Leong, Kelvin; Sung, Anna; University of Chester (Universiti Utara Malaysia, 2023-10-23)

  In the realm of food and beverage businesses, inflation poses a significant hurdle as it affects pricing, profitability, and consumer’s purchasing power, setting it apart from other industries. This study proposes a novel approach; co-movement clustering, to predict which items will be inflated together according to historical time-series data. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the proposed approach based on real-world data obtained from the UK Office for National Statistics. The predicted results of the proposed approach were compared against four classical methods (correlation, Euclidean distance, Cosine Similarity, and DTW). According to our experimental results, the accuracy of the proposed approach outperforms the above-mentioned classical methods. Moreover, the accuracy of the proposed approach is higher when an additional filter is applied. Our approach aids hospitality operators in accurately predicting food and beverage inflation, enabling the development of effective strategies to navigate the current challenging business environment in hospitality management. The lack of previous work has explored how time series clustering can be applied to support inflation prediction. This study opens a new research paradigm to the related field and this study can serve as a useful reference for future research in this emerging area. In addition, this study work contributes to the data analytics research stream in hospitality management literature.
• Reflecting on Paraliminality as a Theoretical Lens to Understand Experiences of Food Insecurity

  McEachern, Morven; Moraes, Caroline; Scullion, Lisa; Gibbons, Andrea; University of Bristol; University of Chester (Routledge, 2023-11-30)

  In this chapter we reflect on how theoretical perspectives, such as liminality, can be useful for researchers seeking to understand and alleviate lived experiences of poverty. We draw on how we deployed liminality theory in a recently published paper (Moraes et al., 2021), to conceptualise lived experiences of food insecurity as transitional; as fluctuating between phases of everyday food access and food marketplace exclusion. By using liminality as an exemplar theoretical perspective, we discuss a concept that we developed and termed paraliminality, a hybrid of two types of liminality phenomena that is both empowering and generative of a lasting form of indeterminate state. In reflecting upon paraliminality, we argue that it can illuminate the social mechanisms, practices and spaces that co-construct people’s more enduring, but fluid, experiences and phases of food insecurity and food access efforts. We illustrate the main theoretical arguments being made with data from our study of food insecurity (McEachern et al., 2020), involving interviews with people who were experiencing food insecurity, volunteers who were providing access to food aid, and fieldwork photographs of the independent foodbanks and pantries who took part in the research. The chapter contributes to food insecurity, poverty and marketplace exclusion scholarship by reflecting on the importance of using theoretical lenses in qualitative research work, and by reflecting on, and deploying, an illustrative research project to explain how theory can be used and why it matters.
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  An Exploratory Study of How Emotion Tone Presented in A Message Influences Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Recommendation System

  Leong, Kelvin; Sung, Anna; University of Chester (Zibeline International Publishing, 2023-10-16)

  This innovative study aims to explore how emotion tone presented in a message influences the judgement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots. We established a scenario by using vacation rental introduction as input message to conduct experiments to explore the influences. Our findings suggest that AI bots demonstrate preferences on the input message presented in positive tones rather than input message with negative tones. Our pioneering study can serve as a crucial starting point for future studies, in particular opening up fresh avenues for future research endeavours and engenders discussions and debates concerning the development of recommendation system.
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  An Exploration of the Drivers for Professionalism within UK Jewish Heritage Charities

  Moss, Danny; Lyon, Andy; Wall, Tony; Sung, Anna; Millan, Anne D. (University of Chester, 2023-09-01)

  The thesis explores the drivers of professionalism for Jewish Heritage Charities as well as the impact on the organisations in the study. Though there was a growing body of research on development of professionalism in charities, there is very limited studies on how this was impacting Jewish Heritage Charities in the UK. Charities have been reporting decreasing revenue from traditional fundraising activities over the last decade as well as significant competition for major grants and governmental funding. The loss of traditional funding and the increase in reliance on major donors and funding bodies has led to more regulation and now the growing concern with the management and accountability of charities. The study explored how this development of professionalism has impacted on (JHC). Using a case study approach, 11 interviews took place with senior management, trustees, and volunteers of three JHC’s and one non-Jewish museum that had recently been through major governance and structural changes. Due to the nature of the research and small sample the findings are limited to the case study however some good practice has been highlighted and professionalism within the case study was identified by the developing business processes and managerialism. The study also identified that rigorous governance procedures for trustees as well as performance management of trustees was needed however proved controversial. The study also identified the need for more development of recruitment processes of volunteers and trustees alongside professional development and training programmes to ensure professional practices are embedded into the organisations and good practice is maintained.
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  Flexible lives: spatial, temporal, and behavioural boundaries in a fluid world of work and home

  Izak, Michal; Reissner, Stefaine; Shortt, Harriet; University of Chester; University of Essex; University of the West of England (Taylor & Francis, 2023-08-08)

  The world of work and home has become increasingly fluid (Bauman 2000), due to an increase in flexible working. Work has become decoupled from time and space (Gajendran and Harrison 2007), making it increasingly common for knowledge-based workers to work at different times and in multiple spaces across a working day or week (Duxbury et al. 2014; Sewell and Taskin 2015; Kingma 2016). The Covid-19 pandemic in particular has been a catalyst for questioning accepted norms of where, when, and how work takes place and has encouraged many to experiment with new ways of working at spatio-temporal distance from a regular workplace (Gandini and Garavaglia 2023). This reshaping of traditional modes of working has had a significant effect on working patterns, social workplace interactions, personal relationships, and the boundaries between familial and working lives, which we seek to explore in this Special Issue.
• Rural space and the local food landscape: Consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging

  Graciotti, Alessandro; McEachern, Morven; University of Macerata; University of Chester (Emerald, 2023-07-24)

  Purpose – This research aims to investigate consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging in a regional context. Design/methodology/approach – Following a socio-spatial lens and considering the ‘realm of meaning’ of place, this research focuses on local consumers’ lived meanings of ‘local’ food choice, and hence adopts a phenomenological approach to the data collection and analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with residents of the Italian region of Marche. Findings – Drawing on Trudeau’s (2006) politics of belonging, we reveal three interconnected themes which show how local consumers articulate a local food ‘orthodoxy’ and how their discourses and practices draw and maintain a boundary between local and non-local food, whereby local food is considered ‘autochthonous’ of rural space. Thus, our participants construct a local food landscape, conveying rural (vs. urban) meanings through which food acquires ‘localness’ (vs. non-‘localness’) status. Practical implications – Our findings provide considerable scope for food producers, manufacturers and/or marketers to differentiate local food products by enhancing consumers’ direct experience of it in relation to rural space. Thus, enabling local food producers to convey rural (vs. urban) meanings to consumers, who would develop an orthodoxy guiding future choice. Social implications – Our findings enable regional promoters and food policymakers to leverage the symbolic distinctiveness of food autochthony to promote place and encourage consumers to participate in their local food system. Originality/value – By utilising the politics of belonging as an analytical framework, we show that the urban-rural dichotomy – rather than being an obsolete epistemological category – fuels politics of belonging dynamics and that local food consumers socially construct food localness not merely as a romanticisation of rurality, but as a territorial expression of the contemporary local/non-local cultural conflict implied in the politics of belonging. Thus, we advance our theoretical understanding by demonstrating that food ‘becomes’ local and therefore, builds on extant food localness conceptualisations.
• City neighbourhood branding and new urban tourism

  King, Brian; Richards, Greg; Yeung, Emmy; Texas A&M University; Breda University of Applied Sciences; University of Chester (Taylor & Francis, 2023-05-24)

  City authorities worldwide have sought to rejuvenate and diversify their tourism product offerings by dispersing visitors into less familiar and frequented locales. Despite calls to understand such ‘new tourism areas’ (NTAs) in urban areas, few researchers have examined visitor responses to the implementation of NTA strategies, particularly outside Europe. This quantitative approach considers the profiles, attitudes and behaviours of NTA visitors in an Asian city that was undertaking dispersal efforts pre-pandemic in the context of mass inbound Chinese visitation. Distinct profiles are found for NTA visitors relative to other city arrivals in response to Hong Kong’s branding propositions. It is found that NTAs appeal to repeat visitors seeking cosmopolitan experiences and may help tourist dispersal and product differentiation, though the proposition that NTA visitors are more highly educated was not supported.
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  The influential role of austerity in normalising sustainable consumption

  O’Loughlin, Deirdre; McEachern, Morven; Szmigin, Isabelle; Karantinou, Kalipso; Barbosa, Belem; Lamprinakos, Grigorios; Fernández-Moya, María E.; University of Limerick; University of Chester; University of Birmingham; Athens University of Economics and Business; University of Porto; Universidad de Oviedo (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023-05-11)

  The financial crisis of 2008 leading to the imposition of strict austerity measures particularly within certain EU states is an appropriately significant and enduring context in which to explore consumer attitudes and behaviour change. While the negative implications of austerity measures are well documented (Krugman, 2012), it proposed that economic downturns trigger a normative towards sustainable consumption (e.g. Evans, 2011) which is similarly reflected by pro-environmental behaviours evidenced during the on-going COVID-19 global pandemic (Orîndaru et al, 2021). This research draws upon social normalisation (Rettie et al., 2011, 2012) and practice theory (Warde, 2005; Shove, 2009) as key conceptual frameworks through which to explore the normalisation of practices among everyday consumers within the context of austerity. Employing an interpretive approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 38 EU consumers across 6 countries including Ireland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. A multi-stage analysis of the data revealed three key themes: Normalised sustainability practices; Social normalisation of frugality; and Normalisation of frugal-induced sustainability. Given the prevalence and sustained nature of modern day crises, this study contributes to consumer research by offering an EU-wide account of how shifting consumer knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and cultural values in the context of austerity impact on everyday sustainable consumption practices. Our research highlights how sustainable consumption practices are being increasingly normalised for several reasons beyond environmental motivations including economic, (manifested by increased frugality), as well as social. Our research foregrounds the transformative and long-term effect of austerity on norms, practices, values and meanings at both individual and societal levels. We specifically reveal the critical influence of social norms in the form of values of shared empathy and solidarity vis-à-vis others affected by austerity. We also advance knowledge of the importance of the “carrier” role (Shove et al (2012) by evidencing how normalised, frugality-induced sustainability practices are performed and reproduced within EU countries. In conclusion, we outline several recommendations for policy and practice to more effectively promote and support sustainability change and progression at local community and national levels.
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  Realizing Green Airport Performance through Green Management Intransigence, Airport Reputation, Biospheric Value, and Eco-Design

  Bamidele, Ruth Oluyemi; Ozturen, Ali; Haktanir, Mine; Ogunmokun, Oluwatobi; Eastern Mediterranean University; University of Chester (MDPI, 2023-01-30)

  Studies on the effect of biospheric value, eco-design, and green management intransigence on perceived green performance in the tourism and hospitality industry are gradually emerging. However, more evidence is needed from the aviation industry or airport context, especially in Africa. This cross-sectional study aims to probe and demonstrate the effect of biospheric value on green management intransigence and perceived green performance, the mediating role of management intransigence and biospheric value, and the influence on pro-environmental behavior among airport management and employees. The extended theory of planned behavior (TPBe) and triple bottom line theory (TBL)/sustainable economic development theory (SED) (TBL/SED) set the foundation for this research study. With the case study approach, data were collected through online questionnaires from employees and management staff of two international airports in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. This scientific study contributes to the literature on green energy by shedding light on the importance of integrating green practices into airport operations with environmentally friendly programs. Its focus on green management intransigence and its implications on employees’ behavior has received little or no attention. The data were analyzed using PLS-SEM and Importance–performance matrix analysis (IPMA). The IPMA is innovative as it helps to extend the results of PLS-SEM by also taking the importance and performance of each construct into account graphically as it relates to green airport management. IPMA posits that management tends to take actions to improve conditions that enhance factors of most significant concern to stakeholders. Our results reveal the effect of biospheric value and the behaviors of management and nonmanagement staff of the selected airports on the green performance with apparent differences in the group-specific performance. In practice, this implies an urgent need for airport management to review their approach and strategy to sustainable practices, airports’ resilience, and adaptation to climate change for sustainable tourism development. This study advances scientific and practical knowledge of eco-design of airport buildings (EAB), biospheric-value (BV), and green management intransigence (GMI). The findings can assist decision makers and practitioners in embracing green technologies and practices in airport management and operations.
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  SME Corporate Philanthropy (CP): Exploring how CP is managed and appraised for its impact on communities

  Harris, Phil; Perrin, David; Robberts, Theresa (University of Chester, 2022-08)

  Purpose The ability to appraise the impact of any project allows for the opportunity to improve the project over time. The purpose of this study is to develop a bespoke Appraisal Tool, for SMEs, for Strategic Corporate Philanthropy (SCP), which allows organisations to appraise the impact of their SCP projects for themselves and the community. Exploring approaches to appraise SCP has been severely neglected by academics. Most appraisal tools focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This study will research how organisations practise and appraise their SCP activities. It is believed that a strategic approach to corporate philanthropy will increase the impact it has on the community, and the bespoke SCP Appraisal Tool for SMEs developed by the researcher will complement this approach. The central focus of this study is the way key decision makers of SMEs manage SCP. The impact of utilising a separate Appraisal Tool from that used to measure CSR will be observed by focusing on the impact the relevant projects have on the community and the SMEs’ corporate objectives. The study commenced in 2019. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a worldwide pandemic, which had a great impact on businesses and their philanthropic activities. It is for this reason that the researcher also included a research objective to address this phenomenon. The study aimed to gain an understanding of the influence that the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic had on company decision making with regards to philanthropic activities. Research Design A phenomenological approach was undertaken, given the unique pandemic situation and the need to gain a deep understanding of the experience and decision making of SME entrepreneurs and managers. Data collection was undertaken via in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations within eight small and medium companies and one large corporate (key informant). The study identified the definitions of SCP that set it apart from CSR. The study also investigated how entrepreneurs and SME decision makers appraised and managed CSR projects and identified if this was undertaken separately from philanthropic activities. Qualitative data analysis was undertaken via cognitive mapping and template analysis. Findings This research echoed Kubíčková’s (2018) review of the current literature relating to SCP. Kubíčková stated that turning corporate philanthropy into measurable projects will benefit both society and corporations alike, and this seems to have been confirmed by this research. The respondents in this study felt that their philanthropic activities were driven by a deep-seated desire to “do good” and a desire to “support their local community.” They felt that their local community was an important stakeholder and as important as their customers. The data indicated that SMEs that publicised their CSR and SCP activities seemed to have a positive effect on the SME’s company and on the organisations they supported. Respondents involved their staff with all their CSR and SCP activities, from inception through to completion. The research indicated that the pandemic had a great effect on the day-to-day business of all participants, affecting staff numbers, staff morale and income, which in turn influenced their philanthropic activities. Companies adapted by adjusting their resource allocation and by focusing on local causes. Companies that held fundraising events in the past reverted to hosting online events and sponsoring local projects and clubs. The data indicated that COVID-19 had urged people to take a closer look at their own neighbours and communities and that the focus moved away from supporting international causes in favour of local community causes. This could have a knock-on effect for the income streams of international charities. Recommendations Key recommendations of this study (Chapter 7) are as follows: • Charities should build relationships with SMEs and not just larger corporates. • National and international charities are advised to establish community projects and team up with local businesses and organisations. • Government should consider reinstating the mandatory reporting of corporate giving (as part of the Companies Act), as was the case in 2013. • The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be simplified for use by SMEs. • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Strategic Corporate Philanthropy (SCP) could be defined and managed separately for better results and impact. This study found that most literature (both academic and practice) relating to CSR and SCP mostly focused on larger corporates and not on SMEs. The study found a gap in the literature with regards to defining, managing, and appraising SCP from the perspective of an SME. Originality The originality and distinctiveness of this research project is found in the development of a bespoke SCP Appraisal Tool for SMEs and the research done relating to corporate giving by SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, as this has never been done before.
• The value of experiments in futures and foresight science: A reply

  Derbyshire, James; Dhami, Mandeep K.; Belton, Ian; Önkal, Dilek; University of Chester; Middlesex University; Strathclyde University; Northumbria University (Wiley, 2023-05-10)

  The paper provides a brief rejoinder to four expert commentaries that responded to a paper by the same authors in the same journal titled ‘The value of experiments in futures and foresight science as illustrated by the case of scenario planning’ .
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  Restraints and Enablers of Green initiative-taking among hospitality employees: a mixed-methods approach

  Ikhide, Juliet E.; Ogunmokun, Oluwatobi A.; Chen, Ting; Abertay University; University of Chester; Zhejiang Gongshang University (Taylor and Francis, 2023-04-19)

  Green initiative-taking, an employee’s self-starting opportunity-seeking action to improve environmental performance is a desirable outcome of organizations’ green policies. Given prior inattention to this area of study, it is unclear what fosters green initiative-taking, and why. This study attempts to answer these questions using a mixed-methods approach. First, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Green human resource management, eco-silence, supervisor bottom-line mentality, and co-worker voice emerged as the major themes of employees’ experiences when seeking to engage in green initiative-taking. Second, building on social information processing and social learning theories, a quantitative study proposes a conceptual model of the inter-relationships between the themes that emerged from the first study. Results from a multinational multisource time-lagged quantitative study support most of the hypotheses and shed light on avenues for future research. It suggests that supervisor bottom-line mentality inhibiting green initiative-taking might be standard procedure bottom-line mentality rather than profit bottom-line mentality. Post-hoc, to enhance the study’s applicability, a fuzzy-set analysis was conducted to offer managers the configurations that best yield green initiative-taking among hospitality employees.
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  Equity crowdfunding as an alternative source of entrepreneurial finance

  Lam, Wing; Harris, Phil; Leong, Kelvin; Zhong, Zhijian (University of Chester, 2022-07)

  Equity-based Crowdfunding (EBC) has been playing an increasingly important role in financing entrepreneurial companies (Signori & Vismara, 2018). Project founders raise funds via online platforms, such as Crowdcube, which also gives project founders direct interaction with potential investors. Through their feedback, investors provide opinions of the business idea, which may prove useful in reshaping and improving the products or services. Although current research on equity-based crowdfunding has correlated various campaign and projects’ features to success, there is a lack of convincing conceptual framework that has the potential to incorporate the interplay of the different factors in crowdfunding. In particular, the extant literature has so far attempted to explain success in terms of project characteristics, generally ignoring the characteristics of fund structure and their interrelationship with project characteristics in the success (or failure) of equity crowdfunding. This thesis is aiming to address this gap by building upon signalling theory, goal setting theory and social capital theories to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporate projects characteristics, fundraising structure and their interplay in the EBC campaign. Hypotheses are developed based on the conceptual framework. The data of the thesis were collected from the 850 projects funded between 2011 and 2019 on EBC platform, Crowdcube, in UK. The data was analysed using a quantitative method, with the dataset being analysed using an Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and a series of robustness tests using a logistic regression to assess the reliability of my results. The result of this study found that higher firm age, more social media channels, and more management team members in project characteristics can contribute to the success of EBC campaigns, whilst lower funding target, less equity offered, and moderate investment threshold value to gain voting rights in fundraising characteristics can also contribute to the success of EBC campaigns. The results also suggest that project founders may establish a higher investment threshold value for investors to obtain voting rights if they are confident in the project's ability to create substantial cash flows or revenue in the future. Moreover, investors may waive their voting rights if project founders provide signals of higher-quality projects. More importantly, the result of this study found significant interaction effect between different factors, including firm age and social media, equity offered and social media, and equity offered and investment. The findings help to depict a complex web of interacting factors that when considered together, are contributing to the success of EBC. Through investigation of the factors of project characters and its fund structure characters in equity crowdfunding, this thesis assists project founders in setting up their crowdfunding campaign and investors screening out projects with growth potential and advances understanding of Crowdfunding, especially for equity crowdfunding.
• Charitable Organisations and Ambidexterity: Implications for Charity Sector Leaders

  Marmion, Maeve; Brown, Tim; Wall, Tony; Shaw, Nicky (University of Chester, 2022-10)

  The survival and sustainability of charities, also sometimes referred to as not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) has been a long-term challenge for the sector because of changeable socio-economic events, which have taken place throughout the last century and beyond. Charities and charity leaders demonstrate significant capability in managing the competing demands of short-term and long-term survival in accordance with their social mission. Despite this, there is limited scholarly literature, which considers how this is achieved. This research seeks to address this by examining the organisational concept ‘organisational ambidexterity’ in the context of private charitable organisations. In doing so it offers new contribution to the organisational literature on charity and organisational ambidexterity, as well as new knowledge to charity sector leaders through determining key components of organisational ambidextrous design in the delivery of social mission. The research was conducted between 2021 and 2022 using mono method research in the form of 14 semi-structured interviews with executive members (Chief Executives and Directors) of UK based charities in the disability, health, or social care arena. Analysis took place through a reflexive thematic analysis process, with findings culminating in eight key components for the application of organisational ambidexterity in charity. It is believed that this research represents the first scholarly research conducted into organisational ambidexterity applied to private charities in the UK. Building on previous knowledge, it finds clear evidence of organisational ambidexterity represented in multi-dimensional structural models, culture, systems, and strategy. It is limited by its size and unique context and therefore establishes a basis for further studies in this field to evolve.
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  Top 10 Most-Cited Articles Concerning Blended Learning for Introductory Algorithms and Programming: A Bibliometric Analysis and Overview

  Dwinggo Samala, Agariadne; Usmeldi; Taali; Indarta, Yose; Apdoludin; Leong, Kelvin; Hakiki, Mohammad; Universitas Negeri Padang; Universitas Muhammadiyah Muara Bungo; University of Chester (International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), 2023-03-07)

  Blended learning, also known as mixed-mode instruction, combines in-person and online instruction. Blended learning is widely used in school and university subjects. This research aims to determine how blended learning has been applied to algorithms and programming courses over the last 20 years. This study analyzes the quality and quantity of scientific publications using bibliometric techniques and then provides an overview of how blended learning is used and its impact. For this analysis and review, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of articles published in the last 20 years (2000–2021) and then presented the 10 most cited articles. We established the following criteria for articles: 1) sourced from the Scopus database, 2) concerned about blended learning in algorithms and programming, and 3) publication is limited to articles published in indexed international journals and proceedings. The VOSviewer and MS-Excel applications help with data presentation in this method. We collected 240 articles that met these criteria from the Scopus database, which contained 297 articles published between 2000 and 2021. The most-cited article received 52 citations, while the least received only 3. The top 10 most cited articles are from the following countries: 1) Norway, 2) Serbia, and 3) Saudi Arabia. We divided the articles into categories based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings of this study can be used as a reference for state-of-the-art and novelty, as well as for the dissemination of scientific references related to the use of blended learning for introductory algorithms and programming.
• The Empirical Nexus between Data-Driven Decision-Making and Productivity: Evidence from Pakistan’s Banking Sector

  Gul, Raazia; Leong, Kelvin; Mubashar, Ammara; Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan, Mamdouh; Sung, Anna; Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Karachi; University of Chester; Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi; University of Portsmouth (Taylor & Francis, 2023-02-16)

  The effective use of digital technologies to create business value has generated enormous data, and using data in decision-making is vital. Although there is growing empirical evidence in favour of a positive association between informed decision-making and firm performance in developed countries, there is little to no evidence of a large-scale study in an emerging economic context. Moreover, there has been scant empirical evidence on how DDDM affects productivity in the banking sector of developing countries. This study examined the impact of DDDM on the productivity of Pakistan’s banking sector from 2016 to 2020 based on primary and secondary data collected from banks registered in Pakistan. The findings suggest that banks who adopt DDDM practices show a 4–7% increase in productivity depending on adjustment to change. We believe this study would shed light on the importance of DDDM in the banking sector of developing countries.

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