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This article considers how undocumented youth in the UK survive and construct their everyday lives in precarious circumstances. Drawing on multiple in-depth narrative interviews with (n = 7) undocumented youth, I illustrate how these young people focus on the future and engage in purposeful activities as a way of enduring the everyday challenges of living with no papers. I reflect on the relationships, which young people draw on to enable them to endure adversity and rebuild their everyday lives. I conclude that the presence of love and community is critical for young people's survival, safety and wellbeing, and I suggest how practitioners and researchers might make use of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge is an essential ingredient for economic development, growth and gaining a competitive advantage. In order to produce novel and valuable knowledge, it is advantageous, perhaps vital, to rely on insights gained from prior research efforts. Those knowledge spillovers (KS) provide the rationale for sustained economic growth and produce unique place-based knowledge spaces. Due to the spatial embeddedness and stickiness of knowledge, most investigations mainly pay attention to the localized nature of KS, but what about those spillovers from other jurisdictions, or perhaps even from across the globe? To analyse the role played by international KS, the present study investigates to what extent international KS shape the evolution of the UK science and technology space. The first step involves creating knowledge spaces following the methodology outlined by Kogler et al. (2013; 2017) for the period 2006-15. Subsequently, we are following the paper trail of publications and patents developed by UK authors and inventors to depict to what degree international KS in specific science and technology domains have contributed to the production of novel knowledge in the UK. The results indicate that four out of five citations made in publications and patents in the UK are the works of authors and inventors residing elsewhere. This has important policy implications considering recent tendencies to curtail trade and the free movement of labour, all of which contribute to the diffusion of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper examines the approach of United Kingdom (UK) Trade Unions to the use of institutional power resources (IPR) in the second half of the twentieth century. Design/methodology/approach: Using secondary material, it examines the unions' approach to IPR in three cases; collective bargaining; worker representation and trade union structure. Findings: The paper concludes that unions did not appreciate the importance of, and lacked a strategic approach to, IPR. Although employer and government action were largely responsible for the decline of industrial relations institutions, the failure of the unions to engage with IPR contributed to this process. It explains the failure of the unions to engage with IPR by reference to their lack of strategic capabilities and skills in relation to power resources (PRs) in general and IPR in particular. Research limitations/implications: It would have been interesting to collect primary data via interviews with union actors from the period examined to test the interpretation of secondary data contained in the article. Practical implications: The paper has identified the kind of strategic decision-making which is necessary for unions to engage effectively with IPR. It is has also indicated the key skills which unions need to develop to be able to manage their engagement with IPR. Social implications: The paper has implications for the role of trade unions in society, showing the need for them to develop narratives to convince society of the importance of their role and action and to develop the skills which enable them to connect with other social groups, e.g. intermediation, engagement with coalitional resources. Originality/value: Analysis of the decline of industrial relations institutions in this period has emphasized the role of employers and the state. This paper contributes to a more balanced perspective on this decline by drawing attention to the lack of a union strategy towards IPR and the importance of the detail of the management and employment of power resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of secondary school food policy (SSFP) across the devolved nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) to offer insights into a growing area of policy concern. The selected context of research is school food policy (SFP), an area of research which has received little attention in terms of policy approaches. The review is focused on 2010 to 2022. Design/methodology/approach: This work combines interdisciplinary perspectives spanning across food policy, public health, psychology, education and sociology. This combination has merit as it offers different perspectives in terms of understanding SFP. The study was conducted between August 2021 and March 2022, using a desk-based review, analysing policies on food in secondary schools. Data collection was conducted through the Web using key search terms. The READ (Read, Extract, Analyse, Distil) approach was used as a systematic procedure to analyse policy and evaluation documents. Findings: To all levels of government, it is recommended that a coherent policymaking approach be used to tackle SSFP improvements, to progress a whole school approach to food, supported by long-term dedicated resources while engaging children in SSFP development. For education departments, it is recommended that a food curriculum review, connected to school meals alongside a refocus on school food standards monitoring and reporting is crucial in serving the future generations. The current economic crisis has had an impact on public spending. Universal Free School Meals has been said to make an enormous difference to well-being. Originality/value: The current findings suggest that researching SFP across nations has merit. There is a relative lack of focus on secondary schools, in light of England's focus on the National Food Strategy (focus on children), post-pandemic, economic crisis – together this makes school food and food policy a topic of real urgency and importance. Lessons can both be learned, particularly in promoting healthier and more educationally inclusive school food practices. Research in this area can inform curriculum design and school food environment and system changes from the perspective of learnings around taking a whole school food approach to education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines staff perspectives on institutional representations of a range of areas of diversity and inclusion in a key post-compulsory education sector: that of UK Higher Education (HE). The paper focuses on comparing representational statements made by institutions with the reality of their lived experiences as perceived by staff. The paper first reviews literature around key issues of promoting and progressing in these areas, and how these areas are represented by institutions and the sector as a whole. It presents and discusses data from a survey (n = 300) to show strong agreement with representational statements as mirroring those of institutions, yet statistically significant differences between representations and the reality of lived experiences, particularly in relation to the lived experiences of staff. These data are discussed in the light of progress made by institutions, and the challenges faced in translating representations into real lived experience. Suggestions for institutions and policy makers are made to help better align reality with these representations in the UK Higher Education sector and, theoretically, for post-compulsory education sectors elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The literature mostly investigates the business cycle transmission of the United Kingdom (UK) and France as a part of a wider group (e.g. European Exchange Rate Mechanism or G7), despite their historical links and regional significance. Thus, herein paper aims to analyse the inter-dependence of these economies and how a shock from one of them affects the other for the data since 1978 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, first, preliminary statistics were calculated in order to describe the historical relationship between these countries. The econometric part estimates the vector auto-regression model (VAR) to assess the inter-dependence of the economies. VAR model allows further to inspect the impulse response functions that shows the shock dynamics from one country to another. In order to verify if a shock from one of the economies is important to another, the study uses granger causality test. Findings: The study establishes a strong link between these countries. A business cycle is transmitted significantly between the economies of France and UK, with a single standard deviation shock from France resulting in a long term effect of 0.4% change in gross domestic product (GDP) of UK and 1% vice versa. Additionally changes in GDP of both of the countries significantly Granger-cause change to GDP of the corresponding economy. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study investigating the business cycle transmission between France and UK and providing a quantitative assessment of their inter-dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that trust cannot be taken for granted in long-term participatory research and promotes greater consideration to conceptualizing the trusting process as fluid and fragile. This awareness by researchers can reveal to them how the passing of time shapes and reshapes the nature of trusting relationships and their constant negotiation and re-negotiation. The paper draws together literature from different disciplines on the themes of trust, temporality and participatory research and outcomes from interviews and workshops undertaken for The Trust Map project to focus on two key moments that reveal the fragility of trust. These are the subtlety of disruption and trust on trial and trust at a distance. We discuss how trust was built over time through processes of interaction that were continually tested, incremental and participatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to critically examine the effects of COVID-19 social discourses and policy decisions specifically on older adult volunteers in the UK, comparing the responses and their effects in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, providing perspectives on effects of policy changes designed to reduce risk of infection as a result of COVID-19, specifically on volunteer involvement of and for older adults, and understand, from the perspectives of volunteer managers, how COVID-19 restrictions had impacted older people's volunteering and situating this within statutory public health policies. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a critical discourse approach to explore, compare and contrast accounts of volunteering of and for older people in policy, and then compare the discourses within policy documents with the discourses in personal accounts of volunteering in health and social care settings in the four nations of the UK. This paper is co-produced in collaboration with co-authors who have direct experience with volunteer involvement responses and their impact on older people. Findings: The prevailing overall policy approach during the pandemic was that risk of morbidity and mortality to older people was too high to permit them to participate in volunteering activities. Disenfranchising of older people, as exemplified in volunteer involvement, was remarkably uniform across the four nations of the UK. However, the authors find that despite, rather than because of policy changes, older volunteers, as part of, or with the help of, volunteer involving organisations, are taking time to think and to reconsider their involvement and are renewing their volunteer involvement with associated health benefits. Research limitations/implications: Working with participants as co-authors helps to ensure the credibility of results in that there was agreement in the themes identified and the conclusions. A limitation of this study lies in the sampling method, as a convenience sample was used and there is only representation from one organisation in each of the four nations. Originality/value: The paper combines existing knowledge about volunteer involvement of and for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold damage to the socio-economic lives of people all over the world. Research has also demonstrated great inequality in the pandemic experience. In the UK as in many other countries, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and in workingclass positions have suffered disproportionately more than the majority group and those in salariat positions in terms of income loss, financial difficulty, and vulnerability to infection. Yet little is known about how people coped in the daily lives and tried to maintain their well-being during the most difficult days of the pandemic through social capital. Methods: In this paper, we draw data from the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies to address these questions. The survey covered the period from May 2020 to February 2021, the height of the pandemic in the UK. It contains numerous questions on contact, help and support among family, friends, community members, socio-political trust, and physical and mental health. We conceptualise three types of social capital and one type of overall well-being and we construct latent variables from categorical indicator variables. We analyse the ethnic and socio-economic determinants of the three types of social capital and their impacts on well-being. Results: Our analysis shows that social capital plays very important roles on wellbeing, and that ethnic minority groups, particularly those of Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Black heritages, faced multiple disadvantages: their poorer socio-economic positions prevented them from gaining similar levels of social capital to those of the white group. However, for people with the same levels of social capital, the effects on well-being are generally similar. Discussion: Socio-economic (class) inequality is the root cause for ethnic differences in social capital which in turn affects people's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic somewhat unexpectedly promoted resurgent interest in the attractions of rural places, not least associated with nature, in many countries for especially urban people. The paper argues that this link was very fecund for many within the broad UK ‘folk music’ community specifically. After introducing COVID‐19's pro‐rural turn, the paper gives a brief overview of now substantial music geography scholarship, paying particular attention to what has been studied in respect of folk music, not least its examination of the latter's problematic links to English identities. It argues that folk music's resurgent rural links call for attention. It then introduces how the rural‐folk music COVID‐19 experience worked at three non‐exclusive levels. First, there was rural influence on the music being produced. Second, some musicians were also personally impacted strongly by rural experiences, evident not solely through their music. Third, some musicians developed original rural initiatives that saw audience members also gaining direct rural inspiration, not just via the strong growth in internet‐facilitated connections but through direct in‐place encounters with the musicians in the rural. Each reading is illustrated by two brief case studies, with the rural‐folk combination becoming increasingly alive and more‐than‐representational. It is suggested in conclusion that there remains a strong ‘life’ to these rural‐folk music connections in less predominant COVID‐19 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a range of actors respond to poverty in the cost of living crisis, this paper addresses a long‐standing blind spot in social policy analysis by examining the role that corporations are playing in voluntary responses in the UK. To do this the paper introduces theories of corporate power to extend approaches to researching mixed economies of welfare, which have traditionally looked at the role of commercial entities principally in terms of their role alongside other actors in the welfare state. Building on existing food charity research, which has explored the dynamics and implications of corporate‐food charity relationships, this paper applies theories of corporate power to an analysis of the food charity related activities of the top 20 leading food retailers and casual dining brands in the UK. The analysis reveals how UK corporations exercised instrumental, structural and discursive forms of power to influence policy, set agendas and norms within food and charity systems and frame issues of food charity and hunger. The paper illustrates how a corporate power framework can add important layers to social policy analyses of mixed economies of welfare, by introducing a focus not just on operational aspects of corporate involvement, but also on the impact these corporations might be having on policy, how they are shaping the structure of welfare and the drivers of poverty through agenda setting in their markets, and the ways in which corporations influence public perceptions of social policy issues and how best to respond to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for a wider range of critical perspectives to be brought to bear on the phenomenon of internationalization. We argue that the role of internationalization research should be to promote reciprocity and respect between academics and students from different systems. This paper was developed as a discussion piece for the Re-Knox Conference in Cairo (August 2022). It is based on a process of independence and co-reflexivity regarding three of the authors' research projects. It conveys and illustrates three principles regarding theory and method that we found valuable for understanding how research that builds a more sustainable, equitable, and cooperative form of higher education could be developed. The goal is to unpick and transform the destructive, exploitative, and negative relationships that are embedded in internationalization and affect all parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to better understand how emerging artists use information to navigate the transition out of university, using their changing ideas of failure, success, information literacy (IL), and transition to frame the qualitative data. A literature review is used to frame the current understanding of emerging artists and feed into the creation of the interview questions. Four emerging artists participated to elicit qualitative accounts. Descriptive and process coding was used to analyse the interviews to form the findings. The findings present how emerging artists use information to shape their criteria for success and failure during the transitional period after leaving art school education. Three core information practices -- sharing, feeding, and balancing -- were observed within the interviews. With this framing insights into the emerging artists' past (learning from historic failings) and the future (envisioning future success) begin to be formed. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the knowledge of emerging artists' information practices, including the impact of their digital media usage and self-referencing as IL. The study uses the work of other IL scholars with the information practices of emerging artists and frames them through three key ideas: IL, transition, and success and failure. This intersection of study has not been explored previously. The results will provide direction for information professionals serving emerging artists, and for art educators preparing their students for their careers outside of university. It also deepens the understanding of the field of transition and information practices of new practitioners across fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of economic crises on philanthropic funding to, and fundraising by, nonprofit organisations is a surprisingly under-researched field. Internationally, data is scant and comparisons are impeded by different categorisations and definitions of funders and sectors, different timeframes and the dominance of the US in the body of published research. A search and review of the literature identified 60 journal articles and professional reports that we analysed by theme. This paper brings together, reviews and analyses what is known from four national contexts - the US, the UK, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Analysis covers the impact of multiple recessions, with a particular focus on the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-09. Key findings include that losses of funding are not as uniform nor as sustained as media coverage would suggest and that different sectors are impacted in different ways. Philanthropic sources including individuals, trusts and foundations, and corporate philanthropy vary in the timing of their responses to economic crises, and though the impact of economic crises on nonprofit sectors is variable, giving as a whole is better sustained than popularly supposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper offers a review of national and local planning policies towards warehouse development within the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The first sections of the paper provide a description of the simple method of enquiry and sources of information used in the paper, outlines of the main factors driving the demand for warehousing space in the UK, and of the nature, scale and operation of modern warehouses, and a short review into the limited literature published to date, on town planning and on how it has influenced warehouse development. This is followed by an examination of some of the planning issues associated with warehouse development, two mini-case studies of how these issues are perceived and played out, a discussion of some of the issues raised in this examination and the mini-case studies. Findings: Town planning policies were traditionally seen as a restraint on the development of warehousing but while current national and local planning policies make little explicit reference to warehousing, they have often been cited in support of new warehouse development because such policies emphasise the importance of supporting economic growth and fostering the conditions in which businesses can invest and expand. Research limitations/implications: The paper has a number of limitations, not least that its source material is drawn from the Internet, and in that no primary data were collected from warehouse developers, warehouse operators, local planning officers or local authority councillors, and that the geographical coverage was limited. Originality/value: The paper offers an accessible review of the current town planning issues associated with warehouse development in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of ownership concentration on Covid-19 disclosure in the narrative sections of corporate annual reports. It also explores the mediating role of corporate leverage on the ownership concentration–Covid-19 disclosure relationship. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses automated textual analysis to measure Covid-19 disclosure in annual reports. It also applies different regression models to test the research hypotheses and to address the endogeneity problem. It uses univariate and multivariate analyses through correlations and ordinary least squares. Findings: The analysis shows that ownership concentration has a negative impact on Covid-19 disclosure. It also shows that corporate leverage negatively affects Covid-19 disclosure, and it has a partial mediating effect on the ownership concentration–Covid-19 disclosure relationship. Practical implications: The results offer important practical implications for the government, management, shareholders and policymakers. For example, corporate managers are encouraged to consider small shareholders' interests and provide a sufficient level of Covid-19 disclosure to avoid violating their rights. Also, the government may consider forming a mechanism for balancing the ownership structure to protect small investors and weaken large shareholders' tunnelling behaviours. Originality/value: This paper offers two important contributions to governance and disclosure literature. First, it provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between ownership concentration and Covid-19 disclosure. Second, it provides new evidence on the mediating role of the leverage ratio on the ownership concentration–Covid-19 disclosure relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research paper is to compare and analyse how crypto-assets are regulated in the UK and Germany. The aim is to understand and highlight the approaches taken by these two countries in terms of regulating crypto-assets and to explore the potential impact that their regulatory frameworks could have on the market for these crypto-assets. The research employs a doctrinal research design to examine the crypto-asset regulatory regimes in the UK and Germany. A comprehensive review of existing literature, official regulatory documents and relevant legal frameworks is conducted to understand the core components of each country's crypto-asset regulations. The findings of this study reveal divergences in the regulatory approaches of the UK and Germany towards crypto-assets. While the UK has embraced a principles-based regulatory framework, fostering innovation and industry growth, Germany has adopted a more prescriptive and cautious approach, focusing on investor protection and market stability. The research identifies that the UK's flexible approach has attracted a flourishing crypto-asset ecosystem, while Germany's conservative stance has offered greater investor confidence. However, certain regulatory gaps and challenges persist in both jurisdictions, such as ambiguities in classification and tax treatment, requiring further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In attempting to understand and prevent fare evasion, existing research and policy have often categorised fare evaders based on passenger 'types' or profiles. However, such categorisations of 'malicious' or 'virtuous' behaviours rely on underlying moral claims which often go unexamined. In this paper, we study how different actors construct such moral claims as part of everyday interactions. We demonstrate that the everyday moralities of not or under-paying are diverse, locally occasioned, and emotionally charged. Drawing on social media and video data from Chile and the UK, we examine interactions between passengers, by-standers, transport workers, and transport operators. We highlight the diverse resources that actors draw upon to construct moral claims around fare evasion, including the mobilisation of alternative moral categories; attempts to produce exceptions to formal rules; and the foregrounding of moral emotions. The paper engages with an interdisciplinary body of work which reassesses existing policies and societal responses to fare evasion, while also contributing to a nascent literature on everyday morality and mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint Institutions are created from two different universities joining together to create a collaborative research and education effort. Compared to traditional universities, several unique challenges present themselves from this arrangement. We are especially interested in the student experience at UK-China Joint Institutes. We therefore organized a conference with the UK-China Joint Institute Alliance to aggregate knowledge on this issue. This paper summarizes the topics presented and discussed at the conference including: student learning and methods with which to measure and improve it, monitoring and incentivizing student engagement, the transition period from high school to university, teaching evaluations of staff, and lastly, learning and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures to open up public procurement opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are often justified by a perceived need to remove 'barriers' to participation in the world of public contracting. The word 'barrier' features extensively in the literature on this topic, and in the speeches and policy papers of politicians advocating for various 'pro-SME' measures. However, the language used is often inconsistent when it comes to expressing just what 'barrier' means in this context. Any business may experience a range of advantages or disadvantages as it tries to succeed in the market, but what makes a particular factor a 'barrier' that justifies government intervention? This paper explores the language of 'barriers' in the context of public procurement in the EU single market and the UK (as a jurisdiction that was, until very recently, a full participant in that market). Some relevant cases of the Europan Court of Justice (ECJ) are considered that shed light on the court's view on the difference between an unfair obstacle that should be put right, and a natural disadvantage that does not justify intervention. Finally, in light of these observations, a working definition of an 'SME procurement barrier' is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the relationship between key audit matters (KAMs) and audit costs and whether board size and independence affect this relationship. Furthermore, this paper examines the moderating effect of corporate governance on the relationship between KAMs and audit costs. Design/methodology/approach: The authors hypothesise that disclosing more KAMs in the audit report is positively associated with audit costs because of the greater effort. The agency theory suggests that firms with good governance will mitigate the agency conflict of interest and improve financial reporting quality. Thus, good governance might moderate the relationship between reported KAMs and audit costs. The authors use a quantitative approach. The authors are using a sample of the UK FTSE all-share non-financial firms from 2014 to 2018 for the UK Financial Times Stock Exchange all-share non-financial firms. Findings: The authors provide evidence of a significant positive relationship between KAMs and audit costs. The relationship is relatively higher when considering the independent directors' percentage as a moderating factor. These results came consistent with the agency theory literature. However, the authors found no empirical evidence to support a moderating effect of board size on the relationship between KAMs and audit cost. Practical implications: The finding benefits the regulatory setters to better understand the consequences of the new auditing standards. This paper has theoretical and practical implications for regulators, standard setters, professional bodies, shareholders and academics. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature assessing the regulatory changes related to audit reform and adds to the debate on the impact on audit costs. This paper underlines governance factors as a moderating role in this relationship between KAMs and audit costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Most Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have silos of distributed processes, which adds to the confusion and conflict concerning the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), desires, expectation and needs (DEN). Where possible, in order to maximise resource impact and minimise organisational disruption, HEIs should practically map these DEN to processes, roles, events, activities, channels, and technologies (PRE-ACTs) that already exist within the organisation. The paper iteratively considers use of additional practical approaches that need be considered in order to ensure that strategic HEI CRM DEN are effectively captured, and that the requirements are appropriately mapped to existing HEI activities. Design/methodology/approach: Content from 27 JISC cases, 10 semi-structured interviews and three focus group sessions have been collected and analysed using thematic analysis to understand how to develop preliminary stage 2 steps and assess the applicability of the final CRM strategy orientation support (CRM-SOS) framework stage 2 methods. Findings: The authors believe that this study provides substantial practical support to CRM implementation practitioners when analysing customer CRM desires, expectation, and needs requirements. The developing practical tools aim to 1) support practitioners better comprehend the multifaceted life cycles, needs, and requirements of HEI customers, and 2) aid in the planning and management of CRM change more effectively. Originality/value: The paper is extending the recent research around CRM strategy in HEIs by proposing additional practical approaches that need be considered to ensure that strategic CRM are effectively captured. The paper also offers considerable practical support to CRM implementation practitioners when analysing customer CRM desires, expectation, and needs' requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential earnings premium associated with a doctoral degree (PhDs, ISCED9) over postgraduate degrees (PGs, or Masters, ISCED7) in the UK. We assess this premium using a decade-worth of UK Labour Force Survey data (2011–2020). To explore the possible endogenous choice of post-graduate tracks, this paper deploys linear regression, (ordinary least squares, OLS), propensity score matching (PSM), and inverse probability weighting (IPWRA) to estimate the pay premium under varying identifying assumptions. The estimates show a positive return in terms of gross hourly pays in all models, along with a relevant role of managerial positions and degree of specialisation in employment position. Therefore, although a PhD is arguably mostly driven by taste for scientific pursuit, a PhD has on average also an economic pay-off. However, much of it depends on one's capacity to acquire leadership positions – the most relevant factor disentangling those fulfilling or not their potential in terms of wages. We also provide a cost–benefit analysis over a life course showing that such a premium is overall modest, but subject to positive spikes for those in Science & Technology (STEM disciplines), getting managerial positions, and for women. Our findings suggest investigating further those personal and organisational factors that are conducive of unleashing highly educated potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic and subsequent measures to reduce transmission risk has led to unprecedented digital transformation across health, education and social care services. This includes UK paediatric speech and language therapy (SLT), which sits at the crossroads of these services. Given the rapid onset of this pandemic‐induced digital transition, there is now a need to capture, reflect and learn from the SLT profession so that benefits can be sustained, and barriers addressed. Aims: To survey the impact of COVID‐19 remote working on UK paediatric SLTs' digital views and experiences using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM‐B) model. Methods & Procedures: An online survey was conducted from May to October 2020. Respondents were asked to rate their use of technology in service delivery before and during the pandemic, to select factors facilitating digital practice, and to provide open‐response aspirations for the future role of technology in paediatric SLT which were analysed thematically using the COM‐B behaviour change model. Outcomes & Results: A total of 424 UK paediatric SLTs responded to the survey. Findings indicate a marked increase in clinicians' perception of their frequency, convenience and confidence with digital practice during COVID‐19 compared with before the pandemic. Respondents identified that specialist training (27%), funding for workplace devices (22%) and supportive leadership (19%) were most likely to facilitate sustained digital practice. Clinicians hoped for a blended approach going forward with technology enhancing existing best practice. Further prominent themes included digital accessibility for all and maintaining the increased opportunity for multidisciplinary working that videoconferencing has afforded. More service‐specific aspirations were bespoke technological solutions as well as parents/carers being able to engage remotely with school‐based provisions. Conclusions & Implications: During COVID‐19, paediatric SLTs' recognition and acceptance of how technology can augment practice has accelerated, with particular value being placed on inclusivity, choice, training, resources, leadership and indication of effectiveness. These are important considerations to help guide the profession towards the long‐term digital enhancement of SLT services. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject: The COVID‐19 pandemic led to an unprecedented interest in the use of technology across SLT practice. Studies are emerging nationally and internationally to identify the digital priorities of the SLT workforce, the areas of digital SLT provision that are thriving or lacking, and the evidence to guide clinical practice and service development. What this study adds to existing knowledge: This is the first UK‐wide COVID‐19 survey solely focusing on the digital practice of paediatric SLTs. The findings provide critical insights into SLT perception of how practice has been impacted in the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic, including digital trends that are service, condition and demographic specific. Tools and channels required to support sustained beneficial change are also discussed. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: This paper demonstrates the potential for digital solutions to enhance SLT practice, as long as implementation is guided by clinicians' experiences and perspectives. The findings lay groundwork for service development work, such as the creation of training packages, updating of clinical guidelines and care pathways, and development of processes to ensure equitable allocation of evidence‐based resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation into female academics' experiences of living and working through the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). A diary, diary‐interview method (DDIM) was used to gather qualitative data from 25 participants about their lives during the period March 2020–September 2021 and diary and interview data have since been curated and published in an open access digital archive. The paper argues firstly that in recording and interpreting change over time in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, the methodology constitutes a qualitative longitudinal research (QLLR) approach. Secondly, that the method has the capacity to convey temporal disruption and complexity, aligned with notions of crisis as fast, slow and ongoing. Thirdly, that Nixon's theorising of 'slow violence' can be used to frame the impacts of the pandemic as gradual, unseen and banal despite potentially negative implications for female academics' career progression. Finally, the paper argues that gathering this data through DDIM and publishing it in a publicly accessible digital archive represents a necessary form of witness with the potential to be utilised for future interventions. This paper reports on an investigation using a diary, diary‐interview method (DDIM) into female academics' experiences of living and working through the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). The paper argues that DDIM has the capacity to convey temporal disruption and complexity, aligned with notions of crisis as fast, slow and ongoing. Nixon's theorising of 'slow violence' is used to frame a consideration of the pandemic's longer‐term, negative implications for female academics' career progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quaestio Iuris (QI) is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes recent developments in the British and European government bond markets with reference to the UK's decision to leave the European Union. The two main goals of the study are, firstly, to examine whether the Brexit referendum result has affected the risk premium and, secondly, whether there are any changes in risk pricing following the referendum. The paper finds a significant impact of the Brexit referendum on the risk premium in selected economies. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a considerable change in risk pricing after the announcement of the referendum result. Credit default risk and the risk aversion play a much important role in the post-referendum period than they did prior to the vote, particularly in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of sub‐daily sea‐level pressure observations taken between 1919 and 1960 over the British and Irish Isles were transcribed from paper records in the early 2000s but were not published and subsequently forgotten. A chance discussion led to the rediscovery of the transcribed data and 5.47 million observations from 160 locations are now made available, although the data have not been fully quality‐controlled. Much of the data are 3‐hourly, allowing for detailed examinations of synoptic weather variations for this region and time period, and will be invaluable for constraining future reanalyses. We illustrate the value of the data using a stormy period during October and November 1928 and discuss the remaining quality‐control issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The growing international legal agenda and the fast development of corporate governance rules are now prompting firms to put emphasis on anti-corruption procedures. On the other hand, wide-ranging concerns have been raised by regulators and policymakers regarding the effectiveness of audit committees in promoting ethical behavior and safeguarding auditor independence from the adverse consequences of purchasing non-audit services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the adoption of anti-corruption measures and perceived auditor independence in the context of audit committees. Design/methodology/approach: After conducting the Breusch–Pagan Lagrange Multiplier test and the Hausman test, the random-effect model is used as the most appropriate estimator. Several endogeneity tests are also used to account for the endogenous nature of the corporate governance variables in the models. Findings: Using a sample of UK FTSE 350 firms, this paper provides evidence that anti-corruption efforts are associated with lower purchases of non-audit services and lower economic bonding between auditors and their clients. Furthermore, the findings of this paper reveal that the adoption of anti-corruption efforts substitutes the role of audit committees in enhancing perceived auditor independence and that audit committees do not play a significant incremental role. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to focus on bolstering perceived auditor independence while enhancing the control and ethical environment from the clients' side instead of the auditors' side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom and further afield, policy discourse has focused on the efficiencies technology will afford the care sector by increasing workforce capacity at a time when there are recruitment and retention issues. Previous research has explored the impact of telecare and other technologies on roles within the care sector, but issues related to job quality and the consequences of newer digital technologies that are increasingly being deployed in care settings are under researched. Through an exploration of the literature on robotics and empirical studies of telecare and mainstream 'smart' digital technology use in UK adult social care, this paper examines how these technologies are generating new forms of work and their implications for job quality, arguing the tendency to prioritise technology results in the creation 'machine babysitters' and 'fauxtomatons'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of social media use has been phenomenal, particularly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Facebook has also seen its share of users rise at a meteoric rate. At the same time, the academy is producing a growing body of literature concerning the use of online methods for primary data collection. Yet, despite the increase in the use of the internet as a research tool, very little still exists on the use of social media to recruit research participants, particularly those deemed "socially invisible". This paper addresses this gap. Another research project explored the experiences of South Asian women who had departed the social norms of arranged marriage to form an intimate relationship with a partner of choice and who then experienced forms of gender-related violence (GRV). The project encountered difficulties in recruiting participants from this marginalised and often invisible group in UK society, who are often too frightened or ashamed to come forward. This study demonstrates how to use Facebook ethically and methodologically, highlighting some of the methods used to overcome the challenges that were presented. The research was undertaken before the COVID-19 pandemic (which prompted a widespread use of social media in social science research). We argue that, despite the ethical challenges, the advantages of using social media to recruit participants when researching a highly sensitive topic such as GRV with 'invisible groups' was highly beneficial. We therefore suggest that social media should be an integral part of the research recruitment process, alongside non-digital methods, so that other 'invisible groups' are not created comprising those who cannot access technology. We share the lessons learned for the benefit of researchers using a similar approach today when recruiting research participants from invisible and marginalised groups. The authors caveat their recommendation of using social media with suggesting that those who do not have high levels of experience of data collection with such cohorts instead consider working with gatekeepers to facilitate the recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing shortages and construction delays characterize the current UK housing crisis, and housing need is not met. Modern methods of construction (MMC) are put forward as a solution to ensure quicker, safer, and greener delivery of new homes and are supported by the government, especially in the social housing sector. The paper explores the post-occupancy evaluation mechanisms used by housing associations delivering homes with traditional and MMC approaches. It argues that, alongside the digital and offsite transformation of housebuilding, the industry needs to reconsider the way customer feedback is collected and what purposes it serves. The paper argues that UK housebuilding in the social housing sector can benefit from re-purposing post-occupancy evaluation (POE) from only measuring customer satisfaction and detecting defects, which is currently the case, to using it to improve housing design and construction quality. This could be done by developing a systematic learning loop from residents of previous projects to the design, development, and construction teams across the housebuilding supply chain. It could particularly benefit housing associations pioneering MMC that, as long-term asset holders of developed houses, have a vested interest in improving the quality of homes and creating a better residential experience. The accumulated knowledge of such customer-centred approaches could also inform MMC technology development and help increase its uptake. However, as the paper further discusses, there are many challenges on the way to effective POE in social housing provision, including the nature of the MMC-based housebuilding supply chain and the industry's structural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing concern in the lives of individuals and communities during COVID-19, there is growing consensus across the globe that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on different segments of society. It is of pertinent significance to understand the differential impact of pandemic on diverse groups. The concept of 'intersectional vulnerability' has been used in this paper to understand the unequal impact of the pandemic. Using an intersectional lens of ethnicity, this paper aims to understand the lived experiences of South Asian key workers' family members (women) during the COVID-19 lockdowns through narratives of precarity and vulnerability, this study brings out the challenges faced by families of key workers. Vulnerable family members' fear, stress, economic pressures, persistent inequalities in society, and gendered experiences shape the narratives of these families. The pandemic exacerbated existing precarious positions of families by creating a situation where ethnic inequality and inequitable gendered impacts were further reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK response to Covid-19 has been unusually complex in its ever-shifting classifications of clinical vulnerability. By May 2020, 2.2 million people had been identified as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' (CEV) and were asked to 'shield' at home for over four months. To adhere to this strict guidance, they were enfolded within the patchy infrastructure of the 'shielding programme'. However, membership of the 'shielded list' has changed—often without warning or explanation—through time and across space. Drawing on policy and evidentiary documents, government speeches, reports, press conferences and media analysis of Covid-19 coverage between March 2020 and April 1, 2021, this paper traces the shifting delineations of clinical vulnerability in the UK response across three lockdowns. It argues that the complexities and confusions generated by the transience of the CEV category have fed into forms of biosociality that have been as much about making practical sense of government guidance as a form of mutual support amid crisis. This uncertainty has not eased as restrictions have been relaxed and vaccines rolled out. Instead, tracing individual immune response has become a burgeoning industry as 'the shielded' navigate the uneasy demands of taking 'personal responsibility' rather than being protected by 'the rules'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although distinctions between full-time and part-time work are vital for understanding inequalities at work and home, consensus and critical reflection are lacking in how employment status should be defined. Full-time and part-time work are often represented as a binary split between those working under or over a specific number of hours. However, this paper, using exploratory mixed methods, evidences problems with assumptions based on working-hour thresholds and highlights the importance of workplace culture and household contexts. Using the UK Labour Force Survey we reveal ambiguities in the reporting of employment status for 12% of workers when comparing definitions based on number of working days, working hours and self-assessment. Ambiguities are particularly prevalent among working mothers with almost a third, who would be regarded as working full-time using hour-based measures, classified as ambiguous according to the measures used here. In-depth interviews with parents who self-classify as part-time workers, despite working over 35 hours a week, reveal mechanisms behind ambiguity within this group linked to organisational norms, previous working hours and divisions of household labour. The paper therefore argues workplace and household contexts are crucial to understanding employment status and recommends this should be taken into account in new multidimensional measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify and gain insights into small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs) rationales (why) for engaging in sustainable social and environmental practices (SEPs) that influence social and environmental policy and sustainability changes. Specifically, we depart from the predominately quantitative‐orientated SEPs literature by conducting in‐depth interviews and analysis of owners and managers of SMEs in the United Kingdom within a legitimacy theoretical framework. Our findings from a comprehensive number of interviewees show that SMEs employ a complex mix of both symbolic and substantive SEPs with the aim of enhancing the legitimacy and sustainability of their operations. The results emphasise the strengths of social engagement, reputation and image, environmental embeddedness, industry differentiation and education facilitators. In particular, the paper shows that legitimating strategies can have a dual purpose of being symbolic in nature but also inferring a substantive legitimacy claim. Evidence of SMEs maintaining their legitimacy position stretches further via either a moral and/or a pragmatic standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to broaden existing understandings of migrant worker flexibility drawing on the data from the two ethnographic studies of low-wage employers and Eastern European migrants in Scotland. It focuses on the temporal aspects of flexibility production in employment discourse and temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers. Our findings reveal double movement of interruption and remaking of temporal flexibility, which challenges directional expectations about time and unsettles the assumed connectivity between flexibility's temporal elements. Uncertainty and instability of migration and employment frameworks undermine the attempts of employers and migrants to manage time, to develop continuous portfolio careers and coherent temporal horizons. Furthermore, contested temporal expectations about flexible migrant workers create fragmented and fractured "flexiworkers" that do not fit within the existing temporal frameworks of signs, routines, and rhythms. The paper suggests re-orientation of flexibility debates beyond temporal measurement, outside familiar temporal structures, and towards redefinition of flexible worker identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores international research into library and information studies (LIS) education as part of the diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA) agenda and identifies options for LIS education reform in addressing racial inequity in the library profession in the UK. The paper sets out the UK legal, higher education and LIS education contexts, focussing on the role of the professional association, accreditation and the curriculum, and the library and information workforce, and highlights current practices in DEIA in the UK. Using a methodology drawn from bibliometric approaches, a set of academic and professional articles related to DEIA and the LIS curriculum are analysed and nine interpretative repertoires are then identified and discussed. Four core mature repertoires concentrate on the professional association, the university, LIS faculty and the curriculum. These core clusters are surrounded by emerging repertoires which are more recent and more critical. Each repertoire is discussed, referring to key sources and authors to present a picture of trends and complexity in recent (2000–2022) literature on the topic. The aim of this work is to provide a detailed view of existing practice in LIS education relating to DEIA. LIS schools are a vital part of the professional pathway: without a qualification there is no profession, and university students are more-often-than-not drawn from the more privileged and wealthier sectors of society. It is recommended that LIS schools recruit students and faculty who reflect communities and develop the abilities of students to serve the communities they may or may not reflect. These are categorized into clusters, in an attempt to inform LIS education reform in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transnational focus in migration studies since the turn of the 20th century has discussed migrants and their migration activities as spanning both origin and destination countries. Migrants' lives and their activities in both origin and destination countries have also been discussed in‐depth in several studies. However, businesses that facilitate in‐kind transnational links migrants maintain with their relatives and friends back home have received far less attention in the literature. This paper bridges this gap by focusing extensively on 'door‐to‐door' a transnational business model that makes in‐kind remittance transfers possible for migrants and their friends and relatives. This exploratory paper discusses the origins, structure, and operations of these businesses in Ghana and in the United Kingdom and the benefits as well as challenges they encounter within the transnational space. We do this by drawing on interviews conducted with Ghanaian migrant‐owned shipping businesses in the United Kingdom and their partners in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper acknowledges that geographical fieldwork and fieldtrips can be deeply stressful, anxiety‐inducing, troubling, miserable, hard and exclusionary for many colleagues, students and pupils. Building on the critical insights of Bracken and Mawdsley's (Area, 36, 2004) 'Muddy Glee' we empirically extend disciplinary reflections on fieldwork, drawing on qualitative data from research with UK university‐based Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) academics who self‐identify as having mental health conditions which substantially affect their daily lives. These data prompt reflection on the nature and experience of fieldwork in two ways. First, they require acknowledgment of fieldwork as not just 'muddy', widening disciplinary imaginaries of fieldwork accessibility to encompass marginalities in/of Human Geography fieldwork practice. Second, contrary to pervasive disciplinary idealisations, these data demand recognition that fieldwork and fieldtrips are not necessarily gleeful but can be sites of intense latent anxiety and intersectional marginality. They evidence how fieldwork can often be experienced as sites of anxiety, isolation, marginalisation, and often silent or hidden distress. These data are not easy to read, and we argue that they require us to widen our disciplinary senses of what fieldwork is like. In conclusion we offer some prompts for reflection to think‐with this unease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical enquiry and empirical studies demonstrate the significance of performance management (PM) in the higher education sector and it is a fulcrum for developing a strategic role for people management within universities. In spite of the perceived weaknesses of people management in the higher education sector, in general, the current period of rapid and substantial contextual change may necessitate greater formalisation of HR practices across the British higher education sector. In addition to the changing role of the HR function and line managers, these developments may result in an increasingly stringent performance regime across the sector, especially in more hard-pressed institutions. Through a literature review and a pilot study, this paper attempts to address two main research questions: (i) what are the current performance management practices in the British Higher Education sector? and (ii) what needs to be done to strategically align these practices within HEIs in the UK? This paper discusses the wider literature related to performance management in general and to academic institutions in particular. We also undertook a small-scale qualitative study to explore the views of HR professionals on the need for, and the current performance measurement systems in their universities in the UK. The preliminary findings confirmed that PM is a key issue in the respondents' institutions, with substantial and recent changes in policy. This underscores the need for a large-scale research agenda to capture the current dynamics of change the sector is undergoing. The paper concludes by stimulating a policy debate and placing a number of research calls, along with suggestions on how these research questions may be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current debates about assisted dying and assisted suicide cover a series of medical, legal, moral, ethical and religious aspects. Yet, public views on the subject remain underexplored and, therefore, not always accounted for in the formation of public policy. This paper reports on empirical data from a cross-sectional study in the UK in 2019, which examines public views about the legalisation of assisted dying and assisted suicide, by means of a self-administered Qualtrics-based survey (self-devised vignettes). A combination of simple random and convenience sampling was used. Participants (n = 297) state their preference that both assisted dying and assisted suicide should be legalised in the UK (n = 70%), while doctors should be legally allowed to support such wishes of patients with an incurable and painful illness from which they will die (n = 62.22%). The paper concludes that public opinion needs to be further accounted for in policymaking and discourses regarding patient autonomy and dignity of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the research process and ethics of doing research with low‐income households in Stoke‐on‐Trent, UK, during the coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with five mothers experiencing food insecurity, I argue that it is imperative that researchers employ ‘care‐full’, slow, flexible methodologies situated within everyday lives to ensure that research with vulnerable and precarious groups of people is not exploitative, especially during times of crisis. The emergency public health measures introduced to contain COVID‐19 in March 2020 acted like a brake on my research activities, slowing things down, limiting the methods available to me, and ultimately, provoking a reimagining of my original research design. I make two contributions. First, building on feminist geographical scholarship on care and reflexivity, and calls for ‘slow’ research that prioritises the shifting needs of researchers and participants, I suggest adopting a relational approach to take account of participant subjectivities in order to minimise disruption in their everyday lives. Second, through discussing the ways in which I employed the mobile phone to continue gathering data with participant mothers during COVID‐19, I build on nascent geographical and methodological conversations about the role of technologies in the design and implementation of care‐full research. In highlighting the limitations of the mobile phone as a research device in this context, I extend current limited understandings of utilising mobile phones to gather data in the course of conducting research with marginalised people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the potential role of the construction industry in addressing the global challenge of climate change, stakeholders are beginning to develop the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework. Prior to this, several assessment frameworks such as the building research establishment environmental assessment methods (BREEAM), LEED, and Green Star Certification amongst others have evolved to evaluate a development against an array of sustainability indicators. Through document analysis, this paper explores the extent sustainability assessment frameworks can help UK construction companies demonstrate their commitment to ESG targets. Findings show that although the BREEAM assessment framework captured environmental and social aspects to some extent, there appears to be much desired in its consideration for governance issues. Subsequent versions of the assessment frameworks should attempt to include some of these credits that are not currently included in the framework to guarantee stakeholders that the uptake of the framework in the decision‐making process would help to deliver ESG targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen an increase in actions to address a key feature of food in the Anthropocene: the over‐production and consumption of animal‐based foods or "animalisation" of diets. However, it is unclear whether such efforts can be understood as a coherent institutional level response that will challenge hegemonic dietary biopower, a regime of governance that normalises and reproduces animal‐based food consumption. Building on scholarship that explores food governance initiatives in urban contexts and dietary biopower across a range of empirical cases, this paper explores whether, how, and with what consequences governance actors within urban food partnerships (UFPs) of the UK Sustainable Food Cities (SFC) network are working to reframe dietary biopower so that humans are disciplined to eat less animal‐based food and instead to adopt a more plant‐centred diet. Document analysis and semi‐structured interviews with SFC representatives suggest the breadth and depth of current UFP actions do not add up to a sustained challenge to hegemonic, animal‐based dietary biopower. Rather, they reveal a plant‐centred dietary biopolitical project in the making, while specific cases suggest that this project is more accurately conceptualised as arrested due to the pursuit of food system actions that are counter to and in tension with the promotion of plant‐centred eating. We suggest that a more coherent reframing of dietary biopower would entail urban food governance actors engaging consistently and robustly with the debates surrounding animal‐based foods, as well as identifying and enacting synergies between plant‐centred eating, food poverty, and local economic development agendas. The paper explores whether, how and with what consequences governance actors within the urban food partnerships of the UK Sustainable Food Cities network are working to reframe dietary biopower so that humans are disciplined to eat less animal‐based food and instead to adopt a more plant‐centred diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of employee voice in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across national contexts remains under-theorised and under-studied. This paper uses Kaufman's integrative model of employee voice, and an exploratory study of 30 interviews with employees in non-unionised SMEs in the United Kingdom, Thailand and Nigeria, to compare the employee experience with voice, and the impact of this experience on voice behaviour at work. Findings show that the interaction between the external institutional context and internal SME context (organisational configuration, governance structure and internal contingencies in the employment relationship) impacts employee voice agency, the perceived levels of voice and, ultimately, employee voice behaviour. The paper contributes to employee voice theory by offering an analysis of voice determinants on voice behaviour specific to non-unionised SMEs from an international comparative employee perspective, presents these in an initial framework and explains how employees experience voice in small workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to provide early evidence on corporate transformation towards Industry 4.0 (CTTI4) in the UK, particularly by examining the effect of corporate governance on the narrative reporting of CTTI4. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse all UK financial times stock exchange all-share non-financial firms that have published their annual reports for the period of 2013–2018. The authors use computerised textual analysis to measure the level of corporate reporting on Industry 4.0 (I4.0) for 1,001 firm-year observations. The authors used different regression models to test the research hypotheses. Findings: The findings contribute to the growing literature on business model transformation in UK companies towards the I4.0 strategy. The findings show that the level of reporting on CTTI4 is improving over the sample period and varies between industries. The authors also find that better governance quality enhances the level of reporting on CTTI4. Practical implications: The findings of this study inform decision makers and regulators about factors driving UK companies to report information about their actionable strategies to direct I4.0 endeavours. Originality/value: The paper makes an important and novel contribution to corporate disclosure literature. So far as the authors know, it is the only paper to examine the impact of corporate governance on corporate narrative reporting on I4.0 technologies. Moreover, to the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the first paper to show that the quality of corporate governance adds value to this strategic type of corporate disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in the nature and possible extent of de-globalization. This paper explores the impact that protectionist measures have on multinational enterprise (MNE) reshoring back to the UK. Besides taking into account the global trends indicating a return to protectionism, the existing literature highlights various firm-level and structural country-level determinants of reshoring decisions. We test a conceptual model with parent-subsidiary firm-level data for the period 2009 to 2017. We conclude that firms that are more sensitive to wage costs in their overseas subsidiaries were more likely to reshore. We did not find that more capital-intensive firms had a higher propensity to reshore. We find that our results are mostly driven from UK MNEs with subsidiaries in EU. This result has clear implications for a potential Brexit effect. Theoretically, we base our findings in transactional cost economics to help explain why different types of firms behave in the way they do, and why different types of firms may respond in quite different ways to the same mix of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]