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Copyright of Dictamen Libre is the property of Universidad Libre Seccional Barranquilla 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.)

Professional service firms (PSFs) such as management consulting, law, accounting, investment banking, architecture, advertising, and home-repair companies provide services for complicated turnkey projects. A firm bids for a project and, if successful in the bid, assigns employees to work on the project. We formulate this as a revenue management problem under two assumptions: a quality-revelation setup, where the employees that would be assigned to the project are committed ex ante, as part of the bid, and a qualityreputation setup, where the bid'swin probability depends on past performance, say, an average of the quality of past jobs. We firstmodel a stylizedMarkov chainmodel of the problem amenable to analysis and showthat up-front revelation of the assigned employees has subtle advantages. Subsequent to this analysis, we develop an operational stochastic dynamic programming framework under the revelationmodel to aid the firmin this bidding and assignment process. We show that the problem is computationally challenging and provide a series of bounds and solution methods to approximate the stochastic dynamic program. Based on our model and computational methods, we are able to address a number of interesting business questions for a PSF, such as the optimal utilization levels and the value of each employee type. Our methodology provides management with a tool kit for bidding on projects aswell as to performworkforce analytics and tomake staffing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Distance Education (1672-0008) is the property of Zhejiang Open University 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 Journal of International Business Studies is the property of Springer Nature 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 Entorno Geográfico is the property of Universidad del Valle 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 Procesos: Revista Ecuatoriana de Historia is the property of Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Sede Ecuador 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 Brazilian Business Law Journal / Administração de Empresas em Revista is the property of Administracao de Empresas em Revista 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.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify contextual antecedents for team learning in professional service firms. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling was applied to establish reliability and validity and to measure the size of relationships. Evidence was drawn from an empirical sample of 210 consultants in the Nordic professional service industry. Findings: The findings of this study reveal and strongly support that two important contextual antecedent factors that facilitate for team learning in professional service firms are market orientation and leader support for collaborative learning practices. The effect of leader support on team learning is also mediated by a market orientation. Originality/value: There is a paucity of knowledge on contextual factors that contribute to team learning. This study provides insight of theoretical and practical value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lisbon is a multicultural city with a business center that hosts major technology companies and professionals in the field, including digital nomads. High demand for tourist accommodation and the arrival of foreigners to work in the country have led to an imbalance between the supply and affordable cost of real estate for residents of the capital. This work aims to survey and determine whether digital nomads in Lisbon intend to settle in the city or are just passing through. To identify the combination of factors that influence digital nomads' decision-making, we conducted a quantitative study using survey data tested through structural equation modelling and configurational analysis by fsQCA. The results show that while the decision to stay in the city is heavily influenced by community attachment, we found three configurations that reveal distinct patterns of digital nomads' intention to stay in the city. These results suggest that policymakers need to consider that digital nomads are not a homogeneous group. This study makes an important contribution to the understanding of behavioral intentions and is, to the authors' knowledge, the first to identify different configurations based on digital nomads' intentions to stay in a city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metrics are key elements that can give us valuable information about the effectiveness of agile software development processes, particularly considering the Scrum environment. This study aims to learn about the metrics adopted to assess agile development processes and explore the impact of how the role performed by each member in Scrum contributed to increasing/reducing the perception of the importance of these metrics. The impact of years of experience in Scrum on this perception was also explored. To this end, a quantitative study was conducted with 191 Scrum professionals in companies based in Portugal. The results show that the Scrum role is not a determining factor, while individuals with more years of experience have a higher perception of the importance of metrics related to team performance. The same conclusion is observed for the business value metric of the product backlog and the percentage of test automation in the testing phase. The findings allow for extending the knowledge about Scrum project management processes and their teams, in addition to offering important insights into the implementation of metrics for software engineering companies that adopt Scrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How underlying norms influence the introduction of sustainability in existing commercial business models is under-researched. We present an ethnographic study of a professional services firm operating under commercial and professional logics and responding to the introduction of the sustainability logic. We find that different logic characteristics can be core in each business model component, leading to distinct enablers and barriers to change towards sustainability. We show how the alignment of practices between logics of responding to a specific client and employee expectations are enablers for sustainability. Conversely, barriers are created when clients or employees do not require action. We find enabled actions are bound by barriers of not being open to leading clients in sustainability, requiring professionals to integrate sustainability into service delivery, and taking on risk to shareholder returns. This study shows that logics and how they are expressed impact the antecedents of business model change for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we take inspiration from the evolution of the material use of glass to explore how the metaphorical use of glass could be developed to understand the emerging struggles of women in architecture. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews of architects employed in professional service firms, we suggest that the multi‐faceted nature of glass helped us to identify and understand the complex experiences of inequality for women in architecture. In so doing, we make three contributions to scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. First, we demonstrate how glass barriers were truly material in their consequences for senior women, as they prevented their rise or initiated their decline. A focus on glass barriers, however, did not fully account for the experiences of younger women in these firms. Surprisingly, and in stark contrast to the "boys club world" that left many senior women in architecture with a fractured sense of self as they struggled to construct self‐affirming identities as both women and architects, we found that the exclusive use of new technologies enabled younger women architects to melt some aspects of the traditional identity and turn them into new forms. Our conceptualization of "technologies of glass" draws attention to the social, cultural, and technological resources that younger women deploy to construct a strong professional identity in the changing world of architecture. We argue that glass can be understood not just as a constraint but as a multifaceted material with limitless possibilities for design. Thus, by highlighting the material‐symbolic entanglements of the use of glass, we strengthen and refresh the metaphor of glass, to better understand the fluidity of contemporary challenges facing professional women at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process through digital platforms. The world is going through processes of evolution, and the way of hiring and the process of recruiting and selecting people to occupy new positions in companies, also went through these evolutions. Becoming a management model with greater strategy and technology, enabling organizations to understand the importance of platforms as a tool that assists in the hiring process. Although many companies carry out face-to-face tests, interviews and CV evaluations, it is the digital platforms that decide, facilitate and streamline these processes. Digital platforms are business models that work by connecting professionals and companies, allowing the discovery of hitherto unknown talent. It is also perceived that digital platforms are seen as a fundamental complement in the way of selecting, identifying, and locating the most suitable candidate for the most diverse vacancies offered, for this reason it is considered a valuable tool for organizations, minimizing time and maximizing gains in all aspects that make up the stages of the process. As for the methodology, the bibliographical research through books and articles by specialists in the subject addressed herein stands out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study empirically examines the effects of managerial ability on customer satisfaction, as well as the role of firm-level and industry-level moderators on the relationship. The effect of customer satisfaction on firm value is also investigated. Managerial ability is assessed as the residual remaining after accounting for the effects of seven key financial variables, while customer satisfaction is derived from the ACSI panel data. The results demonstrate that managerial ability positively affects ex-post customer satisfaction, indicating that more capable managers are better able to satisfy their customers. In turn, customer satisfaction directly influences firm value, as measured by Tobin's q. In terms of moderators, non-service firms more strongly regulate the managerial ability-customer satisfaction link; advertising expenditure and competitive intensity have insignificant roles to play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving employability is one of the key objectives of universities, for which it is essential to identify the competences of the professional profiles that have emerged in the digital era, such as the SEO (Search Engine Optimiser). This article proposes a competency profile and compares the degree of importance given by companies and professionals to a previously identified set of competencies. A sequential exploratory design (Dexplos) has been followed, in its derivative modality, which combines a mixed methodology by stages. The starting point was the labour demand analysis on SEO and 23 interviews were conducted with experts. From this phase, the competences are extracted and a quantitative instrument is created, which is launched as a survey to two populations: businesses and people working in SEO. The survey obtained 340 responses from businesses and 311 from professionals. Descriptive statistics are applied and the degrees of importance are compared using the T-test for differences of means for independent samples. The results show that, in addition to demanding a combination of specific communication, marketing and technology skills, a lot of importance is attached to generic skills, especially the ability to keep up to date. Professionals give more weight to all of them to the point of showing significant differences with the company in most of the competences; but similarities are observed in the ranking of relevance, which leads to a valid proposal for creating a training offer that responds to the needs of the digital society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been ample research on the roles of managers, no similar studies have been conducted regarding the roles of Managing Partners in law firms – a subgroup of professional service firms (PSF). However, the many differences between PSFs and industrial or other service providers suggest that the existing research on the role of managers cannot be applied to law firm Managing Partners. In order to fill that gap and analyze the roles of law firm managers, evidence was collected in 34 interviews with 36 Managing Partners from large and mid-size law firms in the DACH-Region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) regarding their function as their firms' top managers. Analysis shows that while the Managing Partner function varies considerably between law firms, the activities of Managing Partners can be clustered into 15 distinct roles. This study adds empirical evidence to the existing practice literature and supports our understanding of the Managing Partner function in law firms and other PSF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful transfer of a professional practice requires time, careful planning, and a smooth transition process. Life and disability insurance can help assure that the business and/or other owners have liquidity in the event of a sudden, unexpected event, while life insurance cash values can provide liquidity for lifetime buyouts. In any event, a longer planning horizon is often needed for sellers to realize the maximum value for their lifetime of work, and for buyers to make the most of the book of business and relationships they acquire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2024 federal budget in Canada includes major spending on housing, the Canada Disability Benefit, and a national school food program. However, these initiatives will result in a significant deficit and increased taxes. The government has increased the taxable portion of capital gains from 50% to 66.67% to help pay for these commitments. This change has been criticized for not considering the impact on middle-class Canadians and small businesses, including medical professional corporations. Medical professionals are concerned that these changes may prompt doctors to quit. The new higher inclusion rate applies to every dollar of capital gains of a corporation, which will affect medical professional corporations. The Canadian Medical Association has asked the government to exclude medical professional corporations from these changes. The integration of corporate and personal taxes has been thrown into disarray, making it disadvantageous to realize capital gains in a corporation. The best financial strategy going forward will require careful analysis by an accountant. [Extracted from the article]

Professional service firms apply specialist knowledge to create customised solutions to client problems. In their work, teams of professionals undertake projects in which clients may be closely involved in co-creating solutions. However, we know little about the conditions under which client involvement contributes to better performance. We examine the direct and conditional contribution client involvement can make to project success and propose team bonding capital as a moderator. We conduct multi-level analysis of data from 58 project managers and 171 consultants nested in project teams. We find a positive impact of client involvement on both team performance and team member idea creativity. Team bonding capital moderates the relationships client involvement has with both team performance and individual member idea creativity, where the impact of client involvement is greater when team bonding capital is high. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global professional service firms (GPSFs) are key actors in contemporary capitalism. They (co-) produce and disseminate new business practices, linking firms, sectors, and countries, integrating them into a global system. We examine a second, less studied function of these firms: underpinning capitalism's status hierarchies. We ask whether these firms have emerged as producers of a new corporate nobility —as an extension of elite universities, and as a stepping stone in the selection and promotion of top executives. Focusing on the US, we ask: do global professional service firms merely amplify the credentials of elite universities, or can they compensate for an absence of an elite education in the careers of US top managers? and do professional service firms equip future top managers with specific expertise or merely with symbolic capital? Based on a sample of 2,610 top executive managers from leading American firms in 2005 and 2018, we study the role law, consulting, or audit firms played in their careers. Using multinomial regression analyses, we find that the career function of GPSFs varies: consulting firms amplify existing status and enhance the symbolic capital of alumni, aiding their ascent to the most prestigious jobs in US top firms. In contrast, top managers leverage audit firm roles to compensate for a non-elite background, yet then tend to be channelled into narrow, specialist roles in top management. We relate these results to Bourdieu's state nobility analysis and propose an augmented typology of these firms at the heart of contemporary capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the EGOS 2021 sub-plenary on 'Professions and Inequality: Challenges, Controversies, and Opportunities', the presenters and panellists wrote four short essays on the relationship between inequality as a grand challenge and professional occupations and organizations, their structures, practices, and strategies. Individually, these essays take an inquisitorial stance on extant understandings of (1) how professions may exacerbate existing inequalities and (2) how professions can be part of the solution and help tackle inequality as a grand challenge. Taken together, the discussion forum aims at advancing scholarly debates on inequality by showing how professions' scholarship may critically interrogate extant understandings of inequality as a broad, multifaceted concept, whilst providing fruitful directions for research on inequality, their potential solutions, and the role and responsibilities of organization and management scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Big Four professional services firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY – promote, sanction, and regularise the behaviour and practices of business and government. This is especially the case in the area of multinational tax avoidance. This large, and growing, sector of the Big Four's business model places them at the centre of both causing and addressing the problem. Their role is not limited to advising MNCs on complex tax structures. They also advise governments and international organisations on regulatory reform of the global tax system. This article examines their role in so doing through an analysis of Australian Senate Inquiry hearings and responses to the OECD reform programme on the digitalisation of the economy. We show that advice provided by the Big Four is not purely technical, but is intended to achieve a global corporate tax system that is either globally dis‐harmonised or a matter of national regulatory incrementalism. This is despite their claims of supporting global regulation based on multilateral agreements. Ultimately, we demonstrate that the Big Four use their significant structural power to discursively undermine the ideals of the OECD, the leading international organisation working to reform global taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper investigates the dynamic interplay of narratives of individual and collective leadership within a professional service firm, where an organizational narrative of collective leadership prevails. We explain how it is possible for 'everyone' to claim a leadership identity for themselves while simultaneously granting a leadership identity to the collective. We identify multiple leadership archetypes embedded in individuals' identity narratives, representing their differing senses of themselves as leaders and their alignment with the organizational narrative of collective leadership. These archetypes are mutually constitutive, representing centripetal and centrifugal tendencies in relation to the organizational narrative of collective leadership. We show how individuals committed to collective leadership nevertheless construct an individual leader (the Avatar identity archetype) to embody the collective on their behalf, and this enables them to grant leadership to the collective in the abstract. We emphasize the persistent sacralization of leadership in individual and organizational narratives, even in avowedly collectivist contexts, and the value of narrative-based perspectives in highlighting practitioners' ability to navigate and accommodate the messy coexistence of collective and individual leadership. Our study shows the importance of integrating dialectically the individual and collective dimensions of leadership, emphasizing the mutually constitutive nature of individual and collective leadership narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-increasing market turbulence has turned today's corporate landscape more competitive and complex. Particularly during the last two decades, the increased utilization of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) globally transformed the services sector in terms of ease of business processes and improved client service delivery. However, in the current knowledge-based era, these tools & technologies would only be meaningful if these are appropriately utilized by a knowledgeable workforce. In other words, this knowledge age has changed the success mantra of business competitiveness by re-shifting the focus from ICT-based transformations to knowledge-based transformations, though the availability of ICT systems has further augmented the organizational capabilities. Moreover, truly capitalizing on these warrants a knowledge-enabled work culture and recognizing as such the strategic significance of in-house Intellectual Capital (IC) that serves as a prime mover of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. However, the maximum potential of IC for deriving multi-stakeholder value has not been fully achieved. Therefore, by administering 12 face-to-face semi-structured interviews at Australian Professional Service Firms (PSFs), this research offers a novel perspective on IC valuation by presenting the concept of 'Triple Value Bottomline' coupled with 'IC Best Practices for PSFs'. These collectively offer IC evaluation, measurement and management mechanisms. Overall, the findings reveal immense potential of IC for achieving diverse value outcomes for multi-stakeholders in PSFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to describe the planning and implementation of Zero-Based Budget (ZBB) procedures and to identify difficulties and contributions of the implementation of this approach in the elimination of waste in a large cement plant. This is descriptive research, with a qualitative approach, developed through a field study. Data collection was carried out in company documents, by direct observation and indirect observation, through interviews with agents responsible for cost management in the company. A hybrid ZBB model was implemented and difficulties were detected in the application, related to: the time spent to prepare the budget and program the cost management, the risks associated with the reduction of costs and the need to involve several professionals of the company. Promising results were achieved for cost reduction and a positive impact on the company's resourcesaving culture was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is gaining ground in academic research and organizations due to its benefits for the company and society. In professional services companies, innovation is necessary to keep customers and win new ones, ensuring competitiveness. However, there are numerous antecedents of innovation studied. Besides, few articles address more than one sector in this business model characterized by intensive knowledge. In this way, the present study aims to group results obtained in previous research to provide an overview of the antecedents of innovation in professional services companies in a framework. Thus, we execute a systematic literature review with empirical articles on innovation precedents. As a result, we identify 32 antecedent factors, grounded in theory and empirically tested, 11 externals to the organization and 21 internal. From the framework developed, researchers can seek new relationships to understand the antecedents of innovation and managers can analyze organizational weaknesses and develop strategies aimed at innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to discuss the processes of contracting the services of digital micro-influencers and partnerships with local companies. The methodology is developed through a qualitative approach, survey research procedure, and questionnaire technique. The results show that acting as a micro-influencer is a secondary activity at the beginning of the career. And that portfolio preparation, frequent feedback, quality publications, and access are essential for hiring these professionals by local companies. Thus, they need to understand and satisfy the customer, generate visibility and engagement, increase sales, and promote the relationship to develop good partnerships with local and regional companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest bathing is an approach that uses the healing effects of forests to improve people's health and prevent disease through forest walks. Although the terms forest therapy and forest bath are used in the same sense, they are different applications. While the forest therapy application is carried out in the company of a professional trained in this subject, the therapist in the forest bath is the forest itself. Considering the positive effects of forest bathing on the cardiovascular system, nervous system, endocrine system, immune system and mental health, it is thought that it can be used as an approach to protect and improve women's health. In this context, the aim of the study is to examine the physiological and psychological effects of forest bath-ing and forest therapy on women's health. In this study, which was revealed by literature review, the results of national and international studies on the subject were compiled. Many positive effects of forest bathing and forest therapy on the protec-tion of human health have been reported in the literature. There are limited studies on the effects of forest therapy and forest bathing on human health, and no scientific research has been found in the field of health in our country. It is thought that these practices can be used in our country, which is rich in forests, and that scientific studies on this subject can provide benefits for women's health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universidad & Empresa is the property of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario 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.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of accountants as advisors in professional services firms (PSFs), and it examines the impact of digital transformation on the work, knowledge and skills of accountants in their role as advisors in PSFs. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews predominantly with partners in Australian PSFs, including the Big4 and directors of professional accounting bodies. Findings: The findings show that accountants as advisors fill a critical role in PSFs as they represent substantial human capital for such firms. Accountants as advisors are a valuable strategic resource because of their unique capabilities in combining generic human capital with digital human capital and social capital resources. Some differences between the Big4 and non-Big4 were found in terms of services offered that were attributable to the respective industry foci and resource availability. Practical implications: The findings have broader implications for both the accounting profession and the education sector in terms of providing a better, and more overt, understanding of what the future holds for the accounting profession and the relevant knowledge and skills required. Also, recruiters and managers at PSFs are likely to benefit from the findings. Originality/value: Evidence from PSFs provides insights into an evolutionary path for the accounting profession, and the knowledge and skills accountants need to work in that increasingly competitive domain, due to digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to compare the perceptions of employed people in Mexico and Colombia about managerial and leadership behavioural effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative multiple cross-case and cross-nation comparative analysis of findings obtained from the two past emic replication (Mexico and Colombia) studies was conducted. Findings: The study suggests that people within Mexican and Colombian organizations perceive "managerial and leadership behavioural effectiveness" in very similar ways. The findings support those researchers whose studies indicate that culture may not, as previously thought, play a significant role in the way managers should manage and lead their subordinates. Research limitations/implications: The authors acknowledge two main limitations related to the sample size and scope of the two compared sets of empirical source data. The number of critical incidents about perceived managerial behavioural effectiveness obtained from the two compared studies was unbalanced (318 from the Mexican study and 267 from the Colombian study). Thus, the authors suggest more indigenous replication managerial behaviour studies be carried out in both Mexico and Colombia with the objective of identifying (if possible) the existence of critical incidents that could lead to different findings. Furthermore, the authors suggest conducting replica studies focused on specific industries rather than a diverse range of organizations to test the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The findings of the comparative study are relevant to those human resource development professionals in international companies with operations in Mexico and/or Colombia when preparing their executives for international assignments in these Latin American countries. Originality/value: The comparative study attempts to generate new insights and better understanding within the context of "managerial and leadership behavioural effectiveness" research, which the authors hope will make a useful contribution to the existing small body of knowledge regarding similarities and differences in managerial practices across culturally diverse Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Saber, Ciencia y Libertas is the property of Saber, Ciencia y Libertad 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.)

Purpose Utilising the upper echelon theory (UET), the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of dynamic managerial capabilities (i.e., managerial human capital, managerial social capital (MSC), and managerial cognition (MC)) on organisations' response strategies to disruptive innovation, under the mediating role of unlearning. Design/methodology/approach Following a deductive approach, quantitative methodology and survey strategy, data was collected through an online questionnaire from (491) managers and top executives of PSF operating in Dubai-UAE and analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling. Findings The findings revealed that dynamic managerial capabilities played mixed role in predicting firms' response strategies to disruptive innovation. MSC and MC played a significant role with unlearning as a partial mediator, while managerial human capital did not. Practical implications The findings are important to managers, practitioners, and policymakers, shedding light on which dynamic managerial capabilities is of significance if creative economy is being pursued through adaptive response strategies to disruptive innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research offering a comprehensive overview of digitalisation in maritime transport is limited. In this paper, the authors use several cases to examine digitalisation's role in the chartering business. The applications of innovative digitalisation to enhance efficiency in the shipping business are presented analytically. Special emphasis is given to the role of the e-bill of lading in the bulk and liner markets. The advantages, disadvantages and legal barriers of the e-bill of lading are examined thoroughly for both markets (bulk and liner markets). The research follows a qualitative case study approach. It shows that although digital technologies offer important advantages in the chartering business, many legal barriers still need to be overcome. The findings fill the gap in the literature and assist maritime professionals and shipping companies in understanding the necessity of digitalisation in chartering business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regular mathematical modelling of the dispersion of emissions from large sources is required by law in all EU countries. It is also used in risk analysis to predict releases of toxic substances from various technologies, from volcanic activity and possibly also terrorist acts. However, there is a shortage of experts in this very specific and demanding profession in the labour market in most EU countries. In a collaboration between academicians from neighbouring University of Hradec Králové and University of Opole and experts from important ecological companies of both regions we designed and verified as a part of a four-year pedagogical project supported by the EU a comprehensive education system in mathematical modelling of emission dispersion with exchange field trips and internships of students during cross-border Polish-Czech university education. The paper consists of two separate parts. The first part is focused on implementation of innovative lesson "Principles, algorithms, and differences of environmental dispersion emissions models", used on both sides of Polish-Czech border region. An example of the use of the educational package of the Gaussian plume model with PC Templates, who was modified in cooperation between teachers from both cross-border universities and experts from professional companies is presented here too. Our four-year experience with student motivational field trips to professional companies in both border regions and exchange one-month professional internships for interested students to two Czech professional companies, where students learn to work with to the Gaussian plume model and one Polish professional company, where students are introduced to the Gaussian puff model is also discussed. The following separate second part will be focused on the innovative lesson of multivariate statistical methods of environmental data analysis, which are required for processing materials for modern mathematical modelling of the dispersion of emissions in practice. The target users of this two-part innovative courses are students of the MSc degree in Physical Measurement and Modelling at the University of Hradec Králové and students of the MSc degree in environmental studies at the University of Opole. However, it is also open to other Czech and foreign students and professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite fruitful findings on the reasons underlying the desire for educational success and scarce credentials among students and families, there is little research on the meaning of educational success in the marketplace. As higher education in China has expanded to aid better-quality growth and the transition to a knowledge-based economy, educational success has become increasingly critical in the allocation of socioeconomic rewards. As such, insights into how educational success and concomitant credentials are valorized are empirically and theoretically significant. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 73 recruiters for elite professional service firms, this study analyses the meanings underlying the process of valorizing educational success and elite credentials. It shows that success in the gaokao , or entry to higher education, was qualitatively salient in excluding candidates, while information about subject domains and marks/class rank carried relatively less weight. Recruiters based the value of educational success on the notion of "learning ability," which reflected their shared understandings about Chinese educational selection/institutions and wider conditions of elite professional firms. On this basis, this paper argues for the development of learning capital as a new theoretical lens for approaching educational success and credentials in transitional China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aim to address a serious gap in the otherwise rich value relevance literature around professional services firms. Such firms are generally recognised as making up a significant and distinct category within the contemporary economy. However, there is currently a notable absence in the value relevance studies on transactions around equity stakes for this sector. We address this issue and investigate the prediction accuracy of the sales multiple—commonly used as a valuation shortcut in the industry—and the value relevance of financial and non-financial information. We do so within the country-specific setting of private equity deals executed in Italy from 2012 to 2018 regarding small accounting practices (SAPs), which we deem of interest because they present similar characteristics to their European peers and because accounting firms are qualified in the management literature as 'classic' professional service providers. This exploratory study of 76 deals confirms the superior informative value and prediction accuracy of the sales multiple. We also ran a regression of transaction prices on several value drivers, identified consistently with prior studies and mainstream valuation theory. We thus found that some non-financial information specific to the context of SAP and certain deal characteristics are value relevant and complement financial information. An example of this is a firm's location in a small town. However, contrary to expectations, the age of a firm's owner was not found to be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional services firms are an important form of knowledge-intensive organization with an educated and professionalized workforce and a partnership model of governance. This article reports the results of a three-year longitudinal study of the implementation of a successful technology-enabled innovation program in a leading professional services firm. The research was conducted using a cooperative research methodology involving academics and executives co-creating knowledge together and an abductive approach to theorizing to explore technology-enabled innovation in this important type of organization. The process of developing a capability for technology-enabled innovation was found to be supported by the commitment of leaders, the presence of certain catalysts for change, and a carefully crafted management process sympathetic to existing culture and practices. As the research proceeded, two additional insights emerged that helped explain the success of the innovation program: experimental space and intellectual space. Experimental space includes new formal processes and practices and new physical spaces for encouraging and guiding the search for innovation. Intellectual space includes thought leadership, increased workforce diversity, as well as developing a greater openness to external knowledge sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore how professional legal services and their supply chains can be modularised. Based on a review of the service modularity, supply chain modularity and supply chain strategy literature, we posit that the scope of service modularisation should be determined by, and aligned with, the supply chain strategy of a firm. We develop a conceptual framework that links the service and supply chain modular architectures with the supply chain strategy of service firms. The framework provides the foundation for an empirical confirmatory analysis through in-depth multiple case studies in 10 law firms in the UK. We identify the current status quo of service and supply chain architectures of professional legal services and then explore several options for their modularisation. Our findings show that legal services are currently over-customised, offering significant opportunities for the application of modularity across their supply chains. We generate insights to show how service modularity can be applied to the service offering, processes and supply chain levels of law firms. We also demonstrate the effects of each level of modularisation on the selection of appropriate interfaces and on the decomposability of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]