34028 research outputs found
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AI adoption in healthcare organizations: Spheres of development and the virtue of visible value
No full textDespite the significant potential of artificial intelligence (AI), many public healthcare organizations struggle to adopt this technology. Simultaneously, empirical research on the factors that influence AI adoption in public healthcare settings remains scarce. We address this gap with a qualitative study with senior healthcare leaders who hold responsibility for the adoption and development of AI-enabled solutions within two leading National Healthcare Service (NHS) Trusts in the United Kingdom. Drawing upon the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework to make sense of our findings, we reveal nine factors that influence AI adoption. Significantly, we buttress our use of the TOE framework by highlighting how each TOE context can evolve into a sphere of AI development and explore the positively mediating role of a meta-factor that we term ‘visible value’ in that process. Visible value can be explained as the demonstrated or executed positive impact relating to AI adoption activities, where the value can be vividly seen, experienced, agreed upon and, ideally, measured, and helps to drive momentum internally and/or with key external stakeholders. Generation of visible value helps to legitimize and build confidence in continued AI activities. We thus develop existing theoretical resources to advance practical understanding of AI adoption in public healthcare organizations.</p
Using a Social Harm Approach to Re-conceptualise Climate Anxiety among Young People
No full textWe present three initial arguments that outline the potential for a social harm approach to examining climate anxiety among young people. First, adopting ‘harm’ terminology has key conceptual strengths in terms of re-defining and re-imagining the impacts and experiences of climate anxiety, providing a means of understanding it as a form of ‘harm’. Second, through a social-oriented vantage point, this approach offers a comprehensive means of identifying root causes of climate anxiety among young people, with an emphasis on the social determinants of climate anxiety. Third, by identifying harms and their root (social) causes, a social harm approach is oriented towards imagining socially embedded solutions like policies and programmes that acknowledge interconnections between social, political, economic, and discursive contexts.</p
Comparison of EPA and Gaussian Plume approaches for modelling ammonia dispersion: A case study at Immingham Green Energy Terminal
No full textLarge-scale ammonia (NH3) storage is central to the transition to hydrogen-based energy systems, but its accidental release poses significant toxic hazards. This study develops and validates an accessible dispersion modelling framework to address limitations in existing regulatory tools for Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA). A Gaussian Plume (GP) dispersion model was implemented in MATLAB and validated against 13 large-scale ammonia release test data achieving performance metrics of fractional bias = 0.012, root mean square error =20.4 % and Pearson correlation coefficient =0.957 for distances >100 m. The validated model was applied to simulate worst-case and alternative release scenarios at the planned Immingham Green Energy Terminal (IGET) in the UK, following U.S. EPA Risk Management Program guidance. Results showed a toxic endpoint distance (TED) of 51.5 km for the worst-case tank release, exceeding the EPA reference distance of 40.2 km by 28.1 %. Sensitivity analysis of pipeline failure scenarios (5–300 mm) demonstrated substantially reduced TEDs (0.1–16.1 km). A GIS-based population exposure analysis estimated up to 1.29 million potentially affected individuals in the worst cases, demonstrating the value of credible release modelling for emergency planning. The methodology bridges the gap between simple EPA reference curves and complex CFD tools, enabling rapid, defensible consequence modelling for early QRAs.</p
High Involvement Work Practices and Employee Well-Being: Does Public Values-focused Transactional Leadership Make a Difference?
No full textAddressing calls for more research on the HRM-well-being association in the public sector, this study examines whether the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and both work engagement and emotional exhaustion is contingent on supervisors’ public values-focused transactional leadership (PVTL). Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), the study proposes that HIWP will improve public employees’ sense of well-being when their supervisors practise PVTL. This assertion was tested on a sample drawn from public sector universities in Pakistan. The findings illustrated that PVTL strengthened the positive relationship between HIWP and employees’ work engagement. Nevertheless, when supervisors’ exercised higher PVTL, the negative association between HIWP and perceived emotional exhaustion disappeared. The study adds useful insights on the boundary conditions of the relationship between HIWP and employee well-being in public organisations.</p
Rethinking socio-cultural resistance: Systemic factors behind successful and failed transitions to toilet-linked anaerobic digesters in Nepal and India
No full textToilet-linked anaerobic digesters (TLADs) are promoted as technologies that can simultaneously address household energy, sanitation, and agricultural needs, yet diffusion remains uneven, and project failures are frequently attributed to “socio-cultural resistance.” This paper challenges that narrative by examining why Nepal's domestic biogas programme achieved greater success in implementing TLADs than India's, despite broadly similar policies and rural socio-economic conditions. Using a sustainability transitions framework, we conduct a comparative case study of successful adoption in Nepal's Gandaki Province with non-adoption in Assam, India. The study draws on 57 household interviews, 15 expert-stakeholder interviews, and policy and programme documents. Findings indicate that while socio-cultural norms influence TLAD diffusion, they are not stand-alone determinants of household transitions. Instead, these norms interact with programme design, governance structures, institutional commitment, and wider policy environments, and are conditioned by local socio-technical contexts. These interactions shape how socio-cultural norms manifest in relation to technology adoption at the household level. We argue that failed transitions are too often attributed disproportionately to socio-cultural resistance—a framing that unfairly shifts responsibility onto households while obscuring systemic shortcomings such as inadequate targeting, weak institutional support, and misalignment between technologies and local contexts. A more balanced framing should acknowledge socio-cultural norms while situating them within broader socio-technical and policy environments. Such reframing could shift research and practice away from narratives of household blame and towards critical assessments of contextual fit, programme capacity, and policy coherence, supporting more equitable and context-appropriate transitions in sanitation and household energy systems such as TLADs.</p
The Burglary Proclivity Scale: validation using a UK community sample
No full textThe proclivity to offend has shown to be of great use in understanding factors related to offending. This study aims to validate the Burglary Proclivity Scale by evaluating the psychometric properties and investigating the convergent validity with factors related to offending history, kleptomania, substance misuse, and empathy. An online study was conducted using a sample of 246 community-based participants. The measures were presented in a randomised order except the proclivity scale, which was last. Almost all variables were found to correlate with the proclivity to burgle but only kleptomania, prior acquisitive offending, and affective dissonance were found to be significantly associated with burglary proclivity. The total proclivity score was found to artificially inflate the proclivity to burgle, indicating that only behavioral propensity should be used. These findings are the first to link kleptomania and burglary offending, suggesting that burglary may be an aspect of this pathologized urge to steal, although further research needs to uncover more detail regarding this link. Overall, the behavioural propensity of the Burglary Proclivity Scale provides an effective means for assessing the proclivity to burgle, enabling examination of its link with other factors. These findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications and practical application.</p
The Journey from Investment to Capital Stock Cartoon
No full textThe Journey from Investment to Capital StockThis cartoon is designed not only to explain the relationship between investment and physical capital stock, but also to clarify the distinction between flow and stock variables. A flow variable is measured over a period of time, whereas a stock variable is measured at a specific point in time. Investment is a flow variable. It represents spending on newly produced capital goods (physical capital) during a given period. A capital good refers to a man made good used in the production of other goods and services. Capital stock is a stock variable. It is the accumulated total of capital goods at a particular moment in time.In this cartoon, the moving truck represents investment, which is a flow variable measured over time. The river shaped road symbolises continuous movement, highlighting that investment flows during a period. The lake shaped garage represents the capital stock, which is a stock variable measured at a specific point in time. The trucks already parked inside represent the existing capital stock, while the new truck entering the garage illustrates how investment adds to and increases the stock of capital. The analogy shows that a flow accumulates into a stock, just as investment increases capital over time. I hope you find this visual explanation helpful and engaging. Please feel free to share your comments, suggestions, or ideas for improvement. I would be delighted to hear your thoughts.</p
ASEAN carbon markets and regional energy connectivity: the role of Article 6 in supporting the energy transition
No full textThis article examines how the development of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is shaping the evolution of carbon markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the implications for the region’s energy interconnectivity and transition. ASEAN Member States are at varying stages of establishing carbon pricing systems such as implementing emissions trading schemes to carbon taxes and voluntary markets. However, the operationalisation of Article 6 introduces a high-integrity framework that addresses persistent institutional and technical barriers. Core features such as corresponding adjustments, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) protocols and centralised registries provide a structural reference for enhancing market credibility and interoperability. The paper analyses how Article 6 could play a role in improving governance, legal infrastructure, price signals, and MRV requirements in ASEAN. It further considers the indirect role of carbon pricing in influencing energy transition outcomes, including investment decisions, dispatch patterns, and cross-border electricity trade. While Article 6 mechanisms are shaping the design of regional carbon markets, their implementation remains at an early stage due to the complexity of international negotiations and differing levels of domestic readiness. The article highlights that the pace and effectiveness of Article 6 uptake in ASEAN will depend on both international rule-making and countries’ ability to build the institutional infrastructure required for high-integrity carbon trading.</p
Revisiting the Role of Women on Boards: Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performance
No full textResearch aims: The concept of CSR is comparatively new in emerging economies. Thus, the present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the association between CSR and firm performance, with the moderating role of gender diversity on the board.Design/Methodology/Approach: Panel data related to non-financial sector firms, listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, covering the period of 2016 to 2023, was collected. CSR was measured with CSR expenditure and CSR disclosure, whereas firm performance was measured through three distinct proxies, namely, net profit margin, ROE and Tobin’s Q. For analysis, this study used the novel technique of dynamic panel data.Research findings: The findings suggest that CSR has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. Moreover, the presence of women on the board significantly strengthens the association between CSR and firm performance.Research limitations: This study focuses only on the non-financial firms, as financial firms operate under different regulatory frameworks and performance parameters. Future studies may extend this analysis to financial firms as well. Moreover, the present study used board gender diversity as a moderator. Future studies may focus on CEO gender as a moderator.Practical implications: CSR initiatives benefit the wider community by enhancing a firm’s reputation, stakeholders’ trust, and long-term risk management. Together, these outcomes have the potential to increase shareholders’ wealth. This study presents empirical findings to regulatory bodies to support their efforts in encouraging corporate decision makers to explore the impact of a more gender-diverse board structure. Additionally, this study also encourages managers to invest in CSR initiatives and disclose these in the annual reports as investments because these initiatives play a significant role in boosting the firm's performance.Originality/value: This study tries to explore the concept of board gender diversity from a male-dominated society, and further, it also examines its moderating role between CSR-firm performance. This study used distinct proxies for CSR and firm performance. The robustness of the results was analysed using the GLS approach, which efficiently addresses serial correlation and heteroskedasticity in panel data. Alternative approaches, such as fixed or random effects, were not employed for robustness, as they do not correct these issues as effectively.</p