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Transformation in the automotive sector: the management challenges of AI and the digital revolution
No full textDigital transformation in the automotive industry is driving significant change in business models, in customer expectations and in organisations and their workforces. As technology is rapidly progressing, organisations are confronted with massive changes, which are particularly affecting the way in which employees work and the conditions under which they do so. This case considers the rapid digitisation of industry and its consequences for human resource management, specifically in light of the use of artificial intelligence (AI). As a management sciences topic, this case study directs the learner to the automotive sector specifically and its use of AI. Given the significant demands on industry to adopt emerging technologies to remain competitive in today’s global economy, how should the workplace and job design evolve
Effects of team diversity on individual performance and voice: a field experiment of group composition by gender and language
No full textWe present results from a field experiment that tests the effects of varying gender and linguistic group composition on performance and on group-members’ perception that their voice is heard when completing complex collaborative work within a low scrutiny environment. We randomize individuals enrolled in a postgraduate course populated by mostly women and non-native English speakers into small teams within larger, exogenously assigned seminar groups. Groups are tasked with complex and deliberative research assignments over three months. Using administrative and survey data, we find that a higher share of women in seminar groups significantly benefits the academic performance of group members—an effect driven by a positive effect on female native English speakers — while a greater proportion of women in small teams improves non-native language speakers’ perception of being heard
Digital transformation in the IS field: GREAT research opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries
No full textAs part of the inaugural conference of the Saudi AIS Chapter in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a panel reflected on the Information Systems (IS) field, particularly in the context of digital transformation in the Arab region. Moderated by Mohammad AlMarzouq, a diverse group of international speakers discussed the identity and strengths of the field, elaborated on how the field can theorize unique regional developments—such as the cognitive city NEOM—and highlighted opportunities for Arab scholars to contribute to the global research discourse. This article provides an overview of the Saudi Conference on Information Systems (SaudiCIS), summarizes key insights from the panel, and discusses their implications for the IS research community
Mainstream psychological and behavioural science meets anthropology: a study of behavioural transformation
No full textTransformative behavioural change refers to a profound and often radical shift in individuals’ actions and values. Mainstream WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) psychological and behavioural science, which is the dominant research tradition in Euro‑American contexts, has increasingly recognized such change as critical to tackling global challenges such as the climate crisis and widening social inequalities. However, transformative behavioural change is relatively rare and highly context-dependent, which poses substantial challenges for this research tradition due to its reliance on large samples and standardized measures. This comment argues that anthropological methods, particularly ethnography, can help overcome these obstacles. By immersing researchers in participants’ everyday lives, ethnography captures the nuanced, evolving, and culturally embedded processes underlying transformative shifts. Drawing on participant observation and long-term engagement, it offers a deeper understanding of the triggers, social dynamics, and structural influences involved. The article outlines why established quantitative and qualitative methods in mainstream psychology struggle to accommodate complex, uncommon phenomena like transformative change and demonstrates how anthropological approaches address these limitations. It concludes by offering practical strategies for incorporating ethnographic techniques into mainstream psychological and behavioural science, underscoring the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration. If adopted more widely, these integrations could yield richer, more actionable insights into how and why individuals enact profound behaviour change, ultimately strengthening interventions aimed at solving pressing societal and environmental challenges
Mapping the Blues Women from margin to centre: a critical engagement with refusal in the Blues Women's soundscape and landscape
No full textThis project theorises with the Blues Women epistemology by evaluating the agentic potential found in Black women blues musicians’ affective tools. More specifically, I use Sister Rosetta Tharpe as a theoretical case study for how the Blues Women were able to subvert their genre and exercise agency. This writing carefully investigates these subversions in the form of Tharpe’s soundscape (her musical choices) and landscape (the geography of her stage) through elements of Black feminist theory, such as sensorial protest and Black geographical thinking, illuminating the complexity of her affective choices like amalgamating different musical genre conventions and developing a new, spiritually informed star persona. Consequently, such analyses reveal the meaningful agentic potential found in these affective tools, as the Blues Women demonstrate a commitment to a politics of refusal in their creative choices, a practice that is central to the blues epistemology and genre. This project, therefore, posits the Blues Women as sophisticated meaning-makers in their ability to challenge defining aspects of the blues genre through affective appeals of bodily sensibilities like sound and staging. In going beyond traditional sites of knowledge production and methods of meaning-making, I assert that examining the contributions of the Blues Women also demands finding new ways to document agentic potential, such as through elements of radical feminist storytelling
How race matters for elites' views on redistribution
No full textElites are increasingly visible in academic and political discourse owing to their disproportionate power in shaping policy. For the most part, however, elites have been viewed in race‐blind terms. In this paper, we advance a racialized perspective on elite studies by highlighting three salient ways that race matters for elite views on inequality and redistribution. First, we focus on elites as racialized actors whose racial identities impact their perspectives on social policies. Second, we examine the effect of holding a historical perspective of racialized inequality on elites' redistributive preferences. Third, we highlight the importance of attending to the racialization of social policies, distinguishing between redistributive measures framed in race‐neutral and race‐conscious terms. We demonstrate the utility of a racialized approach to elite studies by analyzing survey data collected from political, economic, and civil service elites in South Africa. Findings show that elites' racialized identities shape their redistributive preferences, as do their historical understandings of racialized inequality, but these effects vary depending on whether elites are evaluating race‐conscious or race‐neutral policies
Algorithms in the room: AI, representation, and decisions about sustainable futures
No full textThis article considers the role of generative AI technologies, such as large language models (LLMs), in promoting the views of underrepresented groups. We are specifically concerned with the role AI could play in encouraging powerful decision-makers—often leading politicians and businesspeople in Western nations—to consider the perspectives of underrepresented groups when making decisions about sustainable development. Some suggest generative AI could offer decision-makers perspectives they had previously not considered, leading to more equitable and innovative policy approaches, and supporting several of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We critique this perspective. Groups may be underrepresented in sustainable development decision-making because of individual cognitive and organisational information-processing limitations (‘omitted, but not opposed’), and because of opposition which remains even if these limitations are overcome (‘opposed, whether omitted or not’). We outline how these ‘categories of omission’ shape the opportunities and risks created by generative AI in representative sustainability
Expected impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area on food security
No full textThis chapter estimates the potential impact of the AfCFTA on the agriculture sector by means of a detailed partial equilibrium model using recently available tariff schedules for African countries. The impact is forecast to be relatively small over the short-run timespan that is covered by the modelling approach. Intra-African trade in the sector as a whole is expected to increase by 5.4 per cent, equivalent to $1,015 million annually, in a scenario of full tariff liberalisation under the AfCFTA. These results are modest, but consistent across all tests of the model to parameter sensitivity analyses, and reflect a scenario in which all trade is liberalised, without recourse to product exclusions (in reality some of this trade may be excluded from liberalisation and the impact of the AfCFTA may be limited further)
Smithian growth in Britain before the Industrial Revolution, 1500-1800
No full textAdam Smith’s claim that the division of labour is one of the major engines of economic growth is a foundational concept in economics. Despite this, we lack measures of the scale and growth of Smithian specialisation over the long run. This paper introduces a novel method based on job titles to measure specialisation. We apply this method to document patterns of Smithian specialisation in early modern Britain. National trends in specialisation were closely associated with economic growth. By 1800, the division of labour was over two and a half times as advanced as in the early sixteenth century, with particularly marked changes within English manufacturing, especially in the mechanical subsector, and, to a lesser extent, services. Specialisation was far less advanced in Wales and Scotland. We study several possible explanations for this change with an IV panel analysis. We find that this significant increase in the division of labour was mostly driven by the growth of the domestic market, in line with Adam Smith’s predictions. Intensive specialisation was concentrated in Middlesex and was helped by a supply factor, Marshallian externalities. Finally, we explore the connection between Smithian Growth and the Industrial Revolution. We find that early specialisation did not lead to later industrial success. Like Adam Smith himself, Smithian specialisation did not predict the Industrial Revolution
Introduction
No full textImmanuel Kant's political philosophy has, in recent years, attracted unprecedented scholarly interest. Yet, with some exceptions, scholars have paid little attention to the fact that he was at the center of a large and productive group known at the time as “the Kantian school.” These mostly younger philosophers included Johann Adam Bergk (1769–1834), Johann Heinrich Tieftrunk (1760–1837), Saul Ascher (1767–1822), Johann Benjamin Erhard (1766–1827), Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748–1822), Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829), and the early Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814). Writing during the French Revolution, some like Bergk, Erhard, and Fichte, sought to combine their commitment to Kant with their dedication to the ideals of freedom, equality, and fraternity emerging from France. Others, like Rehberg and Ewald, sought to align legal and political principles with the practices of the old regime