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Cyber Insurance Adoption and Digitalisation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Full text linkDigitalisation has significantly increased cybersecurity risks in organisations, notably for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in which IT departments often have
relatively small teams and limited resources. Cyber insurance enables SMEs to navigate cybersecurity risks more economically, providing an essential risk transfer alternative to costly reduction strategies. This article examines the antecedents, emergence, and application of
cyber insurance as a solution to cybersecurity concerns against the backdrop of increasing digitalisation. The research adopts a quantitative deductive approach, with an analysis of relevant literature providing the basis for the development of 12 hypotheses, which are then tested via a survey of 168 SMEs in Turkey. Using the Technology–Organisation–Environment–Individual (TOE-I) model as a top-line conceptual framework, the article
finds that cyber insurance policy adoption has facilitated a more rapid and secure digitalisation process and that the mitigation of financial risk associated with cyberattacks has allowed companies to invest more widely in information technologies and systems. The article clearly has its limitations, in that it is based on primary research in one European country, but the authors believe that it nevertheless provides some new insights into the potential benefits of cyber insurance, and the key issues SMEs must consider when considering adopting a cyber insurance policy. The findings will be of practical relevance to SMEs
and other organisations reviewing their cybersecurity strategy and are also of relevance to the wider debate around the costs and benefits of digitalisation
Exploring Innovation in multi-agency settings for supporting children and families affected by domestic abuse: police notification schemes
Full text linkThe CAFADA project (Developing the Evidence Base for Innovation in Social Care for Children and Families Impacted by Domestic Abuse) examines innovations in multi-agency responses to domestic abuse, focusing on police notification schemes designed to support children and families.
Recognising the limited evidence on effective interventions for children exposed to domestic abuse, the study uses an implementation science approach to investigate how innovative practices are conceptualised, developed, and implemented in the intersection of social care, education, and criminal justice.
This report centres on two school notification schemes: Operation Encompass (OE) and an enhanced model referred to as Operation Encompass Plus (OE+). OE aims to notify schools promptly after domestic abuse incidents, enabling early intervention and support. OE+ expands on this model, incorporating multi-agency collaboration to provide holistic and sustained support for children and families.
The research reveals significant challenges in scaling and sustaining these innovations, such as inconsistent implementation, limited engagement with families, and the tension between top-down standardisation and bottom-up adaptability. OE’s simplicity facilitates scalability but often lacks depth, while OE+ offers comprehensive support yet struggles with resource demands and institutional buy-in.
The study highlights the need for more participatory and integrated approaches that centre the voices of children and families, balance flexibility with standardisation, and foster long-term cultural and structural support for innovation. These findings contribute to broader understandings of innovation in public sector interventions, particularly within resource-constrained and risk-averse environments.
CAFADA’s research emphasises the importance of iterative, inclusive processes in creating effective and sustainable responses to domestic abuse, with implications for multi-agency collaboration and policy design
Exploring the Path to Job Satisfaction Among Women in the Middle East: A Contextual Perspective
Full text linkPurpose: This study explores the factors that influence job satisfaction among women in Jordan and contribute to the growing interest in women's workplace happiness in the context of the Middle East.
Design/methodology/approach: We employed an explanatory sequential mixed-method approach. During the first phase, 250 female respondents were surveyed from the private sector in Jordan. We analysed the impact of various employment-related attributes and other variables, including educational level, position, work experience, daily work hours, income level, relationships with colleagues and supervisors, and internal career opportunities on job satisfaction. During the second stage, we interviewed 23 supervisor female respondents and conducted a thematic analysis to explore in more depth the determinants of job satisfaction of females working in the private sector in Jordan.
Findings: The quantitative findings of this study indicate that job satisfaction is positively influenced by education level and income, while notably, it was negatively impacted by work experience and daily work hours. Relationships with colleagues and supervisors, as well as internal career opportunities, positively affect job satisfaction. The qualitative findings of the study indicate that positive corporate culture, developing subordinates, financial independence, self-worthiness, work-life balance, internal career opportunities, and factors that spillover from the personal life domain contributed highly to job satisfaction.
Originality: This study offers valuable insights into the cultural dynamics at play and sheds light on the psychology of the Arab female workforce. Given the limited research on job satisfaction among women in the Middle East and the Arab world, this study holds significant importance for practitioners
‘Weak’ physical education teacher education practice: co-constructing features of meaningful physical education with pre-service teachers
No full textWhile the meaningful physical education approach serves as a unifying and focused framework for both physical education teachers and teacher educators, it is focused on teaching physical education and not how teacher educators can teach pre-service teachers (PSTs) how to teach using meaningful physical education. Consequently, Learning about Meaningful Physical Education (LAMPE) has emerged as a comprehensive pedagogical approach designed to support teacher educators in their decision making to educate PSTs about meaningful physical education. However more work is needed to exemplify PETE practices when enacting the LAMPE pedagogical principles and explain their effectiveness in preparing PSTs to learn about meaningful physical education. This research aims to address the knowledge gap in answering: What are the realities of enacting principle four of the LAMPE principles (i.e. Teacher educators should frame learning activities using features of meaningful participation) in PETE? Rather than providing the already agreed critical features of meaningful physical education (i.e. social interaction, challenge, motor competence, fun, and personally relevant learning), and reproducing what is already known, Dylan engaged in a self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) methodology to inductively co-construct a shared language with his PSTs. Data was collected through different sources: (i) Four community of learners meetings; (ii) 11 reflective journal entries; (iii) Critical friends interrogation on such reflections; and (iv) the teaching artefacts. Through data analysis, three categories were constructed: (1) Inductive disruption encouraging co-construction of meaningful physical education features; (2) Tensions in developing a shared language through identification, exploration, experience, and reflection; (3) An uncomfortable space of ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’. The inductive analysis led us to make connections to Biesta, G.’s [2014. The Beautiful Risk of Education. Paradigm Publishers] notion of ‘weak education’. Informed by this, this research advocates for ‘weak practice’, the development of a pedagogy of teacher education, and a principle zero
“Tanks, Tracks, Troopers”: Military Masculinity in Digital Space
No full textThis chapter updates my own recent work examining hegemonic military masculinity, which argues that US and the UK military recruitment video advertisements are less hegemonically masculine than one might expect, featuring a moderate number of women. The chapter first explores extant literature on military masculinity and considers how this might function on the internet, which exposes a wider public to gendered constructions of the military. Analysis focuses upon twelve videos on the official British Army YouTube channel (in the “Watch this” section). The videos construct a masculinity centring upon “Big boys’ toys” (Higate 2003: 34) such as tanks, with a clear focus upon readiness to tackle future threats, and a desire to foster relations with allies. This contrasts with my past analysis as there is less focus in these videos on physical and mental strength, and they feature many fewer women, portraying masculinity as an almost exclusively male preserve
Patients’ and family carers’ experience of community-based end of life care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Scottish health and care partnership
No full textA sharp increase in demand for home-based end of life care in Fife,Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic, was the catalyst for a mixed methods study examining the reality of such care. This study sought to understand how patients and families experienced care and support at the end of life in their own homes during the pandemic. The qualitative arm of a wider study used narrative methodology. Purposive sampling ensured that current patients and their families and families bereaved during the pandemic were included, as well as representation of people with both cancer and non-cancer illnesses and those receiving different models of care. Semi-structured interviews allowed patients and families to tell their own story and rich data was analysed thematically. Communication and continuity were identified as two core dimen-sions that helped or hindered their experience of professional sup-port and key components of end of life care at home. Inter-agency communication and care planning are central when considering end of life care at home in a post-pandemic landscape, especially if there is to be any chance of addressing inequalities. Practitioner research provides another lens into our understanding of how services are experienced and has the added benefit of developing the communication and interpretation skills of clinicians through qualitative research practic
The Correlation between Net Impulse and Phases of Linear Sprint Performance in University American Football Players
Full text linkImpulse has been proposed as a reliable performance measure when assessing force generating capacity, during
a given time frame, and in recent literature has been investigated to its degree of relationship with sprint
performance. This study investigated the correlation between early epochs of net impulse from isometric actions
and selected phases of linear sprint performance. A within subject design was employed to assess the correlation
between linear sprint performance and epochs of net impulse in 29 university American Football athletes
(mean±SD: age = 20.10±1.53 years; height = 181.69±5.63cm; weight = 95.92±22.81kg). Net impulse was
measured over epochs of 0-100, 0-150, and 0-200 milliseconds (Newtons per second) via an isometric mid-thigh
pull protocol while linear speed was assessed using linear sprint testing (10 and 36.58 metres). Pearson’s r
correlation coefficient was used to evaluate correlations between assessed variables and effect size. The analysis
demonstrated trivial to small correlations (r=-0.06 to 0.18) between early epochs of net impulse and linear sprint
performance. The 10-metre linear sprint performance demonstrated small correlations at 0-150 milliseconds
(r=0.18) while the remaining variables revealed trivial correlations. The effect size indicated trivial to small
correlations between the assessed variables. Although no significant correlation was found between isometric
mid-thigh pull metrics and linear sprint performance these findings provide meaningful insight into the
complexity of sprinting mechanics, in the assessed population. If net impulse does not strongly correlate with
sprint performance, it may indicate the need to reassess the emphasis placed on isometric strength assessments
in sprint profiling
Predicting Long-Term Electricity Consumption Using Time Series Data: Use Case of the UK Electricity Data
No full textIn the modern era, the United Kingdom (UK) is moving towards a future enriched with sustainability and energy efficiency. Thus, accurate electricity consumption predictions are one of the major factors in the UK. This research focuses on electricity consumption in the UK for the next year using historical data and analyzing them through time series analysis. Traditional statistical methods such as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), and Seasonal Autoregressive Moving Average (SARIMA) and machine learning algorithms such as XGBoost, Linear Trees and Prophet are used in this research to predict the consumption patterns of electricity in the UK. Moreover, this study will further focus on evaluating the performances and the behavioral patterns of each model in forecasting electricity consumption by developing a comparative analysis that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each model. The main objective of the following research is to create a model which can forecast the consumption of electricity for the next year in the UK whilst identifying the consumption patterns of electricity in the UK. Hence, this analysis encompasses valuable information for energy providers, consumers and policymakers to enhance energy efficiency and maintain energy sustainability in the UK. Furthermore, by this analysis it was determined that Prophet model is the best model to be used in predicting the electricity consumption for next year in the UK as it has generated significant results compared to other models making the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) 0.14% and the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4409.71
The Virtues and Vices Of Employee Engagement and Its Drivers in an Informal Network Context: A Cultural Approach
No full textInformal networks are potentially central yet underexplored antecedents of employee engagement. Much of the existing literature assumes engagement drivers to be universally applicable, often overlooking cultural and moral specificities, particularly in emerging markets. To address this gap, we adopt a cultural and ethical lens to examine whether employee engagement drivers are context-bound. We focus on wasta, a pervasive informal network in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, often associated with favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism, yet also rooted in traditions of solidarity, sociability, and reciprocity. By conceptualizing wasta as an ambivalent social force situated at the intersection of tradition and modernity, and by drawing on justice theory and virtue ethics, we identify three culturally embedded drivers of employee engagement: trust and commitment, favor exchange for mutual benefit, and satisfaction and gratitude. These mechanisms shape engage-ment in both positive and negative ways, depending on the nature and strength of informal ties. Our study contributes to the employee engagement literature by offering a culturally and ethically grounded perspective on engagement antecedents within informal network contexts. It also advances informal network research by providing a conceptual framework for analyzing and comparing such systems across cultures. Theoretically, our work bridges moral philosophy and human resource management (HRM) by showing how informal practices function as value-laden mechanisms influencing employee attitudes, inclusion, and organizational life. The propositions developed lay the groundwork for future empirical research and offer practical insights for HR practitioners operating in contexts where informal networks significantly influence organizational life
Co-designing citizen science: principles and guidance
Full text linkThis report sets out principles for including aspects
of, or, where appropriate, full co-design in citizen
science projects. It draws on research carried out
during CaSTCo, including case studies (Soil
SmARt and River Guardians), interviews with
scientists, stakeholders and citizen scientists, and a
review of existing literature. Together, these
sources inform 12 key principles for guiding co-design
Data sources:
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