Trust building in science-based SMEs in the North East of England: an ecosystem perspective

PurposeThis paper identifies exigent factors that enable and constrain trust building in a science-based innovation ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachSet in the Northeast England, this study adopts a processual sensemaking approach to thematically analyse interviews with a diverse range of participants in six science-based SMEs.FindingsThe findings provide a unique exposition of trust building in an innovation ecosystem across geographic and platform relationships. In doing so, the findings highlight factors outside of contractual agreements that enable or constrain trust building in an innovation ecosystem.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations centred on subjectivity in the use of thematic analysis, sample bias and size. Sampling limitations were mitigated through the research design and analysis.Practical implicationsThe findings provide unique insights into understanding the exigent factors that enable or constrain trust building in a science-based innovation ecosystem.Originality/valueThe study identifies five exigent factors that constrain or enable trust building in science-based SMEs' innovation ecosystem at a micro-level – building network relationships, degree of novelty, protection of innovations, propensity for adding value, propensity for risk.

Local and Transnational Identity, Positionality and Knowledge Production in Africa and the African Diaspora

How does shared identity between researcher and the researched influence trust-building for data generation and knowledge production? We reflect on this question based on two separate studies conducted by African-based researchers in sociology and political science in Nigeria. We advanced two interrelated positions. The first underscores the limits of national belonging as shorthand for insiderness, while the second argues that when shared national/group identity is tensioned other intersecting positions and relations take prominence. We also show that the researched challenge and resist unequal power relations through interview refusal or by evading issues that the researcher considers important, but the participant perceives as intrusive. We shed light on the vagaries, overlaps, and similarities in the dynamics of belonging and positionality in researching Africans in and outside Africa as home-based researchers. Our contribution advances the understanding of field dynamics in the production of local and cross-border knowledge on Africa/Africans.

Higher Public Officials on Direct Citizen Participation in Turkey

Governments are expected to introduce public policies to empower citizens to engage in government business for various reasons including trust building. This chapter presents enablers/barriers before direct citizen participation (DCP) in Turkey by employing interviews conducted with higher public administrators at the ministerial level. The results reveal that DCP is mostly used for informing and consultation purposes rather than fostering a citizen deliberation. The main barriers before DCP are found as centralized bureaucratic structure, lack of administrators' awareness for DCP, and a lack of participation culture. The authors argue that DCP could be fostered where public officials are curious rather than institutionalized.

Mapping domestic workers’ organizing globally

Domestic workers face challenges for organizing, e.g. decentralization of the workforce, nature of the employment relationship. This article analyses, based on a multiple country-comparison, how domestic workers organize despite constrictions. We identify three forms of organizing: the trade union model and the association model (Shireen Ally). We propose, though, an additional third model, the ‘hybrid type’: domestic workers organize ‘amongst themselves’ in associations and at the same time these associations are linked to or integrated into trade unions, which provides representation, services and contact with other workers. Related to this finding, we see a trend of an ‘emerging trade unionism’. Which means that we tend to find more trade union-related forms of organizing than a decade ago. One explanatory factor is the “governance struggle” of winning the International Labour Organization’s Convention “Decent Work for Domestic Workers” in 2011, which led to an increased collaboration and trust-building between organized domestic workers and trade unions.

Understanding the Social Licence of Carbon Farming in the Australian Rangelands

Carbon farming has expanded in Australia’s rangelands over recent years, incentivised under the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. While this has largely been driven by economic benefits for landholders, the long-term viability of the carbon farming industry depends on its ability to obtain and maintain a social licence to operate in affected communities. Using a combination of survey, interview and focus group methods, involving key stakeholders in far-western New South Wales (NSW), this study reveals that the greatest threat to the social licence of carbon farming is the lack of confidence in governance related to policy complexity and uncertainty. Procedural fairness is a relative strength because of the involvement of trusted community members, and the trust-building strategies employed by the aggregators who recruit landholders to carbon farming. Perceptions of distributional fairness are strengthened by the benefits beginning to flow through rangeland communities, but are weakened by concerns around the equity of eligibility and the land management rules. A focus on participatory policy development, aligning rules with local values and local-scale trust building, is required in order to enhance the social licence for carbon farming in the NSW rangelands.

Chaplain Leadership During COVID-19: An International Expert Panel

Chaplain leadership may have played a pivotal role in shaping chaplains’ roles in health care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We convened an international expert panel to identify expert perception on key chaplain leadership factors. Six leadership themes of professional confidence, engaging and trust-building with executives, decision-making, innovation and creativity, building integrative and trusting connections with colleagues, and promoting cultural competencies emerged as central to determining chaplains’ integration, perceived value, and contributions during the pandemic.

Effect of Relationship Marketing on Customer Retention in the Telecommunications Industry

This study centered on the effect of relationship marketing on customer retention in the telecommunications industry. It was conducted to assess the effects of customer care, communication, trust-building and service quality on customer retention in the telecommunications context. The study adopted survey research design. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from 198 customers of MTN Nigeria Plc and Globacom Nigeria Plc in Calabar. The data were analyzed and interpreted using descriptive statistics, while the hypotheses developed for the study were tested using multiple linear regression. Consequently, the findings of the study revealed that customer care, communication, trust building and service quality had significant positive effects on customer retention of telecommunication firms in Calabar. Therefore, the study recommended that: telecommunications companies should strengthen their customer care capability by using trained service professionals to elicit and promptly resolve customers enquiries and complaints; telecommunications companies should improve communications with customers by opening up more channels such as phone calls, direct messaging, social media and email through which information can be transmitted to subscribers to enhance informed patronage decisions; and it is imperative for telecommunications companies to consolidate customers’ trust in their delivery capabilities by demonstrating through effective service delivery that they are capable of satisfactorily meeting the service needs of subscribers.

Conspiracy theories and pandemic management in Africa: critical reflections on contexts, contradictions and challenges

The coronavirus pandemic, though primarily a health issue, has had significant social, economic and political implications across the world. There are reasons to believe that some of the changes occurring are likely to be permanent even in a post-pandemic world, and there are even suggestions that the world may be entering a phase in which pandemics become recurrent. Making sense of all that the pandemic has brought has by no means been easy, even for scientists who have had to review and revise their claims as new discoveries about the virus are made. One of the fallouts of the pandemic has been a proliferation of conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus, as well as efforts to contain it. Summed up, these theories of various shades allege that certain powerful forces are behind the pandemic, in pursuit of some narrow ends that range from the political to the religious. In this paper, I analyse conspiracy theories and the motivations behind them. Situating conspiracy theories within the pandemic, I argue that they are best understood not within the framework of a single theory but by an understanding of how diverse motivations generate different, even contradictory conspiratorial accounts. I argue that whereas conspiracy theories have become a feature of modern society, and have been amplified in the age of technology, they have low credibility value in explaining the pandemic, while having significant implications. I also argue that if left unchecked, conspiracy theories have the capacity to further undermine governments’ capacity to respond to big crises in Africa in the future. I conclude that conspiracy theories are best managed in a pandemic through consistent, transparent engagement rooted in trust-building between the people and governments, especially in Africa.

A CONTEXT WIDE REVIEW ON BUILDING TRUST THROUGH DIGITAL APPROACHES

Common to the construction industry, distinct parties of different backgrounds and disciplines were assembled to complete a project. Despite being unfamiliar and sharing little in common except the project’s goal, this ad-hoc syndicate was expected to effectively communicate the expectation of the project’s stakeholders. While it was possible for project parties to get along and gradually form an effective relationship, contrasting interests and values were the norms, which resulted in conflicting attitudes and behaviour. Among the most critical constituents of a successful relationship, trust was identified as the fundamental building block to allay conflict or cushioning its impacts it. Through advancements in project management thinking in recent times were able to offer pragmatic solutions to relationship issues in construction, it appeared that digital transformation was not widely inculcated in the approaches. Against this backdrop, this paper aimed to gain insightful disclosure on digital development that promotes and accelerates trust-building in different contexts. This is methodically carried out by identifying and reviewing 100 pieces of relevant literature from the Scopus database, followed by deductive content analysis to observe the interplay between digital development and trust in a wider context. The analyses revealed two types of digital approaches having bright prospects for infusion in construction which are Gamification and Virtual Reality (VR). The outcome from this analysis provides the much-needed departing point for humanizing digital development in construction and signifies a paradigm shift in dealing with trust issues in construction.