The Influence of Paternalistic Leadership on the Development of Oriental Critical Thinking

In the context of globalization, critical thinking is still regarded as the core content of higher education. The difference between Eastern and Western cultures has a key impact on understanding critical thinking. When the current literature studies the influence of culture on critical thinking, it mainly considers from the macro level, mainly including ethnic history, traditional customs, religious beliefs, art, ethics, and so on. However, from a specific and micro cultural perspective, how critical thinking is influenced by a culture still lacks effective research. This paper studies the influence of Confucian paternalistic leadership on the development of critical thinking in the East from a specific cultural perspective. The study discovers that Asians are easier to understand how things change and they are more tolerant to conflict, which means that they see things as interrelated and interdependent. They are more likely to use intuitive and experience-based reasoning if there is a conflict between intuitive and logical reasoning. Benevolence and hierarchy in paternalistic leadership promote the formation of cooperative critical thinking in improving the operation of organizations so that the characteristics of oriental critical thinking can be analyzed more comprehensively.

Innovative Teaching and Learning Pathways for Responsible Use of Resources Focusing on the ESEE Region

In a world depicted by rapid growth and consumerism, where pressing societal issues such as, the critical climate crises, resources exploitation in developing countries and much more, it is essential to educate all citizens about raw materials, their uses and about responsible production and consumption. Developing life-long learning wider society programmes is an essential tool to educate the population starting with the youngest members of society (pre-school) to adulthood (life-long learning) with a special focus on the life-world orientation from a learners’ perspective. The wider society learning flagship project, ‘Raw Matters Ambassadors at Schools’ (RM@Schools), is an innovative programme funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) which promotes science education and careers in the raw materials sector. Since the project’s commencement in 2016, it has gained stronger European representation with a current total of 32 partners from 18 countries. This includes the consortium members from a parallel funded programme, RM@SchoolsESEE. This project aims at extending best practices and diversifying the current portfolio to East and Southeast European countries. What makes this project so innovative is in the programme and individual learning pathways. Considering a multidisciplinary and cultural perspective, a framework was developed to assist in forming raw materials ambassadors through engaging programmes for school pupils from aged 10 up to 19 years old and through the development of educational hands-on toolkits that range from experiments to game-based tools and much more. In particular, and as a way to increase impact, the project aims to mentor teenagers from all educational disciplines between the ages of 14–19 years old to become ‘Young RM Ambassadors’. This approach utilises state-of-the-art teaching and learning methods resulting in peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and dissemination. Built into the programme is a continuous feedback loop that involves stakeholders from all sides of the knowledge triangle: educators, pupils, professionals and researchers.

States of Emergency

More than one hundred years after the conclusion of the First World War, the edited collection States of Emergency. Architecture, Urbanism, and the First World War reassesses what that cataclysmic global conflict meant for architecture and urbanism from a human, social, economic, and cultural perspective. Chapters probe how underdevelopment and economic collapse manifested spatially, how military technologies were repurposed by civilians, and how cultures of education, care, and memory emerged from battle. The collection places an emphasis on the various states of emergency as experienced by combatants and civilians across five continents—from refugee camps to military installations, villages to capital cities—thus uncovering the role architecture played in mitigating and exacerbating the everyday tragedy of war.

Planning Horizon in International Travel Decision-Making: The Role of Individual and Cultural Determinants

A solid understanding of when travel decisions are made in relation to travelers’ planning horizons is crucial for travel service providers. Despite its importance, there are very few empirical studies investigating the planning horizon and its antecedents in travel research literature. This study contributes to bridging this gap by conceptualizing a two-level model of antecedents of travelers’ planning horizons. In addition to individual traveler- and trip-related aspects, the model provides a cross-cultural perspective on international travelers’ planning horizons by including uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and long-term orientation as cultural-level antecedents. Drawing on a nested dataset of 4,074 international travelers from 17 countries worldwide, the results of a two-level hierarchical regression model show that, in addition to individual-level aspects, cultural antecedents play an important role in determining planning horizons. Based on the empirical results, the paper discusses implications for theory and travel service providers.

The Impact of Product Tagging on Trust and Purchase Intention: A cross-cultural perspective in visual e-commerce

The present study aims to examine the opportunity of in-app shopping, more specifically, analyzing the influence of product tags and cultural background on consumers’ trust and purchase intention. For this purpose, a comparison was made between European and South American female consumers from two cultures: the Netherlands and Paraguay. A total of 225 subjects, 143 from the Dutch background and 82 from the Paraguayan background, participated in an experimental survey where they judged an Instagram product page (product tag: present vs. absent). The analysis of the results revealed that the Paraguayans had higher purchase intentions than the Dutch. Additionally, the presence of a text appeal in the visual product presentation had a direct positive effect on consumers’ purchase intentions and perceived trust in the shopping environment, for both the Dutch and Paraguayan cultural groups. In virtual web shops, perceiving trust is a decisive point for purchase intentions. This study contributes to the fast-growing investigations on social media effectiveness and visual marketing as an informative and persuasive tool. The findings pinpoint the synergic value of visual and textual cues of product presentation online in the atmospheric trust of in-app shopping.

The relationship between postpartum social support and attitudes towards breastfeeding: A cultural perspective

Aim: This study intends to provide an analysis of the relationship between postpartum social support and women’s breastfeeding attitudes from different cultural perspectives. Method: This study was conducted between April-September 2019.The study population comprised of 430 women with 4-24 week old babies who visited health centers in the provinces of Adıyaman (Region 1), Kahramanmaraş (Region 2) and Malatya (Region 3). Findings: The mean scores of women from the BAES were 105.54 ± 13.16 in Region 1, 103.30 ± 15.77 in Region 2, and 99.46 ± 13.47 in Region 3 (P<0.05).The mean scores of women from the “Importance of the Need” subscale on the PSQ were 157.38±45.57 in Region 1, 140.73±55.18 in Region 2, and 144.89±48.144 in Region 3 (P<0.05).The mean scores of women from the “Support Received” subscale on the PSQ were 112.39±51.58 in Region 1; 116.87±52.69 in Region 2, and 108.89±50.79 in Region 3 (P>0.05).In Region 2, a significant and positive correlation was found between the subscales “Importance of the Need” and the “Perceived Support” on the BAES and the PSQ (r=0.259, r=0.255, P<0.05, respectively). Conclusion: A comparison of the relationship between postpartum social support and attitudes towards breastfeeding revealed major differences between the Regions.

Different Ways of Viewing an Organization

From the industrial revolution to the present, scholars, consultants and experts in different disciplines have tried to answer the fundamental question: What is a business? In this chapter, we structure these historical perspectives in the following groups: Mechanical, Organic and Cultural. The mechanical perspective provides the “rational logic” of planning and supervision. The organic perspective adds creativity and initiative. Finally, the cultural perspective promotes internal unity through a common purpose that harnesses the commitment and engagement of the company’s members. From the combination of the three perspectives, we introduce the “Integrated Organizational Model” as the conceptual foundation of management by missions (MBM).