The Creative Services Sector in Polish Cities

The creative services sector plays an important and constantly growing role in the modern economy. This publication presents the results of extensive research on the functioning of the creative sector in Polish cities, conducted on a representative sample of 287 cities located throughout Poland. The sample was good in such a way as to maintain the structure by province. The survey included questions rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The aim of the research was to study the functioning of the creative sector in Polish cities and to determine whether the active involvement of public administration in its development has a positive impact on this sector. The research was carried out on the example of a medium-sized European country, which is Poland. The original contribution of the authors of the publication is to demonstrate, on a large research sample, the existence of a positive impact of the municipal office’s activities on the creative sector for example using special funds to boost creativity sector in the city, and to ascertain the existence of a linear relationship between the city size and the level of the creative sector functioning in it.

Taking off the rose-colored glasses: the influence of crises on employee relationship management

Purpose The central aim of this research is to deepen the analysis of the influence that crises have on employee relations by using the stakeholder relationship management model (SRM) to analyze organizational employee relationship management (OERM).Design/methodology/approach This study uses a questionnaire distributed in two organizations (UK-based public sector and private sector) that were experiencing a crisis at the time of data collection. Respondents identified whether they believed the organization was in crisis, if they defined it as in crisis classified what type of crisis it was, and then responded to questions about their relationship to the organization, the organization's post crisis stability and their own behavioral intentions.FindingsThe findings verify the applicability of the SRM in employee relations with three critical findings: (1) employees with higher income in the private sector were significantly less likely to believe their organization was in crisis; (2) the more ambiguous the blame for the crisis, the greater the damage on the relationship between organizations and employees; and (3) collective sensemaking in organizations is essential, but less likely when a crisis has damaged the relationship between employees and organizations.Originality/value In the last 40 years of Employee Relations, the role of crisis in influencing OERM has not been meaningfully explored in the journal. Therefore, the piece makes an original contribution.

Ubiquitous Technologies and Learning

This study makes an original contribution to the literature on social media usage for learning purposes through the phenomenological approach of enquiry. It examined the general motivations for social media usage; how social media is used to meet academic needs; perceived academic benefits; and how social media usage disrupts studies. A total of 24 undergraduate students were engaged in rigorous focus group discussions. Results showed that social media has been adapted to suit the academic needs of users through the process of appropriation. It was found that although social media could be a viable platform for inter-university-collaborative-learning, respondents hardly engaged in that. It was suggested that students create inter-university social media groups for collaborative learning. There were accounts of negative implications of using social media, like addiction and distractions. Students must adopt tactics to handle distractions which could prove helpful in out-of-school settings like the workplace.

How international marketers make decisions: exploring approaches to learning and using heuristics

PurposeThe paper addresses the following research question: how do decision-makers use heuristics in their international business (IB) environment? Whereas, the literature has focused on entrepreneurial companies, here contrasting approaches to learning and using heuristics in international marketing (IM) decisions are examined and discussed.Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to address a gap in the study of micro-foundations of internationalization, exploiting research from other disciplinary fields. It combines a multidisciplinary literature review and longitudinal case studies to illustrate different approaches in learning and using heuristics by international marketers.FindingsInternational marketers can adopt “closed” heuristics that are consolidated and consistently followed, or “open” heuristics, which are constantly being adapted and learned. Established multinationals learn heuristics in international marketing decision-making, following both “closed” and “open” models.Originality/valueThis paper offers an original contribution by presenting different approaches not yet examined in the literature, focusing on how international marketers make decisions through learning and using heuristic rules. The focus is on established exporters, in contrast to the literature that has largely paid attention to the effectiveness of heuristics in new entrepreneurial firms.

End-to-end platform evaluation for Spanish Handwritten Text Recognition

The task of automated recognition of handwritten texts requires various phases and technologies both optical and language related. This article describes an approach for performing this task in a comprehensive manner, using machine learning throughout all phases of the process. In addition to the explanation of the employed methodology, it describes the process of building and evaluating a model of manuscript recognition for the Spanish language. The original contribution of this article is given by the training and evaluation of Offline HTR models for Spanish language manuscripts, as well as the evaluation of a platform to perform this task in a complete way. In addition, it details the work being carried out to achieve improvements in the models obtained, and to develop new models for different complex corpora that are more difficult for the HTR task.

A solution to the problem of brand definition

Purpose This paper aims to critically evaluate the definition of the brand concept, support the critique with an empirical study and provide a definition to resolve the problems that have been identified. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines a conceptual critique with empirical research using a sample of 730 journal papers to analyse the scope and number of brand-related concepts in extant literature. Findings The brand concept has evolved to become problematic with no clarity of definition. There has been an explosion in the number of brand-related concepts that make the brand concept opaque and unwieldy. Based upon the findings, the authors argue that it is necessary to return to a “label and associations model” of the brand concept to ameliorate these issues. Research limitations/implications The empirical research presented examines only 730 papers from a much wider body of brand literature. Nonetheless, it illustrates the fact that researchers and theorists are not talking about the same concept when using the term “brand”. Practical implications Practitioners are not being served by academic branding literature because no two researchers appear to be studying the same entity. This prevents a body of research from being built to guide practitioners. Originality/value This paper makes an original contribution by combining a conceptual critique and empirical study to examine the problems arising from the absence of an agreed definition of the brand concept and uses this as a foundation for creating a resolution to the problems.

‘A pilgrimage of camels’: Dairy capitalism, nomadic pastoralism, and subnational Hindutva statism in Rajasthan

Hindu nationalists and NGOs proffer camel dairying as an employment strategy for Rajasthan's nomadic pastoralists, akin to the commodification of bovine milk for poverty alleviation in India. Commercial dairying however is inconsistent with pastoralist ethics though it is consistent with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's broader agenda to consolidate Hindutva at the national and subnational levels in India, and with developmentalism that regards animals as capital. In an original contribution bringing together pastoralist studies and critical animal geographies, this paper introduces species to the ‘conjugated oppressions’ in agrarian economies, currently composing caste, tribes, and class, through the suturing of (dairy) capitalism and right-wing ultranationalism. Focussing the camels and the Raika herders in the subregions of Jaisalmer, and Sirohi, home to India's only camel sanctuary, the paper delineates how the camel is entrapped in the coalescing and conflicts of dairy-based development and Hindutva nationalism. Interconnected oppressions upon the camels and herders are conceptualised and enacted through the control and appropriation of rangelands, understood as yatra or pilgrimage by the pastoralists. However, the camel is also enmeshed in the older violent histories of domestication, raising difficult questions about how nomadic and camel sovereignties may be imagined, together. Arguing that dairy capitalism will discipline the nomads and camels while strengthening Hindutva in Rajasthan, the paper draws on pastoralist worldviews as a starting point to re-imagine human–animal relations, based on an ethic of de-commodification.

The Nahḍa, Iraqi Style: The Original Contribution of Father Anastās Mārī al-Kirmilī

The subject of this article, Father Anastās Mārī al-Kirmilī (1866–1947), is a central figure in the Iraqi nahḍa. Although a Carmelite monk, he devoted his life in a non- confessional spirit to the study and reform of the Arabic language and the development of a specifically Iraqi historical and cultural consciousness. He wrote on linguistics, history, and folklore, he edited texts, published a journal and corresponded with Arab and European scholars. He is still a figure of reference for Iraqi intellectuals. By presenting his work in some detail, this article seeks to integrate him into the society of the nahḍawīs while demonstrating his particular contribution.

Towards a minimal conception of Transitional Justice

Transitional Justice (TJ) focuses on the processes of dealing with the legacy of large-scale past abuses (in the aftermath of traumatic experiences such as war or authoritarianism) with the aim of fostering domestic justice and creating the basis for a sustainable peace. TJ however also entails the problem of how a torn society may be able to become a self-determining member of a just international order. This paper presents a minimal conception of TJ, which departs from Rawls' conception of normative stability of the international order, which suggests disentangling the two goals of fostering democracy within torn societies and TJ itself. The scope of TJ is therefore limited to enabling these societies to create minimal internal conditions for joining a just international order on equal footing. This paper makes an original contribution to two different debates, namely normative research on TJ, and post-Rawlsian literature in general. First, it provides a new direction for normative theorizing about TJ which takes both its domestic and international dimensions seriously into consideration. Second, it extends Rawls' political liberal outlook to an area where it is not usually understood to apply.

Profiling food festivals by type, name and descriptive content: a population level study

PurposeThis research aims to classify and describe food festivals and examine the patterns in food festival naming and festival descriptions in online media.Design/methodology/approachThis research represents the first population-level empirical examination of food festivals in the United States using a purpose-built dataset (N = 2,626). Methodology includes text mining to examine food festival communications.FindingsFood festival size varies across local and regional spheres within the country. Food festivals employ geographical (place-, destination-based) associations in their names. Food festivals' descriptions and online communications showcase a welcoming environment predominantly emphasizing family-oriented and live entertainment experiences. Food festivals across the country show common naming patterns based on the elements of longevity, recurrence, location name, brand name, geographic scope, theme, and occasion.Originality/valueThe study makes an original contribution to the theory and practice by identifying festival forms, styles, functions, and their diversity. A population level examination of food festivals does not currently exist. Therefore, this research will serve as a foundation for scholarly work in the future and as a benchmark for evaluating current and future research.