Is Knowledge transfer an obstacle? A post pandemic study of the challenges and proposing strategies to improve efficiency in distributed IS projects

Knowledge transfer (or sharing) has always been crucial within the dispersed teams’ structure. As we are moving into post-Covid 19 pandemic times where the norms of working are being redefined, there becomes a need to revisit this area and examine the working collaboration of the teams for meeting clients’ expectations, as there have been only few attempts undertaken after the pandemic. This study is based on interviewing 18 IT practitioners and professionals, further support by thematic analysis of data collected. The findings determined that for efficient knowledge transfer process ‘sustaining coordination’ is the core phenomenon together with having ‘closed feedback loops, exchanging particulars and logs timely, dynamic reporting and building teams capacity’ as sub-cores. The key observations identified from the results of this study were mainly the inclusion of several non-technical components which have now become essential, and back and forth support knowledge sharing in the distributed IS projects for productivity and completing tasks

Reaching for net zero: The impact of an innovative university-led business support programme on carbon management strategy and practices of small and medium-sized enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the heart of the economy, representing the majority of businesses in the United Kingdom and the European Union, and employ a high percentage of people. With this positive impact comes an environmental footprint. SMEs account for around half (43–53%) of the greenhouse gas emissions, yet typically, they lack the support that larger organisations have in-house and are often hard to reach in terms of engagement, policy and practical interventions. SMEs face a range of barriers to implementing carbon management and are still a misunderstood sector both in their approach to carbon management and how best to provide business support for change. This research addresses that challenge by investigating the impact of an innovative university-led business support programme to help SMEs develop a carbon management strategy and practices. The research adopted a quantitative approach with a pre- and post-intervention survey to gather data from 101 SMEs in the context of the Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) programme at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. The study shows that universities have an important role, and the SiE programme had a significant impact on SMEs' transition to net zero through policy and strategy development, resource monitoring, carbon footprinting, target setting and carbon management maturity. The research highlights the importance of business support for SMEs, specifically in carbon management, while segmenting based on size and sector to meet ambitious local, national and global net zero targets

Exploring relationship between environmentalism and consumerism in a market economy society: a structured systematic literature review

Managing environmental sustainability has become a critical challenge and an essential agenda for academics and corporations alike. This study conducted evidence-based research to explore whether it is possible to maintain a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society. A triangulated approach is followed by combining systematic literature review (SLR) and text mining for cross-validation, thus, limiting subjective bias. The findings suggest that, although, it is possible to achieve a balance in the long run but this necessitate enormous amount of efforts and resources due to the complexity and paradoxical nature of environmentalism and consumerism coupled with the current way of capitalist societies’ life. Building on the findings and the Operations Management Input-Transformation-Output model, a research framework is proposed. The proposed framework suggests that to keep a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society, a progressive and transformational change could be instrumental for a viable solution. Finally, building on current gaps in the research domain, six future research directions are proposed to carry forward the notion of environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society

Determinants of Carbon Emission Disclosures and UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of UK Higher Education Institutions

In recent years, organisational sustainability has become a topical issue in many institutional fields and a number of calls have been made to improve the disclosure of carbon information as part of sustainability efforts. This paper responds to these calls, chiefly examining the determinants of (CED) in the annual reports of UK higher education institutions (HEIs). It also aims to predict the relationship between the extent of CED and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting by UK universities. We construct a disclosure index to capture the extent and type of CED in the annual reports of UK HEIs, finding that carbon reduction targets imposed by the Government, environmental audit, and the amount of actual carbon emissions are significant and positively associated with CED. However, we find no relationship between CED and the disclosure of SDGs. We argue that HEIs'. CED can be useful in developing relevant regulatory policies given the targets are carefully set. Our research has important implications for policymakers regarding carbon reduction targets and related non?mandatory guidance, as these can be utilised as an effective mechanism in increasing carbon emission disclosure voluntary CED that are integrated into SDG disclosures

Engaging academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum: A practitioner perspective

Higher Education Institutions are engaged in embedding sustainability in curriculum across disciplines. Previous research studies have offered practical examples by outlining the process for sustainability integration. Business schools have a key leadership role as a force for good to produce future managers and leaders. It is the responsibility of business schools across the world to equip graduates with the knowledge of sustainability and skills to solve real world challenges in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research is aimed at providing an analysis of the ways business schools can engage academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. Academics are key to this transition in curriculum and teaching & learning practice. The study is action research and a case study of Nottingham Business School (NBS), Nottingham Trent University, UK has been carried out which is a leading business school in sustainability education. Action research involves an online and co-created short course as an intervention. NBS is a PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Champion business school and is evidencing good practice for sustainability. Therefore, the main research question was: “How can an online sustainability short course help engage academic staff for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum?”. Research participants were experienced academic staff members from NBS who were interviewed, belonging to different disciplines including management, marketing, human resource management, accounting & finance, and economics. Data collection was focused to engage staff under time and resource constraint environment. This is because one of the ways for staff engagement is through the online courses and learning resources. The results found that the online SDGs and Future Thinking course is a useful tool in enhancing academics’ sustainability/SDGs knowledge and understanding. It can further inform teaching and learning practice as well as pedagogy in NBS adding value to its good practice which already exists. This type of intervention can facilitate staff skills and competency development for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. The findings have implications beyond NBS as all the disciplines have a role to contribute to education for sustainable development

Engaging academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum: A practitioner perspective

Higher Education Institutions are engaged in embedding sustainability in curriculum across disciplines. Previous research studies have offered practical examples by outlining the process for sustainability integration. Business schools have a key leadership role as a force for good to produce future managers and leaders. It is the responsibility of business schools across the world to equip graduates with the knowledge of sustainability and skills to solve real world challenges in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research is aimed at providing an analysis of the ways business schools can engage academics for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. Academics are key to this transition in curriculum and teaching & learning practice. The study is action research and a case study of Nottingham Business School (NBS), Nottingham Trent University, UK has been carried out which is a leading business school in sustainability education. Action research involves an online and co-created short course as an intervention. NBS is a PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Champion business school and is evidencing good practice for sustainability. Therefore, the main research question was: “How can an online sustainability short course help engage academic staff for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum?”. Research participants were experienced academic staff members from NBS who were interviewed, belonging to different disciplines including management, marketing, human resource management, accounting & finance, and economics. Data collection was focused to engage staff under time and resource constraint environment. This is because one of the ways for staff engagement is through the online courses and learning resources. The results found that the online SDGs and Future Thinking course is a useful tool in enhancing academics’ sustainability/SDGs knowledge and understanding. It can further inform teaching and learning practice as well as pedagogy in NBS adding value to its good practice which already exists. This type of intervention can facilitate staff skills and competency development for embedding sustainability in management and business curriculum. The findings have implications beyond NBS as all the disciplines have a role to contribute to education for sustainable development

Measuring the impact of student knowledge exchange for sustainability: A systematic literature review and framework

Knowledge Exchange is a rapidly emerging phenomenon in the higher education sector. Nevertheless, it remains a niche area with limited studies examining the impact of knowledge exchange for sustainability on students. This research adopted a systematic literature review approach to review sustainability-oriented project-based learning and student knowledge exchange with a view to developing a framework to measure the impact of student knowledge exchange for sustainability. The literature review was based on 38 journal papers selected out of 3578 search results with an application of the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow chart methodology. A qualitative content analysis was used to identify and explore the main concepts and variables to evaluate the content of the articles selected by SLR. The results showed three main categories to be systematically measured to understand their impact: (i) capacity building, (ii) affective domain, and (iii) career readiness. Capacity building requires measuring students' sustainability knowledge, competence, and skill levels. The affective domain evaluates changes in students' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours identified as affective learning outcomes for sustainability. Career readiness assesses a student's level of preparation for the workplace. These variables/constructs informed the development of a framework to measure the impact of student KE for sustainability in a systematic and comprehensive way. The proposed framework is the study's main contribution, supporting measuring the impact of student knowledge exchange for sustainability. It provides a way to address impact holistically and define what specific variables/constructors should be measured to quantify students' impact

Developing Rigor and Reducing Prejudices in a Grounded Theory Studies

The aim of this paper is to discuss issues associated with the rigor and credibility of grounded theory studies. Grounded theory methodology which is widely used in the business and management studies has been criticised for its presumed prejudices and credibility issues when it comes to consideration of pre- & post-study literature. This paper addresses all those key issues and provide an effective review to overcome such partisan views, and enhance rigor when conducting a grounded theory study. The authors provide a critical evaluation of their recently conducted empirical study with practical examples to highlight the key issues including commentary on the significance of theoretical sensitivity and reflexivity in grounded theory study. The authors also discussed the types of prejudices expected, and how building up rapport could support during data collection process. The paper aims to guide potential grounded theorists and doctoral researchers to improve rigor in their work and meet academic requirements satisfactorily. The paper will contribute theoretically by highlighting various issues in practice which have not been highlighted extensively in the literature previously