Review Of Empirical Research Research Articles

The Impact of Intellectual Capital on Enterprise Performance in Saudi Arabia: Literature Review of Empirical Research

Physical assets such as buildings, plants, and so on, are important factors in the production era, but their importance has decreased with increased the importance of intangible assets in the knowledge era. In the knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital (IC) is one of the most important assets in an enterprise for achieving sustainable competitive advantages. As a result, research on the correlation between IC and enterprise performance (EP) and its role in achieving competitive advantage has become one of the most controversial topics in accounting globally. The findings of the empirical research have been inconsistent; there is no consensus on the effect of IC on the enterprise's performance due to the different definitions and methods of measuring IC used among researchers. The paper focuses on reviewing empirical research about the effect of IC on EP in Saudi Arabia, aiming at a presentation of recent developments and a discussion of the direction for future research. This paper is the first study to review empirical research on IC and EP in the Saudi context.

Vocational Didactics: Mapping the Terrain in Swedish Upper Secondary Vocational Education and Training

Purpose: The article focuses on the contribution of didactics and didactic theory as a distinct strand in research on vocational education and training (VET). Empirical research is reviewed to further explore what characterizes vocational didactics in the Swedish context of Upper Secondary VET. Approach: Semi-structured and flexible review methodology was used to identify didactic research and map its emergent features. An analytic framework was constructed for this purpose and used iteratively throughout the review process. The framework expresses the constitutive simultaneous interdependence of the relationships A-B-C. They refer to A) the ways of how the actors engage with the content as meaning and matter or relationship between the actors and the content, B) the relationship between the actors and the method through interaction with the content, and C) relationship between the methods embedded in work tasks and school assignments and how they underpin the content. A total of 26 sources was identified and thematized as school-based vocational didactics, collaborative vocational didactics, and work-based vocational didactics. Findings: Four distinct features of vocational didactics in Upper Secondary Vocational Education and Training (USVET) are outlined: 1) Diversification of the use of simulation as a method in school-based education pointing to vocational knowledge and skills 2) broadening of instruction (and reflection) as a method by inclusion of several parties (e.g., supervisors, workplace staff, instructors-practitioners), 3) work tasks as a method pointing to vocational knowledge and skills as content, 4) interaction between several parties using verbal and non-verbal means. Despite a growing interest in the importance of work tasks in their dual affordance of meaning and matter, few sources deal with students' learning processes in alignment with the logic of the production of goods and services. Conclusion: The analytic framework we have put forth strengthens the conceptual boundaries of vocational didactics from a point of view of profession-related learning objectives (content), actors, and methods involved. Applying the didactic theories to review empirical research on VET strengthens the integrity of vocational didactics as a particular field.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance in Shariah Banks: A Review

This review explores the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financial performance in Shariah banks. Shariah banks, operating under Islamic principles, face unique challenges and opportunities in integrating CSR into their operations. The essay reviews empirical research on the correlation between CSR initiatives and financial performance in Shariah banks, highlighting studies indicating a positive relationship, potential benefits, and stakeholder satisfaction. Counterarguments and conflicting findings are also addressed, acknowledging challenges and limitations. The review discusses the reputational advantages of CSR, including enhanced brand image, customer loyalty, and attraction of socially responsible investors. Moreover, it explores how CSR initiatives align with Islamic values, strengthening the bank's position within the Muslim community. The essay further delves into the challenges faced by Shariah banks in implementing CSR, ensuring compliance with Islamic principles while meeting regulatory requirements. It also addresses potential conflicts between CSR practices and financial goals, emphasizing the need for careful balance and alignment. Lastly, the review explores resource constraints and cost considerations for smaller Shariah banks and proposes strategies for overcoming these challenges. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between CSR and financial performance in Shariah banks, offering insights into the significance and implications of CSR integration in the Islamic finance industry.

Institutional ownership and board governance. A structured literature review on the heterogeneous monitoring role of institutional investors

PurposeThis paper aims to review empirical research on the relationship between institutional ownership (IO) and board governance (85 studies).Design/methodology/approachBased on agency and upper echelons theory, the heterogeneous monitoring function of specific types and the nature of institutional investors on board composition, compensation and chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics will be focused.FindingsThe author found that most studies have referred to archival studies, analyzed the impact of board governance on IO, focused on CEO characteristics, neglected IO heterogeneity and advanced regression models to address endogeneity concerns. In line with the theoretical framework, the relationship between total IO and board governance is heterogeneous. However, specific types such as foreign, dedicated and pressure-resistant institutions represent active monitoring tools and push for increased board governance.Research limitations/implicationsThe author provided useful recommendations for future research from a content and methodological perspective, e.g. the need for analyzing the impact of IO on sustainable board governance and other characteristics of top management team members, e.g. the chief financial officer.Practical implicationsAs many regulatory bodies implemented regulations to promote shareholder rights and board governance, this literature review highlights the connections of both corporate governance mechanisms. Managers should conduct a careful and timely investor analysis and change the composition and compensation of the board of directors in line with institutional investors’ preferences.Originality/valueThis analysis makes useful contributions to prior research by focusing on IO and board governance, whereas the author structured the heterogeneous variables and results within the structured literature review. The authors guides researchers, regulatory bodies and business practice in this corporate governance topic.

Gregory Hadley and Andrew Boon: Critical Thinking

Critical thinking (CT) was an obligatory pedagogical requirement in composition courses in the USA some years ago. As theoretical paradigms expanded and diverse identarian groups made their voices heard in pedagogy (from different gender, race, ethnicity, and disability orientations), the pedagogical concerns became diversified and CT as a slogan lost its lustre. Teachers and scholars were also critical of CT’s perfunctory and aspirational uses in many language teaching programmes, lacking the critical edge for meaningful educational and social changes. However, with the rise of social media, partisan politics, and biased news, truth has become relativized if not weaponized to favour every group’s own reality. Hadley and Boon raise these recent political and cultural developments to make a persuasive case for more sustained and sustainable pedagogies on CT. More importantly, they provide a manual on how to do it. Though I have been a practitioner of critical pedagogies for many years, I find the treatment of this book, unlike anything I have come across. While many of us introduced CT activities to supplement our required textbooks, assuming that reliable materials and pedagogies were not available, Hadley and Boon review empirical research that has been conducted to assess effective practices. There is much CT research and scholarship out there that I didn’t know of. The book is structured into four parts: that is, From Research to Implications; From Implications to Application; From Application to Implementation; and From Implementation to Research. Rather than making teachers rely on their book for pedagogical pronouncements, the authors introduce the final section on teacher research to help teachers conduct their own assessment of relevant CT practices and development of better contextualized pedagogies. The third section on programme and policy development is also thoughtful as it helps teachers who might want to expand their classroom pedagogies to develop whole courses or new programmes across departments in their institutions. Thus, the book scaffolds CT in available research, policy, and classroom practices. All this is achieved in an accessible prose where philosophers and practitioners, of ancient and contemporary times, ranging from Francis Bacon and John Dewey to Edward Said and Claire Kramsch, make appearances.

A systematic review of measures of employability

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on the measurement of employability, conducted in a 23-year period from 2000 to 2022.Design/methodology/approachA systematic and extensive search of the literature was conducted to select a set of studies that fit the inclusion criteria and addressed the research questions. These studies were conducted worldwide and published anytime from 2000 to 2022. The process of data extraction involved a tabulation of common themes across the studies. Thereafter, the data from the studies were analysed and interpreted to arrive at the findings.FindingsThe findings of this paper show variations in the measures of employability with respect to location, data points, domains and indicators of employability applied. Based on the type of indicators of employability applied, the studies can be categorised as those applying subjective indicators, objective indicators or a combination of the two.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper observed that there has been a great focus on measuring employability using subjective indicators. However, in order to help individuals face the unpredictability of fractious labour markets, going ahead, this measure will not be sufficient. Empirical research needs to focus on applying holistic measures of employability combining both subjective and objective indicators.Originality/valueThis paper presents a detailed categorisation of measures of employability. Thereby, the paper provides useful insights to help practitioners choose a suitable measure of employability for future studies. The paper also makes a case for widening the scope of present measures to apply the construct of employability effectively.

Can Holistic Education Solve the World’s Problems: A Systematic Literature Review

UNESCO argues that having a holistic approach to education is essential to address global development challenges. However, what empirical evidence do we have about holistic education practices? This study aims to review empirical research on holistic education. The methodological design is a systematic review study following the PRISMA guidelines based on a search of the Scopus and Semantic Scholar databases carried out in December 2021. The selected studies were analysed through a qualitative three-stage screening process based on 218 subjects, 9 of which were included in the final sample. The following inclusion criteria were used: empirical studies or research in English; free access via the internet; and categories limited to “holistic/education/curriculum/pedagogy”. The qualitative analysis of the articles based on the interpretative paradigm and the open coding method was implemented in MAXQDA. The study shows a lack of large-scale quantitative and comparative research showing the benefits of holistic education, its impact on personal and social transformation, and the preparation of teachers to become holistic educators. There is a lack of research analysing the effect of holistic education on environmental awareness compared with traditional education.

Appreciating social science research on gratitude: An integrative review for organizational scholarship on gratitude in the workplace

SummaryThough gratitude research in organizational behavior (OB) is nascent, this emotion has a rich history in the social sciences. Research has shown gratitude to promote prosocial behaviors, encourage personal well‐being, and foster interpersonal relationships. However, gratitude research has been siloed among these three outcomes of gratitude (moral, wellness, and relational). Similarly, past reviews of gratitude have focused on only one group of outcomes, one of its forms (trait, state, or expressed), or empirical findings without emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings. In contrast, this review recognizes that each type of gratitude, its functions, and outcomes are part of a single process model of gratitude. As such, in the current review, we provide a comprehensive assessment of gratitude in the social sciences by distilling and organizing the literature per our process model of episodic gratitude. Then, we translate the insights for management scholars, highlighting possible differences and synergies between extant research and workplace gratitude thereby helping advance “gratitude science” in the workplace. In all, this review (a) examines definitions and operationalizations of gratitude and provides recommendations for organizational research; (b) proposes a process model of episodic workplace gratitude as a conceptual map to guide future OB research on gratitude; (c) reviews empirical gratitude research through the lens of our process model; and (d) discusses the current state of the literature, important differences for workplace gratitude, and future directions for organizational scholars.

Group Positive Affect and Beyond: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda.

Group positive affect is defined as homogeneous positive affect among group members that emerges when working together. Considering that previous research has shown a significant relationship between group positive affect and a wide variety of group outcomes (e.g., behaviors, wellbeing, and performance), it is crucial to boost our knowledge about this construct in the work context. The main purpose is to review empirical research, to synthesize the findings and to provide research agenda about group positive affect, in order to better understand this construct. Through the PsycNET and Proquest Central databases, an integrative review was conducted to identify articles about group positive affect published between January 1990 and March 2019. A total of 44 articles were included and analyzed. Finding suggests that scholars have been more interested in understanding the outcomes of group positive affect and how to improve the productivity of groups than in knowing what the antecedents are. A summary conclusion is that group positive affect is related to leadership, job demands, job resources, diversity/similarity, group processes, and contextual factors, all of which influence the development of several outcomes and different types of wellbeing at the individual and group levels. However, with specific combinations of other conditions (e.g., group trust, negative affect, and interaction), high levels of group positive affect could cause harmful results. Conclusions shed light on group positive affect research and practice and might help Human Resources professionals to initiate empirically-based strategies related to recruitment, group design and leadership training.

A Review of the Impact of Green Building Certification on the Cash Flows and Values of Commercial Properties

This study aims to review empirical research concerning the impact of green certificates on property cash flows and values, particularly from professional property investors’ perspective. The study uses discounted cash flows (DCF), a widely used property valuation method in income-generating properties, as a methodological framework. In this study, over 70 peer-reviewed studies were identified, categorized, and analyzed in the DCF framework. The reviewed studies indicated that certificates might increase the rental income and decrease the operating expenses, vacancy, and risks of a property. Together with the brand value of certificates, these enhancements should lead to an increase in property value. The number of studies has grown rapidly during the 2010s. Lately, studies have developed from asset-level to portfolio-level examinations. Although the reviewed studies found certification to be beneficial, the range of reported benefits was wide, and over half of the studies concentrated on U.S. commercial real estate markets, with a strong focus on LEED and ENERGY STAR certificates. From a property valuation perspective, applying these results to other markets and certificates might be challenging. Property values that fully reflect the environmental performance of properties would be a key to motivate mainstream investors to adopt sustainable property features.

Understanding and measuring emotions in technology-rich learning environments

Technology-rich learning environments (TREs) play an increasingly important role for 21st century education, and the emotions learners experience in these environments are pivotal for their cognitive and affective learning gains. The contributors to this special issue address the importance of understanding and measuring emotions in TREs as a mechanism for fostering learning. In particular, the special issue situates this research with a systemic review and meta-analysis of the literature on emotions in TREs. Following this review empirical research is presented on measuring emotions in the context of learning with TREs in multiple domains, including medicine, history, and mathematics. These researchers use concurrent measures to capture students’ cognitive, metacognitive and affective processes before, during, and after solving problems, documenting the complex role of such processes as individuals and groups learn with technology. The special issue concludes with two commentaries that point the way to next steps in this field of research.

Empirical Research on Political Marketing: a Selected Review

This article reviews empirical research on political marketing. The goal of this selective review is to provide an overview of this body of research that crosses fields including economics, political science, marketing, information systems, and communications in order to make it easier for newcomers to quickly identify key papers and understand the state of the field. The review takes the perspective of the marketing literature and includes a discussion of data sources, modeling and methodological issues, and some selected, prominent topics.

Opportunities for the Adoption of Health-Based Sustainable Dietary Patterns: A Review on Consumer Research of Meat Substitutes

This article reviews empirical research on consumers’ adoption of meat substitutes published up to spring 2018. Recent meat substitutes often have sustainable characteristics in line with consumers’ concerns over aspects of healthy food and the environmental impact of food production. However, changing lifestyles with less time for cooking, any transition from a strongly meat-based to a more plant-based diet depends on the successful establishment of convenient meat substitutes. This article reviews the growing body of research on meat substitutes. These research articles were classified into five different stages in line with the innovation-decision process of: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. The research was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, with results suggesting that although health, environmental and animal welfare aspects can persuade consumers and influence their decision to try a meat substitute, the appearance and taste of those meat substitutes are crucial factors for their consumption on a regular basis. However, there still remains a gap in research articles focusing on the regular consumption of meat substitutes.

刁晏斌 (Diao, Yanbin). 2018. 《全球华语的理论建构与实证研究》(Theoretical Construction and Empirical Research in Global Chinese). Beijing: Sinolingua.

This article reviews Theoretical Construction and Empirical Research in Global Chinese 978-7-5138-1525-3

Knowledge and Distrust May Go a Long Way in the Battle With Disinformation: Mental Processes of Spontaneous Disbelief

A common claim is that people have an easier time accepting information than rejecting it, resulting in gullibility. In this article, I review empirical research demonstrating how the human mind is equipped with successful and spontaneous rejection processes that may protect us from disinformation.

Protecting privacy to protect mental health: the new ethical imperative

Confidentiality is a central bioethical principle governing the provider–patient relationship. Dating back to Hippocrates, new laws have interpreted it for the age of precision medicine and electronic medical records. This...

Use of the ARCS model in education: A literature review

This article reviews empirical research on applying the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model to real educational settings, including computer-based learning approaches. This review focuses on three aspects: (1) how the ARCS model was applied to what specific educational settings; (2) what research methods were used; and (3) what outcomes were reported in these studies. Our findings indicate that the ARCS model was applied to a variety of countries and educational settings. The course component(s) in which the ARCS model was incorporated included single course component (e.g. course email), multiple course components, and other programs (e.g. specific software or game). Quantitative methods were used more than qualitative and mixed methods in these reviewed studies. Four major research outcomes were found in regard to participants’ affective domain, cognitive domain, learning behaviors, and psychological traits. We also summarized the studies in this review and provided future research directions. The latter includes applications of design-based research to educational problems that the ARCS model might address, especially in the context of computer-based learning.

The role of parent-initiated motivational climate in the development of overtraining syndrome in adolescent elite athletes: a review study

Parents are not only gatekeepers to sport, they have significant influence on how young athlete perceives and interprets the sport experience. Their influence is mediated through the parent-initiated motivational climate and is not limited to sport environment, but also to non-sport environment. The quality of parent-child relationship is considered to be a predictor of motivation, level of perceived stress and enjoyment of activities in young athlete. It is supposed overtraining as a multifactorial in nature and that non-sport stress may be a contributing factor. The main purpose of this study is to review empirical research works examining the parent-initiated motivational climate in the context of youth elite sport and its potential influence on young elite athlete. Moreover, the study provides theoretical background of the parent-initiated motivational climate in the context of sport participation. This study reviewed empirical research works of quantitative and qualitative research design. From all searched works from 1992 to 2016, fourteen studies fulfilled set requirements. Two qualitative studies focusing on the parent-initiated motivational climate and its relation to overtraining were found out. These studies supported the assumption that non-sport stress contribute in the development of overtraining. Even though no research studies with quantitative research design examining this relationship were found out, they supported the relationship between parent-initiated motivational climate and psychological outcomes associated with sport participation, such as maladaptive behavioural patterns, that are considered to be risks factors to overtraining.

A Relationship between Stakeholder Management and Business Performance in the Czech Republic

The quality of a relationship with stakeholders is often perceived as a way to a competitive advantage of a company. In other words, many authors have defended a hypothesis that the application of stakeholder management leads to a higher business performance. However, empirical verification of such a hypothesis is not trivial. In the first place, the operationalization of the stakeholder management, quality of the relationship towards stakeholders or the importance of stakeholders is a challenge by itself. This article therefore aims to review empirical research of the relationship between stakeholder management and performance of companies located in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, the authors conclude that studies with factual results from the Czech Republic are almost none. Only two studies explicitly examine the relationship between stakeholder management and business performance. On top of that, both of these studies suffer from an inadequate research design.

Expatriate support and success

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on the relationship between organization-based social support and the success of international assignments (IAs).Design/methodology/approachFour search engines were used to obtain empirical studies relating organization-based social support to success criteria. Studies were compared based on type of theoretical foundation, criteria of success, source of social support and study design.FindingsThe reviewed studies draw on three theoretical paradigms – based on stress, social capital and relational exchange. The results demonstrate that expatriates receive social support from multiple organization-based sources and that these sources’ proximity to the expatriate influences the relationship between social support and success. Regarding geographical proximity, sources in the home and host countries fulfil different supportive functions and therefore stimulate different success criteria. Additionally, the success criteria stimulated by organizational support depend on the type of supportive practices offered. The impact of support from organizational members is further influenced by their hierarchical proximity to the expatriate, with supervisory support relating most strongly to success. In addition to proximity, characteristics of the expatriating employee and the assignment (e.g. expatriate motivation and assignment hardship) influence the value of social support. Finally, social support relates most strongly to expatriates’ satisfaction, commitment, and adjustment and these frequently mediate its effect on expatriates’ retention and performance.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough only organization-based sources were considered, this review demonstrates that a multidimensional perspective is warranted when examining the effects of social support during IAs.Practical implicationsThis review provides insights into the ways organizations could and should assist (self-initiated) expatriates when aiming for specific outcomes.Originality/valueThis in-depth examination of social support in the work environment of expatriates combines several theoretical paradigms and investigates multiple criteria of success.