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The ongoing anthropological transformation urges the rethinking of education, underlining the inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with hypercomplexity, that is, with the global extension of all political, social, and cultural processes and with their indeterminacy, interdependence, and interconnection. The idea that educational processes are questions of a purely technical/technological nature, solely a problem of skills and know-how, is the “great mistake” of the hypertechnological society, based on the illusion of being able to measure and quantify everything, to eliminate error and unpredictability, and to achieve total control and rationality. It is necessary to rethink education radically because the extraordinary scientific discoveries and the dynamics of the new technologies have completely overturned the complex interaction between biological and cultural evolution, doing away with the borders between the natural and the artificial. Emergence and emergency themselves are structural features of complex systems (living, social, and human systems), rendered hypercomplex through today’s acceleration and virality, regarding not only education and socialization but also the representations and perceptions of all systemic processes. The merging of fields of knowledge and an epistemology of error become essential for the analysis and interpretation of this hypercomplexity and the unpredictability that distinguishes it.

Purpose: This chapter is based on risk management of the insurance sector with reinsurance as its linchpin. Such is the importance of the insurance sector that its risk management must be considered.

Need for the study: Risk management of various sectors is gaining much attention. The insurance sector, known to manage the risk of multiple sectors, also requires its own chance to be controlled with the same or even more intensity. Considering the importance of reinsurance coupled with the dependency of primary insurers on reinsurers and the absence of research on reinsurers, the need to conduct a comprehensive study on the topic is felt.

Methodology: It will be a conceptual chapter based on the rigorous literature on the topic integrated with the researcher’s insights to bring forth the framework of reinsurers for the readers.

Findings: It is found that insurers can themselves become the victims of the financial crisis in case they insure risks that surpass their economic boundaries. Not only this, the failure of insurance companies can have a ripple effect on the country’s economy. Therefore, insurers must possess financial resilience; to remain so, they need to have prudent management of the risk they are undertaking.

Practical implications: The study covers a relatively less researched area of reinsurance and hence has a vast scope of research in the future. The study would be helpful to stakeholders like regulators and primary insurers. It will unveil the paradigm of reinsurance and enlighten the stakeholders on how to use it effectively.

Organizations are full of contradictions and leadership dilemmas. Managers often face challenges such as selecting between two contradicting options such that which one is more important can hardly be judged. To manage contradicting dynamics, today’s managers can adopt the paradoxical leadership approach. We build a theoretical model to investigate the influence of paradoxical leadership on multi-dimensional project agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resilience), and multi-dimensional project success (management, investment, and ownership success).

Drawing on survey-based data from the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) megaproject (N = 209), we performed covariance-based structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

The findings show that (1) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive impact on megaproject success, (2) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive influence on project agility, (3) project agility has a significant positive effect on megaproject success, and (4) project agility has a significant effect that mediates the link between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success. This research provides a theoretical and practical comprehension of paradoxical leadership with a new perspective on megaprojects.

This study provides an extension of the existing studies on paradoxical leadership and identifies the role of contradicting dynamics and their impact on multiple facets of megaproject success. It not only clarifies the relationship between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success, but also identifies the mediating role of project agility that can play an effective role in mobilizing success in megaprojects.

In this study, a different approach is introduced to generate the kinetic sub-model for the modeling of solid-state pyrolysis reactions based on the thermogravimetric (TG) experimental data over a specified range of heating rates. Gene Expression Programming (GEP) is used to produce a correlation for the single-step global reaction rate as a function of determining kinetic variables, namely conversion, temperature, and heating rate.

For a case study on the coal pyrolysis, a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.99 was obtained using the generated model according to the experimental benchmark data. Comparison of the model results with the experimental data proves the applicability, reliability, and convenience of GEP as a powerful tool for modeling purposes in the solid-state pyrolysis reactions.

The resulting kinetic sub-model takes advantage of particular characteristics, to be highly efficient, simple, accurate, and computationally attractive, which facilitates the CFD simulation of real pyrolizers under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions.

It should be emphasized that the above-mentioned manuscript is not under evaluation in any journals and submitted exclusively for consideration for possible publication in this journal. The generated kinetic model is in the final form of an algebraic correlation which, in comparison to the conventional kinetic models, suggests several advantages: to be relatively simpler, more accurate, and numerically efficient. These characteristics make the proposed model computationally attractive when used as a sub-model in CFD applications to simulate real pyrolizers under complex heating conditions.

Purpose: Since its inception in 1987, the literature on the VUCA that represents the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the business environment has progressively increased. This study systematically evaluates the vast literature on the VUCA world. Since review-based studies have been criticised as biased, this study uniquely amalgamates bibliometric analysis with content analysis, thereby taking a research triangulation discourse.

Need of the Study: This study was conducted to consolidate the literature about the VUCA environment and uncover the foundational and emerging themes for future research agendas.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study conducts a performance analysis and science mapping of 193 carefully selected articles (using PRISMA) published in various sources during 2012–2023. Articles for the study were procured from the SCOPUS database. While performance analysis focused on analysing publication and citation evolution, thematic evolution, leading publications, country publication analysis, and most relevant authors and sources. On the other hand, science mapping revealed conceptual structures (keyword plus co-occurrence analysis and thematic maps) and intellectual structures (co-authorship analysis). VOSviewer and Biblioshiny (R-tool for comprehensive science mapping) were used for this study’s choice of application.

Findings: This chapter concludes with future research agendas using content analysis of the ‘scope for the future research’ section of selected publications and bibliographic coupling (to unearth emerging themes).

Practical Implications: The work presented in this chapter will help the researchers gain a structured conceptual, intellectual, and social understanding of the vast literature on the VUCA environment.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a scoping review of the advantages and challenges of extra care housing (ECH) provision in the UK for people living with dementia. Access to suitable housing is a fundamental right for people living with dementia and can enable people to live as well as possible (Twyford and Porteus, 2021). Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different models of housing with care has been identified as a research priority by people living with dementia (Barrett et al., 2016) but “there is no current consensus on the best model of specialist housing for people with dementia” (Twyford and Porteus, 2021, p. 29).

This scoping review identifies the advantages and disadvantages of living in ECH for people with dementia. It is the preliminary stage of a study that seeks to develop knowledge about different models of ECH for people living with dementia (Atkinson et al., 2021).

Advantages include the promotion of independence, flexible staffing, safety and security, social inclusion, physical design and integrated service provision. Disadvantages include barriers to entry, tensions between independence and support, managing advanced dementia, resourcing flexible care, managing social exclusion, loneliness and stigma and a disabling environment.

The scoping review reinforces the need for further research into different models of ECH provision in the UK for people living with dementia. The review provides insight that is of benefit to all stakeholders involved in ECH and contributes to the development of evidence-based provision called for in the recent All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry (Twyford and Porteus, 2021).

This scoping review summarises the current position for people living with dementia in ECH.

Purpose: The prominence of quality education for building sustainable development is undeniable and is distinctly pointed out in 1 of the 14 sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the same context, this study intends to investigate the role of university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, student satisfaction, and perceived employability in enhancing sustainability in higher education.

Need of the Study: To evaluate how student satisfaction mediates the relationship between university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, and perceived employability with sustainable university institutes.

Methodology: An adapted questionnaire was used in this study to capture the perception of 458 management graduates selected through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse the data with the help of Smart PLS software.

Findings: The results of this study show that student satisfaction is the strongest predictor of sustainable university institutes. University commitment was found to lead to student satisfaction significantly. Furthermore, student satisfaction wasn’t found to play the role of mediator in the proposed model.

Practical Implications: This study aims to fulfil theoretical, research, and management implications for students, higher education institutes (HEIs), and policymakers. HEIs are recommended to instil university commitment, perceived organisational prestige and student satisfaction via various practices and amendments in their curriculum. Students are recommended to enhance their perceived employability to achieve career sustainability.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and attachment theory, this paper proposes that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance mediate the influence of workplace attachment on service recovery performance.

Data collection was carried out through the distribution of questionnaires among a sample of healthcare providers from Lebanese private hospitals and analyzed via structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that workplace attachment has a significant impact on employee–organization relationship, satisfaction with work–life balance and service recovery performance. The findings further reveal that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance significantly influence service recovery performance and fully mediate the relationship between workplace attachment and service recovery performance.

This study is the first to investigate the mediating role of the employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance between workplace attachment and service recovery performance. Over and above, this study is the first of its kind that the authors are aware of, being conducted in the healthcare sector, specifically in Lebanon. Based on the findings, the paper discusses the theoretical contributions, managerial implications and suggestions for further studies.

In this chapter, we consider the possibility that a firm may use costly resources to improve its technical efficiency. Results from static analyses imply that technical efficiency is determined by the configuration of factor prices. A dynamic model of the firm is developed under the assumption that managerial skill contributes to technical efficiency. Dynamic analysis shows that the firm can never be technically efficient if it maximizes profits, the steady state is always inefficient, and it is locally stable. In terms of empirical analysis, we show how likelihood-based methods can be used to uncover, in a semi-non-parametric manner, important features of the inefficiency-management relationship using a flexible functional form accounting for the endogeneity of inputs in a production function. Managerial compensation can also be identified and estimated using the new techniques. The new empirical methodology is applied in a data set previously analyzed by Bloom and van Reenen (2007) on managerial practices of manufacturing firms in the UK, US, France and Germany.

The purpose of this paper was to understand the difficulties related to asset management observed by experts in Brazilian organizations in light of the requirements outlined in the ISO 55001:2014 standard.

A survey was performed with asset management experts. The collected data were analyzed using frequency analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to deal solution (TOPSIS).

Based on data analysis, the most critical difficulties observed were related to managing and controlling the impact of changes in the company that affect asset management objectives; to the committing to and supporting the asset management system by the top management of the organization; to manage the processes for dealing with risks and opportunities for the asset management system and plans, and correcting failures in asset performance; and to plan and conduct actions in an integrated manner to identify and minimize adverse impacts associated with the asset management system, and afterwards verifying their effectiveness.

The findings of this study have important theoretical and practical contributions, since they indicate the most critical points observed in asset management in Brazil, which can be used as a source for future research and by professionals to prioritize difficulties in future planning and develop action plans to overcome them. The step-by-step methodological approach presented in this study provides professionals and researchers with a replicable method of identifying potential asset management difficulties in a given specific reality.