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The purpose of this paper is to measure the effect of superstar gig workers, defined as independent contractors who are the most successful in their field, on shareholder value. Gig workers comprise as much as 33% of the workforce and are projected to exceed 50% by 2028. Thus, understanding their impact on shareholder value is important.

This paper uses OLS regression analysis. To establish causality regarding wealth effects, the sudden deaths of superstar gig workers are used. To facilitate the uncontaminated measurement of wealth effects, sudden deaths that coincide with a significant event on a [−3, 3] window about the death event are not used.

The sudden death of a superstar gig worker causes shareholder wealth to increase significantly by 0.35% or almost $1.5m. Rational and behavioral explanations are offered for this result.

Generalizability is limited because data on superstar gig workers in traditional corporations are unavailable. For this reason, this paper uses the only available data, namely, data on superstar wrestlers, who are contracted to perform in matches (i.e. “gigs”) in a lucrative promotion (e.g. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)). Future research could examine the effect of corporate gig workers on shareholder value if the data become available at some point.

This paper is the first to document the effects of any type of gig worker, whether superstar or regular, on shareholder value.

Much current Japanese popular discussion centres on the sudden death, at an early age, of Japan′s hard‐working, white‐collar workers: Karoshi (death from overwork) – Salaryman′s Sudden Death Syndrome. Officially, it does not exist, as the government and big business are hesitant to acknowledge the phenomenon in light of the growing need to become more productive. The current recessionary pressure and growing shortage of labour in Japan has exposed this social phenomenon. Describes karoshi, defines the extent of the phenomenon, explores changes that are occurring in Japan′s workforce and analyses the impact on Japan.

Much current Japanese popular discussion centres around the sudden death, at an early age, of Japan′s hard‐working white‐collar workers: karoshi – death from overwork – or Salaryman′s Sudden Death Syndrome. Officially it does not exist as the Government and big business are hesitant to legitimatize the phenomenon because of the response which, both local and international, it would evoke. Nonetheless, it is a common phenomenon. Describes karoshi, defines the extent of the phenomenon, and analyses its future impact on Japan and the world.

This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.

Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.

Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.

Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.

This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.

This study sheds light on a hitherto understudied group in family business literature: widows. We explore the roles a widow may take following the unexpected death of her owner-manager spouse when she had no salient role in the business prior to the death.

We used a qualitative approach to research, to study inductively the roles considered and taken by three widows who unexpectedly succeeded as owners of Swedish privately held family firms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with widows and children in top management.

We construct a typology of four main roles a widow can take and analyse the underlying dimensions that they represent. We also analyse to which extent the choice of role widow can be explained by psychological ownership and double-loss theory. The typology can be used as a tool for family business owners and their advisors as the basis of an open and non-prejudiced discussion of the choices available to a widow.

We have investigated the factors that influence a widow's decision whether to take over the business or not, as suggested in previous research by, for example, Martinez et al. (2009). We explore the roles a widow can consider and adopt. The study advances our understanding of how businesses can remain as family firms also in the event of the unexpected death of an owner-manager (De Massis et al., 2008). We hereby contribute to the literature on sudden successions and on women in family businesses.

COVID-19 lockdown imposed by the government in India affected markets, factories, industries, construction sites, restaurants, transport services, etc. in which migrant workers were engaged. Migrant workers expected that after the imposition of the lockdown government will facilitate transportation facilities to their hometowns as they lost their jobs. But due to negligence from both the central and the state governments, neither transportation was arranged nor food, shelter or health facilities were arranged. This paper aims to investigate the causes of the death of migrant workers under the theoretical framework of negligence theory.

The authors have applied the content analysis method and collected 926 death cases of migrant workers from 28 Indian states. The researchers applied this technique as the newspapers in India are one of the largest and most useful sources to generate a report/record on migrant workers causes during the COVID-19 lockdown. During the lockdown period, due to lack of attention from the government, police atrocities, hunger and accidental cases increased which resulted in the death of migrant workers.

The finding of the study proves that during the first phase of COVID-19 lockdown the death cases of migrant workers increased due to negligence by the governments. The number of death cases of migrant workers has been analysed through applying negligence theory which included duty, breach, cause, in fact, proximate cause and harm which increased the death cases. It has been noticed that the central government without any prior notice-imposed lockdown all over India, in which all the states were not received any guidelines or communication which indicate what they have to do or how to handle the Covid-19 situation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original work of researchers which is basically based on negligence theory.

Approximately 1,750–2,000 children die in the United States annually because of child abuse or neglect. Official statistics show that women are more often the perpetrators of abuse and neglect-related deaths, even though child welfare professionals largely attribute these deaths to men. Either acting alone or with another individual, mothers are responsible for roughly 60% of deaths and either together or alone, fathers are responsible for roughly 40% of deaths. Despite the consistency of this information, it is not widely accepted by child welfare workers – the professional group whose job it is to identify risk factors and to protect children from harm. Previous research shows that workers are more likely to believe that men are responsible for children’s deaths and that deaths are perpetrated by non-family members. In this chapter, we explore the potential explanations for workers’ misperceptions including the role of gender norms, ideology, confusion concerning how children die, and also which kinds of cases result in criminal charges and thus, shape the public’s understanding of fatal child maltreatment. Incomplete and inadequate information about the perpetration of maltreatment deaths potentially puts children at risk for future fatalities. Implications for child welfare and social service professionals, their training, and practice are discussed.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.