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The main purpose of this study is aimed to estimate the mediating role of student engagement in the structural relationships between students' field of study choice, learning readiness and academic competence of undergraduate students in higher education.

In the study process, a correlational design was employed. Data were collected from 419 participants who were selected through a simple random sampling technique. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data.

The study findings showed neither field of study choice nor learning readiness has a significant direct effect on student's academic competence. However, when student engagement, entered the relationships between “field of study choice and academic competence” as well as “learning readiness and academic competence”, the indirect effects became significant. Both conditions, therefore, suggesting student engagement had a full mediation role in the structural relationship models.

Based on the results, it can be concluded that student engagement is shown as one of the key variables used to comprehend how students develop competence in the teaching-learning process. Hence, teachers and academic administrators could use engagement as a strong instrument to optimize students' learning and academic competence to enhance their academic success.

This study investigates the impact of large-scale teaching in higher education on students’ preparedness for the workforce within the context of evolving labour market demands, the expansion of higher education and the application of high-impact teaching strategies. It synthesizes perspectives on employer work readiness, the challenges and opportunities of large-scale teaching and strategies for fostering a dynamic academia-industry feedback loop. This multifaceted approach ensures the relevance of curricula and graduates’ preparedness while addressing the skills gap through practical recommendations for aligning teaching methodologies with employer expectations.

The research methodically examines the multifaceted challenges and opportunities inherent in large-scale teaching. It focuses on sustaining student engagement, maintaining educational quality, personalizing learning experiences and cultivating essential soft skills in extensive student cohorts.

This study highlights the critical role of transversal skills in work readiness. It also uncovers that despite its challenges, large-scale teaching presents unique opportunities. The diversity of large student groups mirrors modern workplace complexities, and technological tools aid in personalizing learning experiences. Approaches like peer networking, innovative teaching methods, real-world simulations and collaborative resource utilization enrich education. The importance of experiential learning for augmenting large-scale teaching in honing soft skills is emphasized.

This manuscript contributes to the discourse on large-scale teaching, aligning it with employer expectations and the dynamic requirements of the job market. It offers a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities this educational approach presents, providing insights for crafting engaging and effective learning experiences in large cohorts. The study uniquely integrates experiential learning, co-creation in education and industry-academia feedback loops, underscoring their importance in enhancing student work readiness in large-scale teaching.

Configuring strategies to ensure a health service provider’s resilience when extreme disruptions occur is not simple. Optimal configuration in such circumstances is rare. Therefore, this research has relied on the dynamic capability view (DCV) to develop a decision-support framework for configuring resilience strategies that will mitigate the worst challenges and improve the performance of health service providers during “extreme” disruptive events.

The research adopted a multi-study, multi-method approach comprising interviews, quality function deployment (QFD), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The findings reveal that, during a crisis, standalone resilience strategies are not enough. To guarantee performance, healthcare services require a combination of resilience strategies and a negation of challenges.

This research extends our current knowledge of healthcare operational management by offering optimal configurations of resilience strategies to manage performance during extreme disruptions. Thus, it offers strategic insights into how health-service managers can be more resilient during a crisis.

The current study investigates the factors influencing graduates’ perceived employability by utilizing the stimulus-organism-response theory, in the post pandemic era.

A quantitative approach was employed to examine the hypotheses of the research framework through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) on the SmartPLS software.

The result indicates that course structure has a positive effect on students’ grit and community of inquiry (CoI). Also, students’ grit and CoI have a positive relationship with students’ performance, while students’ performance has a positive relationship with perceived employability. Moreover, students’ grit, CoI and students’ performance sequentially mediated course structure and perceived employability, whereas readiness and self-directed learning strengthen the relationship between students’ performance and perceived employability.

The findings will benefit university management, government and potential employers on how confident the student is in the chances of a future career after graduating from a higher institution.

A lack of suitably qualified Building Information Modelling (BIM) professionals is understood to be a major barrier towards higher uptakes of BIM in the Australian construction industry. In response, Australian universities have tried to integrate the teaching of BIM into construction-related curricula, but with limited success. The acknowledged impediment is the lingering mismatch between what universities offer and what industry actually needs. However, the exact nature of that mismatch has yet to be identified. This study addresses that knowledge gap. It assesses both the current status of BIM competencies among university graduates and explores how BIM education at Australian universities may be improved to deliver BIM work readiness, as required by the industry.

This paper employed a qualitative research approach, utilizing 17 semi-structured interviews with experts in the Australian BIM industry. The Person-Organization (PO) fit theory, which emphasizes the congruence between individual and organizational characteristics, was utilized as a theoretical framework to examine the compatibility between “demand” and “ability” perspectives. The resulting data were analysed using this theoretical framework to gain insights into the PO fit perspectives in relation to BIM industry practices.

Findings reveal that graduates are generally competent regarding the use of BIM software. However, employers require much more than software skills, and expect recruits to have the capability to implement BIM as a process according to information management standards. Specifically, graduates are significantly deficient in matters of BIM protocols, collaboration and coordination, information workflows as well as completion and handover procedures.

This study is the first of its kind that bridges the gap between industry expectations and university education, in the Australian context, moving beyond the common discourse in education literature, which is exclusively focused on assessing students’ perceptions about BIM.

This paper aims to explore virtual simulations, merging artificial intelligence with real-world simulations, supporting Canadian armed forces (CAF) junior military leaders (JMLs) leadership development. Our research questions are: (1) How do virtual simulations support CAF junior military leadership development within a globalized and complex environment in the 21st century? (2) Could virtual simulations support a leadership culture change through efficacious “soft skills” training? In this paper, we explore the efficacy of virtual simulations for enhancing or developing leadership in JMLs in the CAF through a four-day pilot project with twenty JMLs (n = 20).

To assess the efficacy of virtual simulations for leadership development, we designed and studied a four-day leadership workshop for JMLs in the CAF using several virtual artificial intelligence leadership role-play simulations developed by McGraw Hill in their smart book textbook (Manning & Curtis, 2022) and several non-virtual in-class simulations for comparison. We selected four twenty to thirty-minute virtual role-play simulations that synergized with the in-person morning leadership workshop. We facilitated the three-hour leadership workshops and virtual/in-class simulations over four consecutive days. We emulated the ELESS model (De Freitas & Routledge, 2013) to assess soft and leadership skills.

The participants (JMLs) reported beneficial learning utility associated with the virtual simulations. Participants also expressed that further utility might be leveraged through virtual simulations incorporating greater complexity with multiple potential outcomes. They also suggested that leadership simulations designed around military situations would prove highly beneficial, something that was outside of the scope of this small pilot project.

Since this phase of our research is a pilot project, we secured a small amount of funding to test our hypothesis that simulations enhance leadership development for JMLs. These funding limitations resulted in several constraints in the research, such as the availability of virtual simulations articulating leadership from a military perspective. However, we believed the assigned organizational leadership simulations in the McGraw Hill Smart Book ecosystem would approximate generic leadership situations enough to test the hypothesis with the JMLs. As a pilot project, our sample size was relatively small (n = 20 JMLs) since participation was voluntary amidst a busy spring season for the JMLs. Since this is a pilot project, we suggest that twenty JMLs are an adequate sampling to test the hypothesis that simulations enhance JML leadership development. We will expand the sample size in the next phase of our research as we work with the CAF to expand the pool of participants to at least forty JML participants (n = 40). We also plan to secure further funding to collaborate with subject matter experts to design virtual simulations based on Canadian military leadership scenarios.

The CAF host robust simulations capabilities for combat training, but have not exploited the potential training and analytical capacity of virtual leadership simulations for leadership development within the CAF. We believe that virtual simulations provide an opportunity for the CAF to effect desired culture change through leadership development that leverages the substantial pedagogical benefits of simulations.

The CAF encountered several detrimental leadership scandals that eroded the reputational capital of the CAF. In the current geo-political climate of an expanding North American Treaty Organization (NATO) and threats from several international actors, the CAF seeks to expand its capabilities by adding and enhancing its human capital. However, the CAF currently experiences a significant gap in its human capital aspirations. There is a unanimous consensus that the endemic traditional culture of the CAF, as expressed in the recent explosive leadership scandals, is a deterrent to recruitment and thus weakens the CAF’s capability. The CAF targets leadership development with new leadership paradigms as pivotal to culture change. The CAF suggests that by enhancing leadership development in the CAF the new cadre of leadership will change the culture of the CAF and thereby enhance the reputational capital of the CAF. It is believed that this rejuvenated culture will lead to greater recruitment and retention, leading to a strengthened military. A strengthened military is important to provide effective support and protection for the Canadian people in these volatile and uncertain times. This expanded capacity will enable the CAF to address external military threats more effectively and also the increasing operations other than war (OOTW), such as the military support of long-term care facilities during COVID-19 or the military’s support in fighting record wildfires and the military’s support in climate change related disasters such as flooding.

The satisfaction measures indicated by the participants are typical evaluative measures of leadership development (Noe, 2023). These satisfaction ratings do not, however, indicate whether training has produced a change in behaviour (Brown, 2022). The implications of these outcomes for leadership education are that role-player simulations are useful leadership education and development tools because they provide a theatre of practice in which mistakes are not detrimental and serve as learning moments (Moore, 2012; Piro and O’Callaghan, 2021; Riotto, 2021). Further, the importance of role-player simulations that closely approximate the sector where leadership is experienced and practiced is perceived to enhance the experience. While the CAF invest in combat related simulations, but leadership development simulations are not as evident in the training and development array. This study seeks to assess their potential value as a leadership development tool within the wider context of character development as a leadership competency.

This study is an attempt to explore the determinants of entrepreneurial intentions in the context of family business background. There is a dearth of studies on the relationship between family business and entrepreneurial intentions. Three constructs of social cognitive theory (SCT) have been applied as mediators: self-efficacy, subjective norms and outcome expectations.

To measure entrepreneurial intentions, the data have been collected from the postgraduate students of three universities in Pakistan. The questionnaire was distributed among the respondents, and 416 complete responses were taken from the students. Simple random sampling has been applied, and measurement and hypothesized models are tested by using the structural equation modeling technique in WarpPLS.

The results of this research reveal that family business background significantly affects the three elements of SCT (self-efficacy, subjective norms and outcome expectations), which further develop the individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions (EIs). The results showed that social cognitive elements are the underpinning mechanism that explains the relationship between family business background and EIs.

The similarity of the study is less than 18%.

The aim of this paper is to explore how multi-national corporations (MNCs) can effectively adopt artificial intelligence (AI) into their talent acquisition (TA) practices. While the potential of AI to address emerging challenges, such as talent shortages and applicant surges in specific regions, has been anecdotally highlighted, there is limited empirical evidence regarding its effective deployment and adoption in TA. As a result, this paper endeavors to develop a theoretical model that delineates the motives, barriers, procedural steps and critical factors that can aid in the effective adoption of AI in TA within MNCs.

Given the scant empirical literature on our research objective, we utilized a qualitative methodology, encompassing a multiple-case study (consisting of 19 cases across seven industries) and a grounded theory approach.

Our proposed framework, termed the Framework on Effective Adoption of AI in TA, contextualizes the motives, barriers, procedural steps and critical success factors essential for the effective adoption of AI in TA.

This paper contributes to literature on effective adoption of AI in TA and adoption theory.

Additionally, it provides guidance to TA managers seeking effective AI implementation and adoption strategies, especially in the face of emerging challenges.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is unparalleled, being both grounded in theory and based on an expansive dataset that spans firms from various regions and industries. The research delves deeply into corporations' underlying motives and processes concerning the effective adoption of AI in TA.

In China, having a home before getting married is viewed as being a crucial indicator of the sincerity of romance. Despite recent increases in housing costs, men who have their homes ready for marriage stand out in the marriage market. This study aims to explore the association between readiness to marry, marriage age and the home that men purchase prior to marriage using the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, the first countrywide follow-up survey with the theme of labor force.

The authors suggest new standards for determining the marital residence. In addition, contrary to the existing literature, which focuses on “Sheng Nu” (women who do not marry by the traditional marriage age in China), the authors focus on “Sheng Nan” (men who do not marry by the traditional marriage age in China).

The results show that men who own a house before marriage are reluctant to get married. The authors document robust evidence that the preexistence of the marital house decreases the willingness to marry and postpones the marriage date, regardless of location and time.

The authors document robust evidence that the preexistence of the marital house decreases the willingness to marry and postpones the marriage date, regardless of location and time.

In this study, the authors explore students' and industry’s perceptions about the challenges and opportunities of participating in a large-scale, non-compulsory, individual, in-person and unpaid business placement programme at an Australian university. The placement programme aims to support students' workplace transition by emphasising the development of key employability skills through reflective learning and linking theory to practice.

Utilising a case study methodology and integrating survey questionnaires, the authors collected both quantitative and qualitative data with large sample sizes.

The results highlight curriculum areas for improvement, emphasising tailored feedback to manage placement expectations and addressing employability skill strengths and weaknesses.

Recommendations include co-partnering with students to develop short, tailored and hot tip videos along with online learning modules, including the presentation of evidence-based statistics to inform students about post-programme employment prospects.

The study contributes to benchmarking good practices in non-compulsory, individual, in-person and unpaid placement pedagogy within the business education context.