Search Results (18)

The reversal of the trend towards the decline in income inequality in the last four decades in most countries has created favorable grounds for the rise of nationalist and anti-globalization sentiments. Economic failures of countries, groups of people and individuals are among important factors that cause nationalism. The rise of nationalism in many countries in recent decades, as measured by the decline in the “pride in your own country” indicator from the World Values Survey, is statistically significantly related to the change in income inequality (Gini coefficient) within the country. When globalization is properly managed, it is good for growth and income distribution and does not lead to nationalism. But if it is accompanied by the decline in real incomes for large masses of people, nationalist political forces have additional arguments for instigating anti-globalization and isolationist sentiments. The rise in income inequality within major countries since the 1980s poses a threat not only to social stability, but also to globalization. Full article

Clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies are essential for bridging local research efforts with broader populations, facilitating the transfer of valuable insights and solutions. This study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators affecting clinical trials in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of key personnel within the pharmaceutical industry and Contract Research Organizations (CROs). We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine participants, which provided a holistic understanding of the intricate dynamics shaping the landscape of clinical trials in the country. The analysis revealed three prominent themes: operational challenges, complexities in navigating approval hurdles, and the unique value proposition for conducting clinical trials in Saudi Arabia. The participants expressed pride in the local infrastructure but acknowledged existing flaws, particularly in regulatory processes that contribute to delays in trial initiation. They emphasized the importance of conducting clinical trials in areas such as diabetes, crowd management during pilgrimages, and rare diseases, which are prevalent in the region. Despite the limited number of clinical trials registered (354 from 2009 to 2020, with only 1% being phase 1 studies), Saudi Arabia’s total pharmaceutical market exceeds SAR 13 billion, positioning it as the largest market in the region. Stakeholders recognized the country’s potential as a research hub, particularly within the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) region. However, to attract more trials and enhance the medical research landscape, it is crucial to address the identified barriers, streamline processes, and improve stakeholder alignment. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to overcome these challenges and leverage Saudi Arabia’s investments in healthcare infrastructure since its transformation program launched in 2010. By enhancing the regulatory environment and fostering collaboration among stakeholders, Saudi Arabia can solidify its role as a key player in international clinical research. Full article

In light of the escalating necessity for sustainability within Lebanese small to medium-sized enterprises, these organizations are considered contributors to ecological damage. As a consequence, many of these enterprises adopted green human resource management practices encouraging employees toward sustainable behaviors. This is in conformity with the principles of the circular economy that aim to shun resource depletion and resonate with the country’s currency devaluation, political instability, and lack of access to resources. Given this background, this study aims to examine the influence of green human resource management practices on organizational pride, brand citizenship behavior, and turnover intention, moderated by individual green values. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach, collecting quantitative data from 202 employees working for small to medium-sized enterprises through a questionnaire, and qualitative insights through semi-structured interviews from eight managers; these were then analyzed using PLS-SEM and thematic analysis. The results showed that green human resource management practices lead to an increase in organizational pride, which positively influences brand citizenship behavior and negatively affects turnover intention. Individual green values positively moderate the aforementioned relationships. Understanding such detailed interrelationships adds insights into the literature of green practices. Moreover, this is the initial empirical investigation that integrates these concepts within the small to medium-sized enterprise context and provides comprehensive insights to stakeholders to enhance sustainability through appropriate human resource management strategies. Full article

The 2020 census reports that 61.2 million Latinxs live in the US, totaling around 19% of all residents, forming the country’s largest minority population. With the growing number of Latinxs, there has been a higher level of contact between Spanish and English leading to language mixing or code-switching (CS) in mainstream American culture. This paper examines the Spanish/English CS in radio advertisements on Los Angeles’s 96.3 La Mega, a bilingual radio station geared towards today’s youth. Using Derrick’ 2015 sentential framework for the linguistic analysis of multilingual sentences, I carry out a sentence-by-sentence analysis of the linguistic nature of the on-air bilingual advertisements. I explore both national advertisements, as well as DJ-endorsed advertisements, to discern whether they follow the patterns previously pointed out in the literature for positive consumer evaluations of Spanish/English bilingual advertisements. Furthermore, I am interested in if these advertisements are in line with the ethos of 96.3 La Mega, which prides itself on being fully bilingual. This research will shed light on the linguistic nature of contemporary strategies being used in bilingual advertisements for the US Latinx community and marketing tactics designed to encourage their consumerism. Full article

Scholars have observed that Korean Buddhist nuns have a relatively high social status compared to nuns of other Asian countries, much like their sisters in Taiwan. It is a source of great pride for many Korean bhikṣuṇīs that their community operates with a high degree of autonomy, bringing them to an almost equal standing with their male counterparts. However, this claim of equal status is challenged once the nuns step outside their own communities and into the hierarchical system of the Order, an institution dominated by male monastics. This paper aims to report on the gender disparity between male monastics and Buddhist women, both nuns and laywomen alike. I will first explore Korean Buddhist nuns’ experiences of gender discrimination imposed by the current institutional and cultural practices of the Buddhist Order, and their battles to challenge the legitimacy of this power structure. Next, I will introduce various episodes, including the Buddhist administration’s conflict with progressive women’s groups, to showcase the gender dynamics and current status of women in Korean Buddhism. Ultimately, my argument is that the conservatism and misogynism of traditional religion continue to influence Korean Buddhism today, despite societal efforts to heighten gender awareness and sensitivity. Full article

Sustainable development is becoming increasingly important because it improves the quality of our lives. Businesses must focus beyond maximizing corporate economic profits, which are very important. They must internalize the fact that planning and governance-oriented strategies focused on promoting human health and well-being ensure a sustainable future. This study explores the influence exerted by trust in large companies and banks on the perception that technological development has on people’s life satisfaction. The research uses data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and the World Bank, contemplating six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, in the period between 2012 and 2018. Our main results show that the lower the trust in institutions, the stronger the negative association with perceiving science and technology as making life easier, healthier and more comfortable in the near future. We also confirm that people who have very high levels of national pride tend to trust institutions. We also confirm that people who have very high levels of national pride tend to trust institutions. Finally, with this work, we contribute new empirical evidence to the current field of research on the influence of technological development on issues related to human beings, specifically in Latin America. Full article

Cultural inclusion generates a positive impact by socially increasing pride for individuals or economically increasing a country’s global capital. Currently, in New Zealand (NZ), not many strategies exist that ensure inclusion of culture in new products introduced locally and globally. Further, cultural inclusion in products appears highly represented in the tourist markets, but not so much in the domestic markets. This paper examines the current NZ strategies for cultural inclusion in product development of different sized companies that supply locally and globally through three case studies and compares the findings with theoretical models used in other regions. Findings elaborate that NZ lacks in documented standardized strategies when it comes to cultural inclusion. A positive impact of having such a strategy is perceived by participating companies with a culture for open innovation to ensure they are following a process approach that can help include cultural aspects appropriately. Creating a unique position for the brand globally, increasing global capital and deeper connectivity, and increasing the understanding of culture were some key benefits identified. However, a few steps in the new product development process were found largely lacking in NZ firms, such as communication with cultural representatives and leaders. A cultural inclusion model is developed based on the study findings to include an open innovation culture that can help NZ companies be more inclusive in their design and establish a unique NZ market for generating positive impacts. Full article

Safe Routes to School (SR2S) interventions have been implemented in many economically developed countries to improve children’s engagement in Active School Travel (AST). Evaluations have highlighted inconsistencies in SR2S intervention outcomes, raising questions as to how, why, and under what contextual conditions these interventions work. This review used a Rapid Realist Review (RRR) methodology to build, test, and refine an overarching program theory that unpicks the contextual factors and underlying mechanisms influencing children’s engagement in AST. From the 45 included documents, 16 refined Context–Mechanism–Outcome Configurations (CMOCs) were developed and clustered into three partial program theories (i.e., implementor/implementation, child, and parent), with the associated mechanisms of: (1) School Reliance; (2) School Priority; (3) Fun; (4) Pride; (5) Perceived Safety; (6) Distrust; (7) Convenience; (8) Perceived Capabilities; and (9) Reassurance. The overarching program theory delineates the pathways between intervention implementation, children’s motivation, parental decision-making, and children’s engagement in AST. The findings suggest SR2S interventions can motivate children to engage in AST, but whether this motivation is translated into engagement is determined by parental decision-making. This review is novel for highlighting that many of the factors influencing parental decision-making are contextually driven and appear to be unaddressed by the current suite of SR2S intervention strategies. The review additionally highlights the complexity of parental perceptions of safety, with the traffic and the road environment shaping only part of this multidimensional mechanism. Practitioners and policymakers need to tailor SR2S interventions to local contexts to better influence parental decision-making for children’s engagement in AST. Full article

Soap operas are an integral part of Brazilian popular culture and the daily lives of Brazil’s people. In 2018, the biggest TV channel in the country, Globo, broadcast a six-month-long soap opera called ‘Pride and Passion’, centered on the story of the Benedito family and their five unmarried daughters, who live in the small village of ‘Vale do Café’ (‘Coffee Valley’) around the 1910s, surrounded by the rural aristocracy and its coffee plantations. The obvious inspiration is Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and its choice is an indication of Austen’s growing popularity outside English-speaking countries. This adaptation, which incorporates characters from her other novels as well, is the quintessential amalgamation of cultures and media, combining a canonical author of the English language with a Brazilian TV genre commonly seen as ‘lowbrow’. It was not, however, Austen’s first incursion in Brazil’s popular culture. During the 1960s and 1970s, photonovels were an extremely popular genre there, usually translated into Portuguese from Italian productions, as was the case of the 1965 Pride and Prejudice photonovel, sold as a literary supplement to a widely circulated women’s magazine. This essay analyses both cases of different, although connected, adaptations of Austen, arguing that Austen’s presence in Brazil was always mediated by the expectations and appropriation of new media, while showing that the dialogue with popular culture can only enhance our understanding of the ‘global Austen’ phenomenon and her appeal across time and cultures. Full article

This article discusses the role of ‘space’ in Indian and Pakistani public sector universities in fostering national pride. University spaces have been highlighted, in both countries, for being used by the governments as agents fostering the national narrative yet there is limited research on how these spaces contribute to the visual culture of educational institutions and in the inculcation of nationalistic values. This article adds to the conversations regarding the fostering of national belonging and pride in universities by exploring space as a constitutive element of the visual culture of the higher education environment in India and Pakistan. In both countries, the physical spaces of public universities have become platforms for channelling student voices. This research uses two state-funded universities, from Delhi (in India) and Lahore (in Pakistan), and Lefebvre’s conception of space to conduct a discourse analysis of bulletin boards, graffiti, statues, sculptures, and any other imagery found online pertaining to the campuses and analyse how it is a ‘conceived’ and ‘perceived’ aspect of the visual culture of the universities. It adds to current scholarly conversations on national pride and consciousness in India and Pakistan by showing how university spaces can potentially play an active role in promoting the state’s narrative in students’ or educators’ everyday educational experiences. Full article

This paper aims to identify predictors of consumer ethnocentrism in the food market. An online survey was conducted in a sample of 1000 Polish consumers, which was representative by sex, age, education level, urban–rural divide, and region. The 10-item CETSCALE was applied. In a retrograde stepwise regression model, consumer ethnocentrism in the food market was positively related to tradition and conformity Schwartz values, to the pride of being Polish, and to such product characteristics as the country of origin, distance from the producer, and natural content. It was negatively related to the universalism value and to being a student. To gain further insights into the predictors of consumer ethnocentrism in the food market for either gender, separate regressions were conducted among men and women. Three predictors affected positively and significantly consumer ethnocentrism in the food market both among men and among women, namely the tradition Schwartz value, pride of being Polish, and importance attached to distance covered by the food product from the producer to the shop, which is related to the preference for local food. Moreover, consumer ethnocentrism among men was dependent on their food choice motive–environmental friendliness, whereas consumer ethnocentrism among women was affected by the importance attached to the product’s country of origin, and it was negatively related to women’s younger age. Full article

Corporate codes of conduct address various issues, some of which can be country-specific. A tentative analysis of the content of 42 codes of the leading Russian private companies implies that about a quarter of them consider patriotism, which generally matches the significant attention paid to this issue in Russian society. Of 10 companies with the biggest annual revenue, four (40%) consider patriotism in their codes. The main topics are pride in a company’s relevance to state development, initiatives, and interests, as well as care for the veterans of the World War II. The present study implies that patriotism can be an important dimension of corporate ethics management in some countries. Full article

Public health and care policies across OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries increasingly encourage aging in place, enabled by both formal care networks, and informal (family) care and social solidarity in the neighborhood. However, little is known about how a person’s neighborhood might affect their aging in place. The COVID-19 crisis unintendedly offered a good opportunity to observe the neighborhood’s role in the provision of care. Since formal care services were often limited during the lockdown, informal caregiving may have increased. However, intergenerational contacts in and outside of the household were strongly discouraged by governments worldwide, adding another layer of complexity to caregiving. The aim of this qualitative study was to assess how informal caregivers in Flanders managed to provide care to their care receivers, and what role the neighborhood played in this provision of care. Sixteen qualitative Skype and telephone interviews with informal caregivers were conducted between June and December 2020 to understand their experiences and coping strategies. Overall, most respondents increased their frequency of caregiving during the first lockdown. They took on the extra care needs during the lockdown themselves, and did not actively invoke any kind of neighborhood support. The significance of the neighborhood seemingly remained limited. This was often not because no help was offered, but rather due to a sense of pride or the fear of infection, and an increased effort by family caregivers. Full article

Civil religion refers to a country’s beliefs, symbols, and rituals that bolster national unity and strengthen its citizens’ sense of identity and belonging. However, the literature on civil religion is divided between those who attribute it to bottom-up cultural spontaneity and those who see it as an ideological top-down construction. Moreover, there has been a relative lack of scholarly attention to Korean civil religion. This paper addresses both issues by arguing that a strong civil religion indeed exists in the country and that it has been an important part of the “nation-building” process since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The paper highlights how a succession of authoritarian regimes (1948–1987) successfully mobilized a strong civil religion for political purposes. The resulting civil religion targeted economic growth as the national goal to overcome all social ills, focused on the country’s ethnic and cultural homogeneity to boost national confidence and pride, exalted its traditional religions, especially Confucianism, as repositories of Korean traditional culture, and rendered sacred meanings to national symbols such as the flag and national anthem. Even after democratization, Korean civil religion remains largely ideological, as the Korean government is heavily involved in framing, planning, sponsoring, and promoting the country’s civil religion. Nevertheless, the paper concludes by observing that this civil religion is entering a period of crisis due to political fragmentation among Korean elites and deeply rooted cultural and societal change. Full article

A series of novels about a witcher, written by Andrzej Sapkowski almost thirty years ago, has now become an inspiration for the creation of mass productions of mainstream popular culture—film and multimedia adaptations for use in computer games. It is one of the few examples of global messages of mass culture being based on Polish creativity. The recognition of “The Witcher”, due to the Netflix production, soon contributed to building the national pride of Polish people, and at the same time sparked a discussion in Central and Eastern European countries on the consequences of the multimedia adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s prose. Questions about the dissonance between the Slavic and universal dimensions of “The Witcher” in relation to the original novels and their adaptations are a part of the traditional discourse on the adaptability of literature and its consequences for the reception by the audience. This article tries to capture the specific character of the adaptations of Andrzej Sapkowski’s literature from the point of view of typology, known from the literature of the subject, as well as to answer the question about the consequences of the discrepancy between the original book and its adaptations in the form of a film, a TV series, and computer games. The considerations in the article were based on the literature analysis and the research based on the existing sources. Full article