Now showing items 21-40 of 758

    • Barriers and facilitators toward deceased organ donation among general public and stakeholders in India.

      Vincent, Britzer Paul Vincent (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-08)
      Background There is a shortage of organ transplants in India, with less than one donor for every one million population. In 2018, only eight percent of organ donors were from deceased organ donation in India. Therefore, the aim of this PhD study was to identify the barriers and facilitators toward deceased organ donation in India among public and stakeholders in India. Methods An integrative systematic review was undertaken to collect, collate, and identify the barriers toward deceased organ donation among Indians living globally from the existing evidence. Since the integrative systematic review informed that the decision toward organ donation is based on several layers of a society where they underwent socialisation, study 2, and study 3 were guided by the socio-ecological model and social constructivism philosophy. With more demand to understand this from the subjectivist point of view, both study 2 and 3 employed qualitative approach. Parallelly, a difference was identified in deceased organ donation performance within India. Therefore, study 2 and 3 were undertaken in a well-performing site (in and around Chennai, India) and a poorly performing study site (in and around Chandigarh, India) in India. Study 2 employed 25 focus group discussions among the general public from a well-performing and poorly-performing sites in India. Study 3 employed sixteen in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in the making of deceased organ donations in those regions in India. Framework analysis was adopted for the data analysis of study 2 and 3, since it enables more case comparisons in identifying the similarities and differences, which was essential for study 2 and 3 between a well-performing and poorly performing regions in India, among general public and stakeholders. Findings There were several original contributions from this study undertaken in India. Firstly, the systematic review informed that the decision toward deceased organ donation among this population is not individualistic but collective. Secondly, though family is identified as a barrier among Indians, this study went further and identified that poor knowledge on how to begin such conversation, poor visibility on real organ donor and recipient stories, lack of knowledge on the process of registration served as real barriers in bringing such conversation among the family members. Thirdly, there was a conflict between the publics’ willingness to be an organ donor and uncertain knowledge on their respective religious standpoint, especially among the Islamic groups in India, which served as a barrier from religious practice viewpoint. Fourthly, misinformation, unsupportive environment, and mistrust in the healthcare system practices negatively influenced the participants view toward deceased organ donation practices in India. However, the barriers among the public from the well-performing and poorly performing study sites in India were identified to be similar and did not clearly explain the reason for their differences. Whereas the study undertaken among the stakeholders had distinctive features that could explain the practices within the hospitals which could explain the variations in deceased organ donation performances. Based on study 3, the well-performing study sites had a highly equipped and supportive system structures that enabled more donation compared to the poorly performing regions. The major elements that were identified to exist in a well-performing study sites in India were the existence of good teamwork with predefined accountability for each role player; the approach methods employed with the bereaved family members; ability of the transplant coordinators in making a trustable conversation and relationship; policies between the government and the police department to reduce the delays caused; higher coordination between the several stakeholders involved. Conclusion Therefore, though this PhD study further identified how various levels of a society serves as barriers and facilitators toward deceased organ donation, they were demonstrated to be similar across the wellperforming and poorly performing study sites. The clearly demonstrated barriers and facilitators identified to explain the well-performing and poor-performing study sites were based on the hospital level systemic practices. While opt-out countries like Spain majorly works with building up the network and infrastructure within the hospital, and UK majorly focusing on community engagement; at a policy level in an opt-in country like India, adopting both the approaches could help organ donation practices. While hospital level practices can help in improving organ donation across the various sites, community engagement can help in normalising the conversation on organ donation which in turn helps in creating an enabling environment toward organ donor registration. Therefore, this PhD findings in the Indian context argues for a whole systems approach to improve deceased organ donation in India.
    • Jordanian media coverage of honour crimes - an analytical study

      Rsheidat, Jumana (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-08)
      This dissertation identifies the values highlighted by the Jordanian media in dealing with the issue of femicide (committed on pretext of honour) in Jordanian society, along with journalists and audiences’ evaluation of this coverage. This study adopts a qualitative methodology using three tools: discourse analysis, in-depth interviews, along with focus groups. The discourse analysis focuses on the verbalvisual relationship, the hierarchy of voices and intertextuality. The data was gathered between 2013- 2021 from 49 articles published by two Jordanian news websites: Khaberni and Hiber and (13) TV YouTube videos shown on the private Jordanian satellite channel “Roya TV”. The analysis of this data has been supplemented by means of interviews with (8) journalists, (2) NGOs’ representatives and (15) students (in 3 focus groups) from the Middle East University, Jordan. According to Jordanian students, NGOs’ representatives, and journalists, femicide is linked to patriarchy given that it is entrenched in cultural patriarchy (familial, hierarchal and kinship-based). The Jordanian media draw upon civil laws, social and religious interpretations to define “honour” killings. Furthermore, the Jordanian media has scant compassion towards the victims of rape or victims of so-called “honour killings”. Regarding intertextuality, Roya TV mentions literary and legal texts to confirm that the Jordanian media remains sympathetic of the "patriarchal system" and is reproducing "patriarchal discourse".
    • Positive technology: developing positive affect through implementing positive psychology in an interactive search system design

      Khan, Sehrish Sher (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      There is no doubt that our lives are becoming more digital, reliant on interactive devices or digital services. One of the most significant changes observed in recent years is the large and growing number of people obtaining health information online, making it the most popular medium for obtaining health-related information. Online access to health information has the potential to educate and assist people about the nature, causes, prevention, and treatment of specific health conditions. Furthermore, access to online health information has the potential to increase the anxieties of people with little or no medical training, especially when used as a diagnostic procedure. This increases negative emotions among health information searchers. Regardless of the concerns raised about the impact of online health information on user emotions, a better understanding of identifying and improving user emotional states for online health information searches is required. A positive emotional state is an important factor in increasing personal satisfaction in humans. On the other hand, a negative emotional state can result in social or psychological well-being issues. A novel research area called "Positive Technology" has emerged, which is a scientific and applied approach to designing technologies to improve human emotions and well-being. Positive technology combines Positive Psychology objectives with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) advancements. This research presents the methodological and applied approach to propose a positive search interface design by applying the Hedonic level approach. The proposed information search interface focused on designing and developing novel digital experiences that aim to promote positive changes through pleasure, meaning and engagement to improve emotions, health information search behaviour and well-being. Online health information search tasks are used as the context for an experimental investigation. Three types of online health information search tasks (easy/happy, neutral, complex/difficult) are given to the participants (N = 25), students recruited from the University of Bedfordshire. The participants provided two information search interface designs for two experiments: the baseline search interface design (BSID), with a no-design approach, and the proposed positive search interface design (PSID) to perform three online health information search tasks. A mixed-method approach is applied using physiological measures such as galvanic skin response (GSR) and eye-tracker and self-reporting. Results show that positive design helped improve users’ emotional intensity with improved visual attention compared to the baseline interface design results. The statistical analysis shows the significance difference observed for the positive affect with the proposed positive design. The statistical analysis shows the proposed positive design helped to improve pleasure and engagement in individuals, improved health information search behaviour in terms of online interaction and query reformulation, and improved health information search task performance and search process experience for easy/happy and complex tasks. No significance difference was observed for search process experience for the neutral task. A significance difference is observed for the query reformulations and change in query formulation behaviour. However, interface design has no effect on the website selection for online health information. Statistical results show significance differences in the well-being characteristics of CBT, such as thought processes, positive emotions and actions. In contrast, no significance difference is observed for the well-being characteristics of behaviour and physical feelings. The future work includes combining multiple physiological measures to get a deeper understanding of the variety of emotional responses to interface designs. Also, a deeper understanding of health information search behaviours is required to investigate the impact of positive interface design on query change behaviour.
    • An investigation of antecedents and consequences of green value internalisation in UK industries

      Arhavbarien, Joseph Abawenarhe (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-08)
      This study focuses on the concept of green value internalisation (GVI) at firm level. While extant literature has numerous papers that examined value internationalisation from either cultural or ethical perspective, this concept has not been studied in the context of proenvironmental (or green) behaviour within firms. This study aims to examine the concept of GVI in a firm, its drivers and how the focus on GVI affects firms achieving competitive advantage. GVI as a subject investigates the response by firms to growing awareness by customers and society on protecting the earth’s environment from polluting activities of industries. Organizations, therefore, need to develop internal capabilities to meet customer and regulatory requirements across their supply chains. To achieve the research aim, the study develops and tests a research model that comprises of six construct items based on evidence from extant literature. The model depicts the causal relationships and is analysed to establish evidence of significance in relation to eight proposed hypotheses. This research adopts a positivist epistemological approach and uses the research-based view (RBV) and the stakeholder theory to examine and explain the phenomena being investigated. This study applies quantitative methods by collecting empirical data from online surveys of firms in the United Kingdom across the standard industrial classification (SIC) of economic activities comprising small and medium enterprises SMEs) and large enterprises (LEs) were examined. Usable responses from 213 firms were analysed in relation to assessing their level of compliance to sustainable, environment-friendly or green practices. To assess this, the focus was on investigating evidence of environment management system (EMS) in place in these firms or their ISO14001 certification or green compliance status. Based on evidence from the literature six constructs were used in the research model. These were: external pressures (EXT), internal drivers (INT), green value internalisation (GVI), incentives and training (ITR), green criteria development (GCD) and competitive advantage (CA). Prior to undertaking the main study, a pilot study was conducted to assess the survey instrument via convenience sampling technique by administering questionnaires using Qualtrics to select academics and industry managers. Improvement suggestions received were incorporated into the main survey. To evaluate causal relationships among constructs, this study proposed eight hypotheses. In analysing the hypothesised relationship, the author followed a two-step modeling approach which first examines the measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for construct validity and reliability assessment. This was followed by a structural model analysed via structural equation modeling technique. Results from this research shows evidence of strong correlation between green value internalisation and competitive advantage. This study contributes to filling knowledge gaps in relation to firm-level pro-environmental initiatives by identifying green or environmental criteria as it affects the focal firm and its collaboration in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. The research provides managers with tested data they can use as guide for making business decisions for green supplier selection, green purchasing, eco-design for the environment and rollout of firm-level pro-environmental programs.
    • A multimodal parallelism approach for improving parallel CNN computation in deep learning

      Wei, Hui (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) have achieved remarkable success in various visual recognition tasks and NLP (Nature Language Processing) tasks such as classification. With the trend of using more complex structures of the neural network and much bigger datasets, the requirement of computational performance and hardware memory is increasing. For these situations when the limitation for hardware is reached, algorithms will need to be improved. As a reason, the proposed method improves speed on two aspects: A. reducing input data to save memory and reducing calculation and data transfer. B. improving parallelism from host to device. As the convolutional computation occupies over 80% of computational cost, strategies to speed up the convolutional computation are important. The strategy of input/filter matrix transformation can co-operate with other optimization strategies such as reducing the complexity of network by removing unimportant parameters; matrix decomposition to reduce the compute operations; reducing the storage and computation complexity of filters; and defining knowledge and optimization loss which learns knowledge from teacher network. The Winograd (Lavin and Gray, 2016) algorithm, as one of the transform input/filter matrix methods that reduce expensive multiplications by increasing the number of cheaper additions, is an efficient way of computing the small kernel convolutions with small input sizes. However, the multiple step characteristic leads to excessive overhead. This thesis proposes a novel Multimodal Parallelism method for Winograd (MMPM) non-fused convolution. The MMPM comprises of application-independent skills such as grouped producer-consumer chains; warp-oriented program; double buffer prefetching which effectively exploits calculation resources and bandwidth of memory; “shuffle” instructions are used to conserve hardware resources. And a set of Winograd-oriented software techniques, including specialized inter-kernel data format which efficiently accesses memory; the supplementary explanation of Winograd’s tile extraction, which saves memory and computing resources; and the last tile mini-padding. The proposed method has been evaluated in GTX 980 GPU, CUDA 9.2 and cuDNN 7.6.4 with a wide range of parameters which meet CNN layers benchmark. For the 2D case, compared with cuDNN non-fused Winograd, the kernel level head-to-head comparison shows that our implementation achieves a total speedup of 1.64x. For the 1D case, compared with the fast strategy provided by cuDNN: implicit GEMM, the average kernel level speed up is 1.15x and the H2D speed up is 2.87x.
    • The impact of ownership structure and investment decisions on capital structure: an empirical study from Jordan

      Shubita, Dua'a Fawzi Shaker (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      The issue of capital structure is of great importance in corporate finance as it is affected by ownership structure and investment. However, the influence of the interaction between ownership structure and investment on a firm’s capital structure remains unresolved. This study seeks to address this issue by investigating the impact of concentrated ownership and company investments on a firm’s capital structure as well as the interaction between the identity of the concentrated owner and investment. It uses Jordan as an example and includes firm performance and firm size as control variables. This study adopts a deductive approach and employs quantitative methods involving statistical analysis of the study variables. The sample includes 111 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from 2010–2019. The study's findings indicate that total concentrated ownership and local ownership have a negative impact on capital structure, while Arab and foreign ownership play an insignificant negative role. The results also reveal that the interaction between concentrated ownership and investment is crucial to a firm’s capital structure, with local ownership and investment having a more substantial and precise effect than other ownership components. The study recommends that both investment and ownership level be considered jointly when examining capital structure decisions and that policymakers re-evaluate the investing process to consider the lack of investment opportunities available for Jordanian companies. Moreover, the findings identified a negative impact of a firm’s performance and a positive effect of firm size for the effect of firm performance and size on its capital structure. The results also highlighted that it would be more effective to consider the total debt to total assets ratio instead of evaluating long- and short-term components separately when examining capital structure decisions. Furthermore, in the case of assessing the firm performance effect on capital structure, the return on asset (ROA) should be considered instead of the return on equity (ROE) as a proxy of firm performance. Overall, the study’s findings shed light on the importance of considering the interaction between ownership structure and investment when making capital structure decisions and provide valuable insights for managers and policymakers. This study is the first empirical study to estimate the interaction between investment and ownership issue using different statistical methods, and the results contribute to the existing literature on capital structure.
    • Investigation of quantum-inspired modelling in interactive search based on information foraging theory

      Jaiswal, Amit Kumar (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-06)
      This thesis investigates the use of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics for modelling users’ information needs from the viewpoint of Information Foraging Theory (IFT). IFT has been successfully applied to model user behaviours and preferences in the information retrieval (IR) process, which motivates this work that hypothesises IFT can enhance user interaction and the effectiveness of typical IR and recommendation tasks, such as multimodal query auto-completion and image recommendation. During interactive IR sessions, users’ information needs often evolve, which requires more system assistance and support to capture these dynamics. The users’ information needs in such an interactive session compared to the typical unambiguous query terms tend to be multi-semantic and heuristic in the way of natural languages. In an effort to solve this problem, an interactive multimedia and multimodal IR system is developed based on a quantum-inspired mathematical framework utilising Hilbert spaces. Based on IFT, the key methodology involves characterising the users’ multimodal information needs. The users’ multimodal information needs are integrated into the IR system through a projective transformation that follows mathematical constructs of the quantum probabilistic framework. The proposed quantum-inspired interactive framework is evaluated through an image retrieval task, which allows a multi-iteration of textual queries for finding specific images in a search session supported by auto query completion and visual query cues. Our main findings are: in an interactive multimodal IR context, multisemantic queries effectively help to confirm users’ information needs in a session; from the spatial context of IR, our framework captures the dynamics of evolving information needs and reflects the historical interaction of the multimodal IR process. This dissertation, therefore, provides comprehensive insights and findings about the usage of the quantum probabilistic framework in interactive IR. It exhibits the usefulness of the quantum-inspired IR framework to fine-grained user aspects based on IFT, enhancing the representation and modelling constructs to explicit the information retrieval behaviours and preferences.
    • An evaluation of the Luton Framework for Frailty: an integrated care programme for older People with different frailty levels

      Khan, Nimra Naeem (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      Background: Frailty is an age-associated condition in which a person loses reserves due to accumulation of multiple deficits making an individual vulnerable to minor stress and it leads to adverse outcomes such as falls, fractures, emergency hospital admission, institutionalisation and mortality. Frailty is posing a burden to the NHS and to social care in the UK. The NHS in England has made identifying and managing those people with moderate or severe frailty at the general practice level mandatory as part of the GMS 2017/18 contract. The Luton Clinical Commissioning Group (Luton CCG) has used these policy recommendations to develop the Luton Framework for Frailty (LFF). The LFF is an integrated care programme, which is offered to older people aged ≥65 years who are residents of Luton. Initially, an older person is assessed for frailty using the eFI and clinical judgement at their general practice, an individual is categorised according to their frailty level into one of the four categories of fit, mild, moderate and severe frailty, with services offered according to frailty level. It has been nearly three years since this policy has been introduced and the LFF has been implemented. However, no comprehensive evaluation has been conducted yet. The present study was commissioned to gain a deeper understanding of the LFF and the factors that affect the implementation of an integrated care programme and its impact on the outcomes for older people with different frailty levels (OPDFL). Methods: This study has used a mixed-methods approach. A systematic review was conducted to assess the effectiveness of integrated care interventions on OPDFL. A qualitative study was conducted with service providers including commissioners, programme managers, general practitioners and geriatricians to process map the care pathways for OPDFL in Luton and to: firstly, explore their perceptions regarding the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of LFF, secondly describe the LFF according to the six domains of the chronic care model and explore its strengths and limitations and thirdly, explore their perceptions of the impact COVID-19 had on the implementation of LFF. Finally, a quantitative study was conducted to analyse the routinely collected patient data to assess the impact of LFF on the outcomes such as falls reported to the general practice, emergency hospital visits and deaths for OPDFL. Results: The findings of the review show there is a lack of studies that have assessed the effectiveness of integrated care interventions for older people stratified by their frailty levels. Thus, there are more studies needed which stratify older people by their frailty levels because they have different needs and design integrated care interventions accordingly. Various limitations have been identified in the LFF when described according to the six domains of the CCM such as the focus of the services have traditionally been on those at the acute end and there are less resources provided for those identified as fit, there is a need for promoting self-management among OPDFL, more frailty-specific training for health and care professionals across the system, need for a common health information system across the primary and secondary care services and creating awareness about the integrated care interventions and care pathways across the system. The barriers and facilitators identified were across four themes, firstly formal policy and governance, secondly, shared values and goals, thirdly collaborative work and lastly, implementation. Furthermore, it was found that COVID-19 had negatively impacted all the preventative work started through LFF which was halted during the pandemic. The quantitative study showed that the routinely collected data are of questionable quality due to the huge numbers of missing values. There is huge variation in the services provided to OPDFL, while some practices provide services to a higher number of individuals, others provide services to a very low number. The number of falls reported to the general practice was very few throughout the forty-one months period reported in this study, emergency hospital admissions were higher while the number of deaths reported had errors. Finally, while the services provided increased in the first few months of LFF, they then reduced again. Contributions to Knowledge: This is the first comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the national policy of identifying and managing older people with frailty at a local level. Evidence generated by this study provides guidance to commissioners, service providers and policymakers for areas of improvement and implementation of a system-wide integrated care intervention for OPDFL and the limitations identified in this study can guide future research.
    • Examining equity in access to institutional childbirth in India using the social determinants of health framework

      Sivasankara Kurup, Anand (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      Background: Promoting institutional childbirth through demand-side financing has been the key strategy adopted to achieve global goals on maternal and child health in India, and considerable investments have been made in this area in the last two decades. India has improved the coverage of institutional childbirth dramatically in a short period of time– from 39 per cent in 2005-2006 to 89 per cent in 2021. Despite these intensive efforts, there remain large inequities in maternal, neonatal and infant mortality outcomes, and in access to institutional childbirth. Aim: The overall aim of the study is to examine the nature, extent, and determinants of inequity in access to institutional childbirth in India using the social determinants of health framework, in order to identify areas for improving equity in access to institutional childbirth. Methods: Adopting a pragmatic philosophical paradigm, the study used a triangulated multilevel mixed methods research design involving: (a) a mixed methods systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions that address access to institutional childbirth and equity in access to institutional childbirth in the South Asia region; (b) quantitative analysis of nationally representative secondary data on the determinants of access to and equity in institutional childbirth in India; and, (c) a qualitative primary study by conducting in-depth interviews with experts on maternal and child health to generate evidence in the policy, governance and programmatic spectrum. Results: Systematic review yielded 42 studies (13 cluster RCTs; 18 quasi experimental studies; and 11 non-experimental studies), vast majority of which came from India and Bangladesh. Meta-analysis of nineteen studies (including twelve RCTs,) suggests that overall, there is significant effect of interventions on access to institutional childbirth (OR 1.72; 95% CI:1.33–2.23). Pooled OR of twelve RCTs (1.47; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.99) and other studies (2.29; 95% CI: 1.63, 2.22) also indicated a significant positive effect of interventions. Further subgroup analyses suggests that while women’s group interventions (6 studies) and interventions involving traditional birth attendants (four studies) did not indicate a significant effect, other community-based interventions (6 studies) and maternal voucher schemes (3 studies) indicated a significant effect on access to institutional childbirth. Quantitative analysis of secondary data suggests that inequity in access to institutional childbirth in India has been substantially reduced. Decomposition of concentration indices show that the wealth-based socioeconomic inequality in institutional childbirth declined from 0.31 to 0.09, indicating that the economic inequalities in access declined almost two thirds during the period. Further, decomposition of change in the concentration index between 2005–2006 and 2015–2016 show that the biggest contributor to the change in inequalities in access to institutional delivery was the change in poverty (29 per cent) followed by four or more antenatal care visits (22 per cent), and urban residence (13.8 per cent). Many well-meaning policies, programmes are available to address equity in institutional childbirth in the country, but effective implementation is still lagging. The qualitative study found that although the level of investment is increasing, the health system in relation to pregnancy and delivery care in many parts of the country is marked by inadequate infrastructure, poor labour room facilities, insufficiently trained and skilled human resources, undignified care, and inadequate coverage of prenatal and postpartum care. Poor and the marginalised women still face challenges in accessing dignified care during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. Further, poorly regulated private health sector, alarmingly high proportion of caesarean section (C-section) deliveries both in public and in the private sector health facilities, and increase in economic burden to the poor for delivery care are some of the major concerns. Conclusion: While the quantitative analysis reaffirms the importance of several determinants of inequity in access such as birth order, age of mother at birth, social status (caste), economic status (wealth), health service coverage (ANC), the systematic review of interventions highlights the need to devote increased attention to analysis of the effectiveness of interventions in reducing inequity, and calls for more qualitative research. There remain several gaps and challenges at the policy- and governance-level that inhibits equity in access to institutional childbirth. Qualitative study underscored the need for increased policy attention to regulate private sector health facilities; control alarming increase in C-section deliveries; reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure for prenatal, delivery and postpartum care; and, improve ineffective referral and emergency transport system.
    • An evaluation of Total Wellbeing Luton: an integrated health care pathway for physical and mental health

      Liapi, Fani (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-06)
      Background: In the UK, there is a strong policy priority to the redesign of health services toward integrated physical and mental health care. Models of integrated physical and mental health have been shown to improve service users’ health outcomes, reduce hospital admissions, and enhance patient satisfaction in comparison to usual care. The number of individuals with complex care needs is increasing, because of the concurrent chronic health conditions, mental health, and social challenges. Obesity and mental health are two of the public health priorities in the UK. ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’ is an example of an integrated care service for physical and mental health. Given that obesity and mental health are complex health problems, caused by a variety of influences, and the increasing interest around targeting complexity and applying system thinking to public health, it is a key priority for commissioners and service providers to understand the implementation and practice of an integrated healthcare service, under a Whole Systems Approach. The present study was commissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’, an integrated care pathway for physical and emotional health, after the first year of the service, and suggest elements that require a change to reach a whole systems integration. Therefore the study was designed to create a framework of knowledge for improving the implementation and practice of ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’ under a Whole Systems Approach and to identify areas of improvement in the service. Methods: The study uses a mixed-methods design. A review of the available literature on integrated care interventions for obesity and mental health, under a whole-systems approach was conducted. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with service providers, managers, coordinators, and healthcare professionals to understand their experiences and perceptions on the integration of healthy lifestyle and mental health services of ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’ and to understand how are shared and flow between participating organisations might affect the integration of services. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with service users to understand the experiences and perceptions on the service they receive from ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’. Lastly, routinely collected data was analysed to explore service users’ sociodemographic characteristics associated with completion or drop out and to evaluate health and wellbeing outcomes associated with the completion of the “Weight Management” and “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – IAPT” programmes of the service. Results: The scoping review identified a range of factors that facilitate and/or hinder the implementation, and practice of whole-systems integrated interventions to obesity and mental health. In addition, this study found that the integration of physical and mental health services in ‘Total Wellbeing Luton’ was affected by the organisational culture, human and financial resources, communication, and capacity building. The present study, also revealed what was the expectation and what is the reality of the integration of the services. The study documented how a single point of access, staff’s awareness of the need for quality data, consistency in data collection, the functionality of health information systems, and the use of disconnected systems affect the integration of the services provided by Total Wellbeing Luton. Furthermore, the current study found that the dropout rate from the weight management programme was 77.5%. The strongest predictor of completion of the weight management programme is the area where the people live in. People who live in the least deprived areas were 3 times more likely to complete the WM programme than those who live in the most deprived areas (OR = 3.03, 95% CI: 1.19 – 7.73). The model which investigated whether any sociodemographic characteristics would predict the completion of the IAPT programme was not statistically significant, x2 (8, N= 233) = 3.57, p > .05, indicating that the model was not able to distinguish between those that did and did not complete the IAPT programme. Routinely collected data of 24 service users who have been identified as completers of both weight management and IAPT programme show that weight management and IAPT programme completion resulted significant reductions in weight, BMI, depression, and anxiety scores. Contribution to Knowledge: Findings from this study contribute to the development of an evidence base for integrated care, under a Whole Systems Approach, and can support commissioners, policy-makers, and service providers to improve the implementation and practice of integrated care initiatives in the future. In addition, the identified limitations of this study can suggest directions for future research.
    • Sustainable development: influence of economic decisions taken at the state level in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

      Alketbi, Mohamed Saeed Ali Humaid (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-07)
      Economic decision making is complex due to a number of factors influencing the process as well as the long term and significant impact of the decisions of the stakeholders. The process is further complicated by the need for governments to seek sustainability in economic, environmental and social areas with pros and cons offered by specialization and diversification options. The research attempted to create a sustainable development model to express how economic growth and regional economic performance are functions of specialization, diversification, government decision making and sustainability, so that it can be used as a guidance for best practice. Competitive Advantage Theory and the Tripod Sustainability Model were adopted in the study to accurately provide guidelines for economic decision making with the aim of achieving sustainable development. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with UAE-based and international experts on sustainable development, diversification and specialization as well as researchers and academic consultants in the area. The results confirmed that economic decisions are sustainable when they enable economies to gain competitive advantage along with sustaining social, economic and environmental aspects. The study developed and validated a conceptual framework. The key good decision making practices revealed, include policy integration, an inter-generational timeframe, economic indicators, analysis, cross-body coordination, governance, review and evaluation and stakeholder involvement. Diversification factors identified include risk management, economic structure, the role of innovation and skills development. Key factors of specialization found include, labour intensive activities, export trade, areas of business and opportunities development. The research confirms various sustainability aspects such as a long term focus on resource management, creating better opportunities for people through enhancing their skills, making people adaptable to changes, offering equal opportunities to people, revising business models to reduce the harmful impact on the environment and using advanced technology for economic, social and environment sustainability. The contribution of effective decision making processes was established from the study in sustainable development through good practices as well as through referring to sustainable development measurements and indicators.
    • Founders of non-profit foundations in Jordan: who? and why?

      Khuffash, Ghadeer Talal Husni (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-06)
      The concept of giving to others and contributing to society is common to all cultures. In the histories of some of these it is recorded, for example the Hammurabi code set out in ancient Babylon, the concept of humanity in the early writings of Confucianism, and in numerous other works such as the Quran and the Bible. However, when the concept of philanthropy, of ‘being good’, is examined it becomes a complex and much-debated subject. The literature finds reasons for the establishment of non-profit foundations that range from purely philanthropic to the transactional, to social control, to the gaining of social capital, to the suppression of democracy, to the maintenance of an elite ecosystem, and other motivations. However, much of this literature is based on Western developed nations, their histories, their culture, and individuals from their societies. Assumptions are frequently made about other parts of the world in terms of their cultures, histories, and experiences based on these assumptions. Assumptions and generalizations are also typically made in the limited number of studies undertaken in other settings, such as the tendency to generalize standardized Islamic philanthropy across the Middle East and North Africa region. These observations resonated with the researcher, who is a woman working in the non-profit sector in Jordan, and who is a Palestinian. She is in tune with a particular aspect of the literature which argues that the understanding of who establishes non-profit foundations will necessarily be contingent on the historic, cultural, political, economic, and situational factors existing in nations. Gaining such an understanding of a country has the potential to contribute to existing knowledge in the field. Every nation has a legitimate claim to uniqueness, and this is also true for Jordan. Described by one writer as ‘the eye of the Arab cyclone’ Jordan has, since 1948, been host to millions of refugees, particularly Palestinians. The extent of this can be seen by statistics showing that the population of the country grew almost exponentially between 1950 and 2012 with the largest non-native group being originally Palestinians. Based on a qualitative methodology and a hermeneutic, phenomenological and interpretive method, this study seeks to gain a deep understanding of who the people who establish non-profit foundations in Jordan are. It is based on a theoretical framework that understands the importance of studies at national levels and that the philanthropic intentions in each state or other unit of analysis will be uniquely formed through its history, culture, politics, economy, flows of migration, and other factors that may be uncovered through research. Through detailed inspection (non-profit foundations are not separately identifiable through existing databases in Jordan) the researcher identified a total of eleven non-profit foundations in Jordan and subsequently interviewed seven founders. Based on the analysis of the resulting data (transcriptions of interviews) main and sub-themes were identified and were used to address the research question, which is who are the founders of non-profit foundations in Jordan and why did they establish their foundations? The main themes include Palestine, motives, antecedents of motives, and why a foundation was established (as opposed to other forms of philanthropy). Sub-themes include wealth, gender, altruism, feelings of pride, business and marketing, childhood, deprivation, the influence of parents, cultural background, education, and Lebanon. These themes are discussed and evaluated in terms of philanthropy and philanthropic intentions in Jordan and elsewhere before conclusions are reached and recommendations are made.
    • Understanding factors affecting supply chain social sustainability practices and SMEs' sustainability performance

      Denu, Mathias Kofi Worlanyo (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2022-10)
      Research on the social dimension of supply chain sustainability has grown in recent years. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector are now being driven by the social requirements of stakeholders on issues such as human rights, ethnicity and inequality, ethics, community, employees and poverty alleviation. However, researchers have mainly concentrated their efforts on large organisations handling social issues in the supply chain. Research on how small businesses manage social sustainability issues and sustainability performance is still rare, especially in emerging African economies. Drawing on both legitimate theory and stakeholder theory, this research aims to: a) understand factors affecting supply chain social sustainability (SCSS) practices and SMEs’ sustainability performance in emerging African economies, b) develop and validate multidimensional measures to evaluate focal SMEs’ social sustainability performance (SSP) of emerging African economies, and c) develop a model to examine the effects of stakeholder pressures (SP) and social responsibility standards (SRS) on an SME’s sustainability performance and investigate the mediating effects of SCSS practices. The study adopts a mixed research methodology. Firstly, the research performed a structured literature review evaluating 85 studies investigating social sustainability practices in the supply chain. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five SME managers to explore the adoption of SCSS practices in SMEs in Ghana. Lastly, the findings informed the survey questionnaire design for quantitative data collection for the study. The relationships between the constructs generated for this study were tested and validated by analysing 375 questionnaires collected from 100 focal manufacturing SMEs. The analysis includes respondent background information, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, a conceptual model test using SPSS to prepare the data, and AMOS version 23.0 to test the proposed model. The research findings indicate that SRS and SP significantly affect SCSS practices in focal manufacturing SMEs. Similarly, adopting SRS improves the SSP of focal SMEs. However, economic sustainability performance (ESP) only improved after the study introduced an indirect variable of SCSS practices. The findings also suggest that SP does not necessarily lead to the sustainability performance of focal SMEs but only through an indirect variable of SCSS practices. Likewise, SCSS practices significantly improve the sustainability performance of focal SMEs. Also, the SSP of focal SMEs improves ESP in the emerging African economy. The research adds to existing knowledge from a different perspective. Firstly, the study contributes to the literature by proposing, testing and validating 23 measures across six significant dimensions to accurately evaluate the focal firm’s SSP in emerging African economies. This study identifies two vital new measuring indicators – 1) poverty alleviation and 2) ethnicity and inequality – in addition to the relevant indicators reported in the literature. Secondly, the study provides a new empirical model for focal SMEs based on stakeholder and legitimacy theories. This study contributes to the social sustainability literature, as the model measures the effects of SRS, SP and SCSS practices on a focal SME’s sustainability performance (social and economic) after testing and validation. The study also uncovered the mediating effect of focal SMEs’ SSP on the link between SRS and focal SMEs’ ESP.
    • My nest is full: portraits of multigenerational households of families living with or recovering from addiction

      Whyte, Monica (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2021-12)
      This study explores an area of systemic family-therapy practice in a public addiction service in Ireland with experts by experience whose family lives have been affected by addiction issues relating to alcohol. As a systemic family therapist working in an alcohol service, I noticed a change in the pattern of affected family members (AFMs) who were accessing our alcohol treatment service. Parents of adult drinkers who had returned home to live with them or who had never moved out of their family home were seeking services for themselves and their family members. I felt that this was not an isolated issue but a significant systemic change in the pattern of family members attending alcohol-addiction services that was not evident in the literature on addiction to date. Within this research, I set out to address this gap by creating a polyphonic, layered account of this issue from many positions in the system: the AFMs’ position and the professional therapists’ and organisational and commissioning position. This study involved the recruitment of experts by experience in two areas: AFMs and professional counsellor-therapists. Six participants were recruited for the study, and treatment demand indicator data from 11 countries was obtained. Research was conducted using three processes: (1) in-depth interviews using a teller-based interview methodology were conducted with the research participants; (2) the data generated through this process was transcribed and analysed using thematic and narrative analysis; and (3) quantitative treatment demand indicator (TDI) data from addiction services nationally and internationally was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to identify and profile the population of persons in an addictive relationship with alcohol (PARs) who live with parents or other family members within the TDI data. Narrative portraits, constructed in a collaborative process with the AFMs, brought forth the themes identified in thematic and narrative analysis of the interview data. This research uses a postmodern, qualitative, theoretical lens that facilitates inquiry into professional clinical practice. It contributes thereby to the movement towards practice-based research with vulnerable populations in health-care settings.
    • The grimdark, the bad and the ugly: subversions, boundaries and marginalisation in G.R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

      Castellano, Viviana (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2022-08)
      In 2005, Time Magazine’s Lev Grossman labelled author George Raymond Richard Martin ‘the American Tolkien’. Martin, a successful author and screenwriter with many works to commend him, published the first instalment of his fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire in 1996 entitled A Game of Thrones, and a television adaptation soon followed, which helped catapult the author and his storyworld to unimaginable heights. Martin’s more ‘realistic’, gritty portrayal of the Middle Ages infuses with traditional fantasy tropes but is less predictable and less sentimental than the standard fantasy fayre, with a penchant for dark, horror aesthetics, inspired by history, myth, folklore, taproot texts, and melodrama. This thesis challenges conventional ideas about standard fantasy fiction by examining the presence of gritty realism in Martin’s neomedieval fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. The research explores the extent to which the saga disrupts or maintains conventional fantasy patterns and the significance of Martin’s subversive mode of storytelling on the genre, and the subgenre of grimdark. In addition, the thesis interrogates whether the saga can be read as a modern myth as it contains mythopoeic elements that stem from various sources, and asks what impact this may have on the reader. The thesis will be analysed from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing from a variety of scholars in order to explore chosen areas that highlight subversions, boundary violations, and marginalisations within the text, though the work will be viewed primarily through a Bakhtinian lens. The work reveals that Martin transcends established fantasy conventions and alters the genre in the popular imagination. Furthermore, the thesis argues that A Song of Ice and Fire constructs new stories for resistance and change through its gritty realistic storytelling and creates manifold meaning for the reader. The interrogation of subversive themes in the saga opens up a discussion on the text as a modern myth that holds a mirror up to humanity, presenting a broader view of the individual’s place in the universe, and their experiences in relation to it.
    • Local satellite channels: their role in news coverage of the Libyan Crisis: a field study of university students

      Asadawe, Daw Sad (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2022-11)
      The Libyan media has changed dramatically in recent years. This thesis is designed to verify several elements specifically the patterns of media consumption, the credibility of news coverage and the extent to which it contributes to resolving the political-military crisis in Libya, which began in February 2011. The thesisexploredthe patterns of local and international television news services operating by way ofvarious media, broadcasts,publications,and the relationship between Libyan students’ consumption of variousnews media platforms. In this context,the news consumption habits among young people wereverified, paying particular attention to their use of local news services that are broadcast via satellite channels.In addition, this study included several interviews with experts, academics and technicians specialised in the field of media, as well as students from the University of Tripoli. The questionnaire was distributed to university students via the Internet, which was the objective of the field study. Using the interview tool, 25 interviews were conducted with academics, media professionals and students from the university, who were interviewed through the available means of communication. The study established that news coverage of the political and military crisis in Libya took a negative trend in contributing to a solution for the crisis, despite the large number of local satellite channels after the uprising of 2011.Nonetheless, these channels did not adhere to the standards of transparency, credibility and neutrality in the transmission of news coverage regarding the crisis in Libya. As reported in the field study results, statistical analysis indicated that there are demographic differences as regards to news consumption defined partly by the news platform (TV vs. radio vs. Internet and all varieties of press publications) and partly by the type of news provider (services) - local TV news vs. Arabic and foreign). The findings concerning the increasing impact of international satellite broadcasting news services and the demand for local television news services to establish ways to make them distinctive in a way that delivers alternative but still pertinent and valuable news sourceswere discussed. Concerning the credibility of the news, at the local level, the following channels, specifically, Libya Al-Owla, Libya International and Libya 24 attained the highest level in terms of viewing and follow-up in general.Whereas foreign channels, such as the BBC, Russia Today and Sky News achieved the most pertaining to monitoring. The position relating to news coverage of the crisis in Libya was negative, as were the low levels of credibility on local and Arab satellite channels.
    • Understanding factors affecting supply chain social sustainability practices and SMEs' sustainability performance

      Denu, Mathias Kofi Worlanyo (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2022-10)
      Research on the social dimension of supply chain sustainability has grown in recent years. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector are now being driven by the social requirements of stakeholders on issues such as human rights, ethnicity and inequality, ethics, community, employees and poverty alleviation. However, researchers have mainly concentrated their efforts on large organisations handling social issues in the supply chain. Research on how small businesses manage social sustainability issues and sustainability performance is still rare, especially in emerging African economies. Drawing on both legitimate theory and stakeholder theory, this research aims to: a) understand factors affecting supply chain social sustainability (SCSS) practices and SMEs’ sustainability performance in emerging African economies, b) develop and validate multidimensional measures to evaluate focal SMEs’ social sustainability performance (SSP) of emerging African economies, and c) develop a model to examine the effects of stakeholder pressures (SP) and social responsibility standards (SRS) on an SME’s sustainability performance and investigate the mediating effects of SCSS practices. The study adopts a mixed research methodology. Firstly, the research performed a structured literature review evaluating 85 studies investigating social sustainability practices in the supply chain. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five SME managers to explore the adoption of SCSS practices in SMEs in Ghana. Lastly, the findings informed the survey questionnaire design for quantitative data collection for the study. The relationships between the constructs generated for this study were tested and validated by analysing 375 questionnaires collected from 100 focal manufacturing SMEs. The analysis includes respondent background information, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, a conceptual model test using SPSS to prepare the data, and AMOS version 23.0 to test the proposed model. The research findings indicate that SRS and SP significantly affect SCSS practices in focal manufacturing SMEs. Similarly, adopting SRS improves the SSP of focal SMEs. However, economic sustainability performance (ESP) only improved after the study introduced an indirect variable of SCSS practices. The findings also suggest that SP does not necessarily lead to the sustainability performance of focal SMEs but only through an indirect variable of SCSS practices. Likewise, SCSS practices significantly improve the sustainability performance of focal SMEs. Also, the SSP of focal SMEs improves ESP in the emerging African economy. The research adds to existing knowledge from a different perspective. Firstly, the study contributes to the literature by proposing, testing and validating 23 measures across six significant dimensions to accurately evaluate the focal firm’s SSP in emerging African economies. This study identifies two vital new measuring indicators – 1) poverty alleviation and 2) ethnicity and inequality – in addition to the relevant indicators reported in the literature. Secondly, the study provides a new empirical model for focal SMEs based on stakeholder and legitimacy theories. This study contributes to the social sustainability literature, as the model measures the effects of SRS, SP and SCSS practices on a focal SME’s sustainability performance (social and economic) after testing and validation. The study also uncovered the mediating effect of focal SMEs’ SSP on the link between SRS and focal SMEs’ ESP. Keywords: Supply Chain Social Sustainability, Social Sustainability Performance, Measure Development, Ghana, SME, Emerging African Economies.
    • Satisfaction, destination quality and behavioral intentions: the case of UNESCO Heritage Sites in Jordan

      Al Zu'Mot, Rania (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-04)
      This study investigated the effect of quality of the cultural heritage destination on the Behavioural Intentions of its visitors and the role that Satisfaction plays in determining their Behavioural Intentions. The study questioned the ability of Destination Quality to predict the tourists’ Behavioural Intentions by using this explanatory variable as the sole determinant of tourist’s Satisfaction. By so doing, this study proposes alternative predictors of Satisfaction and, consequently, behaviour. The lack of a dedicated tool to measure quality, Satisfaction and Behavioural Intention in cultural heritage sites called for designing a new, dedicated instrument, called the Destination Quality Scale, and, hereafter, referred to as DESTINQUAL Scale, to achieve the study goals. Although this study adopted a mixed‐method approach, it is mainly quantitative in nature. The interviews helped in development of the questionnaire whereas the data needed for hypothesis testing and analysis were quantitative data that were processed following quantitative analysis methods. Of the 500 questionnaire forms distributed to local and foreign tourists in five World Cultural Heritage sites in Jordan, exactly 447 forms were retrieved. Of these, only 388 forms were usable. The research data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Smart PLS software. The results of hypothesis testing showed that all studied measures of quality of the cultural heritage site positively affected tourist’s Satisfaction and Behavioural Intentions to varying degrees. In addition, this study found that the individual effect of each of the investigated Destination Quality measures on the tourist’s Behavioural Intention were partially mediated by Satisfaction, except for Authenticity, whose effect on the tourist’s Behavioural Intention was fully mediated by Satisfaction. These findings confirm the proposition of this study that visitors of cultural heritage sites have special interests in these destinations and look for experience beyond the service quality. This study contributes to the theoretical knowledge by uncovering the factors that lead to certain behaviours in the cultural visitation context, which is a contribution that was only possible after development of a dedicated scale (the DESTINQUAL Scale) to assess quality of the cultural heritage destinations, which is, actually, a scale that can be used in any cultural heritage site in the World. At the methodological level, the study challenged the diagnostic ability of the widely used Expectancy‐Disconfirmation Theory in the cultural visitation context by providing evidence on that Satisfaction can be assessed via other measures than the service quality measures. At the practical level, the research tool and study results can help tourism planners and decision makers in heightening the level of Satisfaction of the cultural heritage site visitors and warranting the desired behavioural intentions, ultimately to contribute to enhancement of tourist’s experience and to tourism sector in Jordan.
    • Energy efficient technique for Hadoop MapReduce cluster management

      Alalawi, Manal Tawalai (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2020-03)
      Big data analytics, with datasets of terabyte and petabyte size, is now a reality for businesses. A widely used solution for data centres is the MapReduce model on open‐source Hadoop. Many organisations processing real‐time data of this magnitude rely on the Hadoop MapReduce model, and the massive increase in data generation means that even small to medium enterprises (SMEs) have a requirement for big data analysis. The business insights gained from this real‐time data analysis are vital in the modern world, and although this can be outsourced to data centres, SMEs will be more sustainable if they can do this for themselves. However, the increase in the amount of data has resulted in a corresponding increase in the amount of energy used for processing. The need to minimise the use of energy, both in terms of cost and ecology, is the main rationale behind this research, and energy‐efficiency will be the key to sustainability in the twenty‐first century. The initial categorisation of energy‐efficient methods for Hadoop components has been the starting point for a comparative evaluation in this research. The research has used Hadoop MapReduce performance modelling in a series of mathematical analyses and experimental tests, and these have led to the identification and design of an energy‐efficient model. This proposed model uses a novel method of data partitioning using virtual chunks. The idea is that rather than accessing the entire data file, blocks, or chunks of data are accessed that are virtually linked. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed design have been evaluated mathematically and the results presented graphically, and the method has been shown to minimise the processing time and complete the different data operations. This reduction of processing time has resulted in minimising the I/O bottleneck of workload applications, thus reducing the amount of energy needed for processing big data. This improved energyefficiency can be maintained for datasets of all sizes and in multiple applications. The results of this research are transferrable and can be used by SMEs of any kind in any area of business.
    • Financing entrepreneurial innovation within England

      Soribe, Winifred Amarachi (University of BedfordshireUniversity of Bedfordshire, 2023-05)
      Entrepreneurship has come to serve as a platform for innovation with majority of the world’s economies seeking to promote structures, policies and environments that encourage it. For entrepreneurial firms to succeed, availability of finance has been identified as a key factor; however, despite availability of new financial tools, a demand‐side gap still exists. This is quite important as entrepreneurial firms have particularly high hurdles to cross when seeking finance due to the complexity and uncertainty associated with their products/services. Several studies have investigated the access to finance problem without yielding unique results, this study adopts a novel conceptual framework where the intellectual capital of firm and its social media capabilities are examined to investigate the empirical relationship that exists between intellectual capital and access to finance. Entrepreneurial orientation and collaboration act as mediators with environmental munificence acting as the moderator. Theoretical triangulation is applied to this study as two main theories namely the Agency theory which provides a framework to assess the agency problems which are information asymmetry and moral hazard within an entrepreneurial setting. The second theory is the resource dependency theory which highlights dependencies created between firms and financiers when external finance is raised. This research adopts a quantitative methodology using questionnaire instrument to collect 488 valid responses. The responses were collected using both in‐person and online channels. The researcher had to engage in entrepreneurial activities to build their social capital by organising global events online, hosting online fireside chats, volunteering on various entrepreneurship mentoring platforms (Posters can be found in the appendix). Data collected was analysed using covariance based structural equation modelling. A detailed and rigorous analysis of data collected is carried out to test the measurement and structural model. Findings include but are not limited to the following: There is a direct and positive relationship between social capital and access to finance due to its legitimising qualities, social media is found to promote collaboration in the firm and with competitors. Structural capital is seen to have a positive relationship with access to finance as robust processes within a firm enables it mitigate information asymmetry problems. Firms possessing entrepreneurial orientation and collaboration capabilities are seen to leverage on their intellectual capital more efficiently thus aiding them to access finance. There is also a positive and direct relationship between environmental munificence and access to finance whereby firms operating in resource rich environments tend to raise external finance more easily. Several contributions are made to academia, practice and policy making that highlight the paramount role of intellectual capital which has become more pronounced as the world moves towards service‐based economies.