Impacts of environmental uncertainty on firms' innovation capability and stakeholder value: Evidence from the australian courier industry

COVID-19 pandemic has drawn great attention to environmental uncertainty. The current paper attempts to conceptually develop and empirically validate a research framework that explains how the firms' environmental uncertainty influences their innovation capability and stakeholder value. Drawing on contingency theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory, this study develops a conceptual framework for the related constructs and employs a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the suggested framework. The empirical results validate both measurement (outer) and structural (inner) models. They indicate that environmental uncertainty is negatively associated with the innovation capability and stakeholder value while innovation capability is positively related to both internal and external stakeholder value. The results also show that internal stakeholder value positively affects external stakeholder value. Providing valuable insights into logistics and supply chain management, our study contributes to research in environmental uncertainty and innovation management based on the stakeholder theory. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd.

Epilogue: What’s Next? A New Era

The global pandemic has challenged everything the authors thought they knew about international higher education. In many ways, the post-World War II era defined and made possible the Golden Age of International Higher Education, especially after the Cold War, with robust systems of education across the world and scholars, students moving to new places. The future is becoming more digital, whether they like it or not, so the sector will have to adjust to new innovations. These new realities were already encroaching on the sector prior to the pandemic, and the virus just likely sped up the changes at an unprecedented rate. This post-COVID era will see more digital commuting, flexible scheduling, and less traveling for work. The ability for students and scholars moving across the world to study, learn, or research will be even more coveted, though our sector should pay careful attention to who is afforded these opportunities. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Krishna Bista, Ryan M. Allen, and Roy Y. Chan;individual chapters, the contributors.

A New Golden Age in International Higher Education: Challenges and Successes during the Pandemic and Beyond

This introductory chapter responds to the growing need for new insights and perspectives to improve global student mobility policy and practice in the era of COVID-19. Specifically, this chapter gives an overview of the book and draws an outline of the impacts for global mobility in the field of comparative and international higher education. We highlight international student trends and the need for developing programs, policies, and systems that align with national needs, institutional priorities, and student well-being for global learning. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Krishna Bista, Ryan M. Allen, and Roy Y. Chan;individual chapters, the contributors.

Impacts of COVID-19 on International Students and the Future of Student Mobility: International Perspectives and Experiences

This volume uses case studies and students’ lived experiences to document the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) on international students and explore future challenges and opportunities for student mobility within higher education. Responding to the growing need for new insights and perspectives to improve higher education policy and practice in the era of COVID-19, this text analyses the changing roles and responsibilities of institutions and international education leaders post-2020. Initial chapters highlight key issues for students that have arisen as a result of the global health crisis such as learning, well-being, and the changed emotional, legal, and financial implications of study abroad. Subsequent chapters confront potential longer-term implications of students’ experiences during COVID-19, and provide critical reflection on internationalization and the opportunities that COVID-19 has presented for tertiary education systems around the world to learn from one another. This timely volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in online teaching and e-learning, curriculum design, and more specifically those involved with international and comparative education. Those involved with educational policy and practice, specifically related to pandemic education, will also benefit from this volume. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Krishna Bista, Ryan M. Allen, and Roy Y. Chan;individual chapters, the contributors.

Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences

This timely volume documents the immediate, global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on teaching and learning in higher education. Focusing on student and faculty experiences of online and distance education, the text provides reflections on novel initiatives, unexpected challenges, and lessons learned. Responding to the urgent need to better understand online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book investigates how the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) impacted students, faculty, and staffexperiences during the COVID-19 lockdown. Chapters initially look at the challenges faced by universities and educators in their attempts to overcome the practical difficulties involved in developing effective online programming and pedagogy. The text then builds on these insights to highlight student experiences and consider issues of social connection and inequality. Finally, the volume looks forward to asking what lessons COVID-19 can offer for the future development of online and distance learning in higher education. This engaging volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in online teaching and eLearning, curriculum design, and more, specifically those involved with the digitalization of higher education. The text will also support further discussion and reflection around pedagogical transformation, international teaching and learning, and educational policy more broadly. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Roy Y. Chan, Krishna Bista, Ryan M. Allen;individual chapters, the contributors.

Collaborative Learning in Engineering Students under Social Distancing: An Action Research

In this work-in-progress, an action research was performed in a taught postgraduate engineering course during the global pandemic of COVID-19 in Spring 2020. Due to the social distancing policy, all courses offered by the authors' university must be delivered online. In addition to the synchronous online lectures delivered through ZOOM, the course instructor (first author) established a class blogging community as an innovative practice to promote students' social epistemic cognition (SEC) under physical isolation. The current action research focuses on course design, with a disposition that students' SEC can be enhanced by collaborative learning in form of a class blogging community. The action research consisted of three implementation loops. The first author reflected her teaching in the end of each loop, and modified her practice in the next loop. A summative evaluation was conducted in the end of the semester. Our results suggest that the class blogging community, together with teacher's action research and students' social network analysis, are effective strategies in enhancing engineering students' collaborative learning under nearly completed physical isolation.