The Three Kingdoms period of ancient China (208-280 AD) refers to the period  between Eastern Han (25–220 AD) and Jin dynasties (266–420), during which China was divided into Shu (221-263 AD), Wei  (220-266 AD) and Wu (222-280 AD) kingdoms, and then united as Jin dynasty. This paper constructs the quarterly series of alliance structures between the Three Kingdoms. By collecting and analyzing a total of two hundred and eighty-nine quarterly observations, the paper shows that the three most frequent alliance structures are ρ0: 1) the finest partition or no-alliance structure with 192 partitions; 2) Three partitions with Shu-Jin alliance and Wu singletion with 57 partions; 3) Wei-Wu alliance and one singletion Shu with 12 partions. It also shows that the observed changes in alliance structures were the consequence of a total of fifteen major battles fought by the three kingdoms. Such results serve as a contribution to the studies of applied game theory, alliance study, and the economic and military histories in ancient China.

The study acknowledges empirical, conceptual, and policy-driven papers that address emotional assertiveness, assertive communication, and assertive training as means of improving employee performance in Chinese banking, which is a significant contributor to the Chinese economy. Most banking enterprises have suffered from poor performance and a lack of aggressiveness in operation. It can be used by both managers and employees to create a good interaction process and a favorable work environment, which can help elevate performances. The research employs a quantitative approach, utilizing a questionnaire survey and simple random sampling. The sample comprises 381 employees from the Chinese banking industry, with a response rate above 70%. The regression analysis confirms that emotional assertiveness, assertive training, and assertive communication significantly impact employee performance. In conclusion, this study contributes to academia and industries by addressing the importance of assertiveness in improving performance. The policy-driven evidence on the conceptual framework of HR literacy in emotional, training, communication, and job performance should be adopted and reviewed in the country’s existing management by objective policy and legal framework in resolving employee job performance and training that are still underutilized and have a great deal of potential to satisfy the employees and management needs by establishing and emerging nations.

In the realm of modern education, the integration of technology has emerged as a powerful catalyst for transforming traditional classrooms into dynamic and engaging learning environments. This paper provides a concise overview of the multifaceted ways in which technology contributes to enhanced classroom engagement.

Effective small and medium enterprise (SME) leadership demands creative solutions to ensure organisations survive and thrive during the turbulent times that COVID-19 continues to bring. This paper explores how SME leaders (in micro and small organisations) prioritise and access the skills and development needed to provide effective and sustainable leadership to organisations, focusing on the role of resilience and the benefits it provides. Participants were selected through purposive and snowballing sampling. Online surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted and provided qualitative data that contributes to an understanding of the role of resilience and the view of participants as to what is needed to effectively respond to a dynamic environment. Evidence shows that SME leaders prioritise learning and development opportunities that provide demonstrable benefits throughout the organisation. Building business resilience remains a fuzzy concept; however, viewing resilience as a multi-level construct offers benefits when designing and delivering development opportunities. It has been found that networking, partnerships, and relationship building promote resilience and may offer a solution to how to embed resilience building into development opportunities that SME leaders value and wish to engage with. This article contributes by illustrating and exploring leadership development within SMEs during a period of unexpected and untested uncertainty. The pandemic caused major shock waves within business communities, and SMEs were significantly affected. The research is limited in that it is expected to be a once-in-a lifetime event, and as such conditions may not be replicable, learning opportunities for other ‘shock’ events are possible. The findings of this paper have relevance to practice in that, while the event may be one-off, shocks to the business environment are not.

The study examined the socio-demographic factors affecting access to and utilization of social welfare services in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to select 570 respondents from the study area. Probability and non-probability sampling techniques were adopted in the selection of communities, and respondents. The quantitative data were analyzed using frequency distribution tables and percentages, while chi-square statistic was used to determine the relationship between socio-demographic variables and access to and utilization of social welfare services. The qualitative data were analyzed in themes as a complement to the quantitative data. This study reveals that although all the respondents reported knowing available social welfare services, 44.3% reported not having access to existing social services due to factors connected to serendipity variables, such as terrain condition, ethnicity and knowing someone in government. Therefore, the study recommends that the government and other stakeholders should push for the massive delivery of much-needed social welfare services to address the issue of welfare service deficit across the nation, irrespective of the ethnic group and whether the community is connected to the government of the day or not, primarily in rural areas.

The paper at hand analyses the principal-agent relationship, where comparative perspective between principals’ (municipalities) and agents’ (public utility providers) in the field of water and wastewater management is scrutinized. The goal of the paper is twofold: firstly, to present empirical results validating principal-agent relationships that emerged due to the reorganization process of public enterprises; secondly, to highlight the similarities and differences between the perspectives of principals and agents regarding motives, advantages and disadvantages, and price-setting in relation to the reorganization process. The empirical research is based on the primary data collected through two self-prepared and structured online questionnaires—one for municipalities, and the other for public utility providers. The results reveal similarities between public enterprises and municipalities in motivating factors for full municipal ownership. However, differences are seen among the advantages of the reorganization process. Price-setting by public utilities is recognized as a motivating mechanism for agents.