Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are mostly presented as a means to introduce efficient procurement methods and better value for money to taxpayers. However, the complexity of the PPP mechanism, their lack of transparency, accounting rules and implicit liabilities make it often impossible to perceive the amount of public expenditure involved and the long-run impact on taxpayers, providing room for fiscal illusion, i.e., the illusion that PPPs are much less expensive than traditional public investments. This psaper, thanks to a systematic review of the literature on the EU countries experience, tries to unveil the sources of this illusion by looking at the reasons behind the PPPs’ choice, their real costs, and the sources of fiscal risks. The literature suggests that PPPs are more costly than public funding, especially when contingent liabilities are not taken into account, and are employed as mechanisms to circumvent budgetary restrictions and to spend off-balance. The paper concludes that the public sector should share more risks with private sectors by reducing the amount of guarantees, and should prevent governments from operating through a sleight of hand that deflects attention away from off-balance financing, by applying a neutral fiscal recording system.

Ostensibly, theories from the eastern and western worlds have emphasized different aspects of character, while in India, greater importance is attached to character building. We must understand that character building establishes surroundings for the human being with distinct values and virtues persisting inside him. This study attempts to explain the importance of the character merits of young managers in mitigating volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) challenges encountered in a business journey. This scholarly effort, with a framework of being reflective and expressive, attempts to capture empirical and qualitative data, hence presenting a model and explaining the connection between the character of young managers and VUCA. The authors initially mine on what character implies and how it could be plausibly examined. Character, as a manifestation, is qualitatively distinguished as a sum of one’s bent of mind, embracing the brighter part of good qualities and consolidating a frame to capture the countenance of a genuine personality. We must understand that for organisation’s growth and sustainability, it is vital for the human resources department to maintain a training methodology that is systematic and focused on character building.

This study investigates the effectiveness of digital leadership in promoting organizational sustainability, with a specific focus on the mediating role of digital leadership capability. The research explores how digital leadership impacts sustainable performance within Chinese construction organizations. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study analyzes data collected from 529 respondents across various organizations. The findings reveal that digital leadership significantly enhances organizational sustainability both directly and indirectly, through digital leadership capability. These results underscore the importance of digital leadership as a critical factor in guiding digital transformation and achieving long-term sustainable outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting digital leadership’s role in fostering organizational adaptability and sustainability in rapidly evolving digital environments.

This study is based on the theory of planned behaviour, and its aim is to understand the impact of doctoral pursuit intention on the doctoral preparatory behaviour of female teachers in independent colleges in China, as well as to determine the moderating effect of perceived risk between doctoral pursuit intention and doctoral preparatory behaviour. The participants in the study were female teachers from independent colleges in China, who were recruited between February and March 2024 based on convenience sampling. 776 valid questionnaires were obtained, and the data were analyzed using a hierarchical regression method. According to the results, a doctoral pursuit intention has a significant and positive predictive effect on doctoral preparatory behaviour, while the perceived risk has a significant and negative moderating effect between doctoral pursuit intention and doctoral preparatory behaviour. This indicates that female teachers with high doctoral pursuit intention more actively prepare to pursue a doctoral degree when the perceived risk is low, whereas the doctoral preparatory behaviour of those with high perceived risk shows a limited increase as their doctoral pursuit intention increases. Therefore, female teachers’ pursuit of a doctoral degree should be supported on an individual basis and analysed within the broader context of the transformation of independent colleges.