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The paper seeks to analyse the constellation of social structures, administrative institutions and hierarchies that sustain the exclusion of the San minority group in Zimbabwe, with a particular focus on how the European expansion in the eighteenth century, the modern state and private property owners have colluded to perpetuate exclusion from accessing forest as their natural habitat. The purpose of this paper is to therefore highlight the various abuses, including those social, administrative legislative frameworks that discriminate against the San minority and it advocates for actions the right to consultation and the right to free, prior and informed consent to proposed developments.

Through the modern ethnographic approach, data generation was guided by the principles of indigenous and decolonising research methodologies, which place emphasis on the importance of San people telling their own stories thereby shifting the power of a researcher to the indigenous participants. This is a qualitative study that gives prominence to the descriptions of experiences (phenomenology) and interpretations (hermeneutic) of their survival. The paper employed cultural ecology theoretical framework as a lens through which to see the San’s exclusion from forest resources and how this has tragically shifted their egalitarian lifestyle characterised by reciprocity, sharing and levelling to adaptation to the unfamiliar sedentary farming practices.

The technical implementation of forest boundary demarcation and forcing the San to join sedentary farming form part of the state’s territorialisation that excludes, restricts and disrupts the San minority from accessing forest products. The treatment of the minority group reveals not only the enormous authority of the state to transfer alienation to individuals and companies but also to legitimise the exclusion by establishing laws and policies that safeguard the interests of those favoured by the state. The San, who are already overly dominated by the social administrative structures of the Ndebele and Kalanga tribes, lack systematic and organised responses to their marginalisation.

The San community in Zimbabwe is under-researched and under-theorised particularly in relation to how historically formed postcolonial hierarchies of exclusion and marginalisation manifest themselves in contemporary resource governance. Less is known about how those that are powerful – government officials, private property owners and Kalanga/Ndebele tribes benefit more from the environmental resources than the powerless minority San, whose livelihoods depend on the primary natural resources. The unequal power relations have been demonstrated by the evictions of the minority from wildlife areas that were converted into game parks. The study reveals how indigenous San not only resist exclusion but also develop adaptable strategies through negotiations to improve their situation with social and administrative institutions.

Cincinnati manufacturers before World War I displayed substantial unity in pursuing the open shop. San Francisco employers were divided, in both their attitudes and their actions, on how to deal with unions. I treat these differences in terms of business class formation. My explanation emphasizes how racial dynamics, class relations, and citizenship practices, acting in cumulative historical sequences, shaped employer solidarity and ideology.

This chapter analyzes the link between the digital divide, infrastructure regulation, and disaster planning and relief through a case study of the flood in San Jose, California triggered by the Anderson dam’s overtopping in February 2017 and an examination of communication failures during the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California. This chapter theorizes that regulatory decisions construct social and disaster vulnerability. Rooted in the Whole Community approach to disaster planning and relief espoused by the United Nations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this chapter calls for leadership to end the digital divide. It highlights the imperative of understanding community information needs and argues for linking strategies to close the digital divide with infrastructure and emergency planning. As the Internet’s integration into society increases, the digital divide diminishes access to societal resources including disaster aid, and exacerbates wildfire, flood, pandemic, and other risks. To mitigate climate change, climate-induced disaster, protect access to social services and the economy, and safeguard democracy, it argues for digital inclusion strategies as a centerpiece of community-centered infrastructure regulation and disaster relief.

This chapter reports on how to assess the usefulness of official tourism websites; the study applies for information audit rubrics to assess the marketing websites for three cities in the state of California. The study provides tools that may be useful for designing destination websites to include information that visitors find useful. The three focal cities include Los Angeles (discoverlosangeles.com), San Diego (sandiego.org), and San Francisco (onlyinsanfrancisco.com). One of the hypotheses that the study examines is that destination websites are assessable in order of good, better, best. Findings: San Francisco provides the most useful information and is likely to be the most successful official tourism website. The assessment of San Francisco as the best website is the outcome of applying macro and micro rubrics covering: general and practical information, ability to book a vacation, digital and print materials, use of media components, and partnerships.

German legal historians of nineteenth and twentieth centuries defined the main characteristics of the corporations and believed that one renaissance institution, the Casa di San Giorgio at Genoa (1407–1805), was similar to the corporations of later centuries. This paper proposes to reverse this perspective: did the founders of early modern corporations know the financial model of the fifteenth century Casa di San Giorgio? The research shows the connection between the model of the Casa di San Giorgio and the Mississippi Company of John Law (1720), the famous financial scheme and bubble. The history of the Casa di San Giorgio was mainly transmitted through a passage of Machiavelli’s History of Florence (VIII, 29). The paper offers new biographical evidence that Law had been to Genoa and introduces sources connecting the genesis of Law’s scheme for the Mississippi Company in France with the model of the Casa di San Giorgio.

Grass roots movements in relationships of cooperation and conflict between firms, communities, and government have an important role to stop a living city from disappearing. This chapter describes and analyzes the implications of the collective action used by grass roots movements in the defense of an old mining town, Cerro de San Pedro, of being disappeared due to the pollution of fresh watersheds by the operations of a mining company and the effects on the living city of San Luis Potosì, in the center of Mèxico.

This exploratory study uses a punctuated equilibrium paradigm (PEP) framework to examine the impact and adaptation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) to the COVID-19 pandemic at the organizational and ecosystem level. The aim is to provide guidance to EEs on ways to adapt to future external shocks.

As this study is exploratory in nature, the authors use a sequential mixed method whereby a qualitative method is used first to identify emergent themes from in-depth interviews with EE members, followed by a quantitative method (survey) based on those themes across a broader cross section of EE members.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem’s geographical advantages have declined during the pandemic as EE firms adapted to this external shock by developing more digitally distributed organizations.

Based on the findings, the authors propose an emerging model of EEs that extends the traditional clustering model focused on geography to account for more digitally distributed entrepreneurial clusters. However, the results, based on an in-depth study of one ecosystem, may not be fully generalizable to all EEs.

Given the widespread pandemic impact, the findings may be instructive to EEs and organizations in EEs that aim to become more resilient in the face of potential future external shocks.

As part of the qualitative interview process the interviewees were asked what they would change in San Francisco Bay Area if they had a magic wand right now. They discussed a variety of inspiring ideas, but the most frequently mentioned was their wish to change the focus of business to solve societal problems with a global citizen mindset (e.g. recycling energy, climate change, income inequality, access to education and funding, inequity, wealth gaps, housing crisis and homelessness) to make the world a better place. Additionally, the pandemic exposed some inequality in work conditions across demographics. As firms reorganize to increase resiliency, attention to these issues should be addressed.

This study is unique in applying the PEP to EEs to deepen our understanding about how an EE evolves during periods of sudden external shocks.

The aim of this paper is to analyze relationships of cooperation and conflict between a mining company and the involved communities, focusing on the presence of the mining company (MSX) in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico.

The paper focuses on the co‐operation and conflict between firms, communities, new social movements and the role of government.

The presence of the mining company has caused a severe social conflict among the inhabitants of San Pedro, Soledad y San Luis, alerting all who are concerned with historic heritage, cultural and environmental issues. At the center of the controversy is the cheap and efficient technology. Federal and state laws were violated. It is quite evident that there was a lack of sensitivity of foreign mining companies toward the consequences of their activities upon the communities and environment. This case also shows the lack of negotiation between firms, communities, new social movements and governments. Information about externalities and future costs of company activities is crucial but more crucial is formulation and implementation of more sensitive policies to avoid damage to the environment, biodiversity and health of the population. Governmental institutions must be aware that their decisions may affect the quality of life of present and future generations for the sake of a small increment in economic growth and large increase in private benefits of a small group of investors. More informed citizens tend to be more active protestors, such as the case of the students in San Luis. Contact between informed individuals of diverse groups and organizations helps to exchange experiences and create public opinion in favor of mobilization. Community participation and involvement in decision‐making of community development planning is quite limited by the lack of critical information. This fact is critical when the local government cannot provide the right information because there are other interests affecting the process.

The paper highlights the lack of sensitivity of foreign mining companies towards local communities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore black market retailing, with a focus on Colombia’s San Andresitos.

The authors use grounded theory methodology to develop a theoretical framework that explains how consumers rationalize their acceptance, rejection, or tolerance of black market retailing. The authors obtained qualitative data based on reader responses to newspaper articles on San Andresitos and used the responses as qualitative data in comparative analysis to derive a “strategy family” theoretical framework.

The framework advances rationalization techniques that consumers employ to accept, reject, or tolerate the San Andresitos.

Colombians are divided on the legality of the San Andresitos. Although half the informants note the wrongfulness of the San Andresitos, the other half offer reasons to accept or tolerate them.

Legitimate (i.e. lawful) retailers operating in Colombia, or planning to enter, need to realize that local and national government officials support the San Andresitos. Colombia’s legitimate retailers must co-exist with the black market and dissuade consumers from patronizing unauthorized vendors or purchasing illicit goods.

Colombia’s acceptance of its black markets results in consumers inadvertently supporting crime, terrorism, and even bodily harm via the San Andresitos. However, the San Andresitos enable lower-income consumers to gain access to otherwise unattainable merchandise and provide employment through lower-skilled labor.

This paper is one of the first to explore black markets. From a transformative service research perspective, this research reveals how consumers, retailers, and government officials participate in Colombia’s black market, and how their activities serve to harm consumer well-being.

Increasing competition in global markets requires many countries to seek new growth sectors. In addition, the nature of competition is changing. This paper applies the business ecosystem concept and studies San Diego as a spatial health and life sciences ecosystem. The purpose of this paper is to identify issues that should be considered in design of innovation policies and regional industry development.

The research approach is built on a literature review of business ecosystems and spatial innovation. The empirical study is based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and information gathering and verification during field research.

The results include a description of the ecosystem structure and dynamics. This paper demonstrates the bottom-up nature of San Diego’s health and life sciences ecosystem without a dominant lead actor, and presents prerequisites for fostering spatial ecosystems.

A single case may not be able to offer a generalized picture of this topic. However, the study raises several considerations for researchers and decision-makers involved in innovation policy design. Future work should extend the study and involve other spatial and substance contexts to compare findings and to pursue a more generic picture of innovation ecosystems and networks.

This paper demonstrates that applying the concept of business ecosystems to the spatial context provides new insights in terms of dynamic mechanisms and factors contributing to economic growth in a particular location. Understanding how to facilitate the creation of successful spatial ecosystems is in the focal point of innovation policies.