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This chapter focuses on a population that I call iron moms: women who negotiate work, family, and endurance sport identities. This research sheds light on how mothers with families, full-time jobs, and other responsibilities fit a high level of endurance training into their lives. Looking at endurance sport through the lens of gender and parenthood helps uncover the unique complexities that iron moms face juggling their multiple identities. Included is an assessment of how iron moms manage their status on the athletic visibility continuum as a process associated with identity construction and maintenance. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 active iron mom competitors and textual analysis of triathlon blog postings, this work uncovers the details of how these women attempt to find satisfaction in multiple areas of their lives. This chapter suggests that navigating one's status on the athletic visibility continuum in addition to navigating the complex web of dominant social discourses surrounding motherhood play a critical role in shaping how women craft their existence as an iron mom. Findings stress the value of “me time,” the pervasiveness of “mom guilt,” and the importance of reframing dominant discourses about motherhood.

The conflict between institutionalism and neoclassicism in the 20th century has been investigated by scholars over the years. Many of them believe that in the postwar period, neoclassicism triumphed while institutionalism largely disappeared. The present chapter takes a very different view. The late 20th century represents a broad synthesis of neoclassical and institutional themes in a methodology we call pragmatic empiricism. That approach combines the mathematical model building and theoretical formalism of neoclassical economics with the institutional economist’s data-driven statistical analysis and concern for developing institutional forms. We use as a case study the history of American locational economics from the 1930s to the present. The mixing of institutional and neoclassical themes is quite evident in the work of three young scholars at Harvard who effectively initiated American locational economics. In the postwar period, we find a series of outstanding, well-published papers that capture the spirit of the “founders.” These papers do use more modeling, but they also focus on major institutional developments. A broader review of locational works is consistent with the pragmatic empiricism label. The history of locational economics supports the claim that institutionalism, far from disappearing, continues to provide fundamental questions and techniques for modern pragmatic empiricism.

Carbon leakage – where multinational enterprises (MNEs) transfer carbon-intensive production activities to countries with laxer emissions constraints for cost purposes – is one of the main mechanisms through which international business (IB) contributes to climate change. This chapter discusses a new policy initiative called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that the European Union (EU) introduced in May 2023 to fight carbon leakage. The authors analyze the logic of CBAM and discuss how it will likely influence IB both in industries that are directly targeted by CBAM and related industries that will face spillover effects.

This chapter explores how department stores came at the end of the 19th century to be at the origin of what is now called “fashion tourism.” Contributing to a new “geography of commerce,” it highlights the role of the space of the department store both as a place of conspicuous fashion consumption and tourism. Further, it demonstrates how Parisian department stores helped consolidate Paris's place as the capital of fashion and luxury. Far from being only places to buy the latest in fashion, the latter became indeed a symbol as quintessentially Parisian as the Eiffel Tower and as necessary to visit for the “Paris experience.”

At the beginning of the 21st century, multiple and diverse social entities, including the public (consumers), private and nonprofit healthcare institutions, government (public health) and other industry sectors, began to recognize the limitations of the current fragmented healthcare system paradigm. Primary stakeholders, including employers, insurance companies, and healthcare professional organizations, also voiced dissatisfaction with unacceptable health outcomes and rising costs. Grand challenges and wicked problems threatened the viability of the health sector. American health systems responded with innovations and advances in healthcare delivery frameworks that encouraged shifts from intra- and inter-sector arrangements to multi-sector, lasting relationships that emphasized patient centrality along with long-term commitments to sustainability and accountability. This pathway, leading to a population health approach, also generated the need for transformative business models. The coproduction of health framework, with its emphasis on cross-sector alignments, nontraditional partner relationships, sustainable missions, and accountability capable of yielding return on investments, has emerged as a unique strategy for facing disruptive threats and challenges from nonhealth sector corporations. This chapter presents a coproduction of health framework, goals and criteria, examples of boundary spanning network alliance models, and operational (integrator, convener, aggregator) strategies. A comparison of important organizational science theories, including institutional theory, network/network analysis theory, and resource dependency theory, provides suggestions for future research directions necessary to validate the utility of the coproduction of health framework as a precursor for paradigm change.

This chapter provides an introduction to the world of family companies and family constitutions from a legal perspective. It first studies the legal types of business organizations that family firms have chosen across time and jurisdictions. It then illustrates how early predecessors of family constitutions evolved in the late Middle Ages and what modern family constitutions look like in different countries today. Further considerations are devoted to the governance framework of family firms. The chapter concludes by exploring the potential legal effects of family constitutions under German company and contract law.

Purpose: This chapter aims to enlighten the stakeholders on the role and contribution and the issues and challenges of large-scale industries in the wake of the globally unified economies.

Need for the study: Large-scale industries are one of the pillars of any nation and can exercise an immense impact on the numerous facets of the economy of any country. Their role and contribution can benefit all the stakeholders, especially in today’s integrated and interdependent world economies. Hence, there is an absolute need to highlight the issues and challenges and suggest measures to overcome them to promote a resilient global economy.

Methodology: The study gathered data from secondary sources like textbooks, articles, and the internet.

Findings: The findings of the study state that large-scale industries are enormous contributors to employment creation, development of the economy, growth of revenue, research and development (R&D) and innovation, export promotion, and infrastructure. The significant challenges include regulatory compliance, workforce management, economic volatility, political instability, supply chain management, environmental compliance, and technology and infrastructure.

Protectionism, deregulation, public–private partnership, privatisation, and environmental regulation are significant government decisions that affect large-scale industries. The study identifies tax incentives, easy access to financing, and domestic and international trade policies to safeguard large-scale industries’ interests.

Practical implications: Large-scale industries contribute towards the growth of global economic resilience in terms of employment generation, technological advancements, and innovation, fostering international trade in today’s interconnected world.

Even though sustainability appears to be a relevant driver for the relocation of production, this has only to a limited extent been studied as an independent motive or a result of backshoring. This study explores the literature on backshoring and sustainability and discusses some empirical cases to shed light on the connection between sustainability and backshoring. This study argues that sustainability issues may require a broader perspective than the dominant economic logic framing previous studies on backshoring. Institutional theory is suggested as a theoretical framework for analyzing how sustainability can play a role in companies’ backshoring decisions.