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Distances between contexts that a multinational enterprise (MNE) is familiar with and those that it is not familiar with do not hinder the MNE from becoming global. In this sense, distance serves as a barrier between an MNE’s global intentions and its regional realizations. (Multi)regional strategies are a possible expression of an MNE’s inability to approach distances. Considering the managerially relevant distances is essential to analyze the internationalization and the resulting (multi)regional strategies. A deeper understanding of how distance works requires linking distance to micro-foundations. Besides bounded rationality, bounded reliability opens the conceptual pathway toward a deeper understanding of internationalization and (multi)regional strategies.

Research on Traveller education in Ireland is limited. Internationally, studies on the education of the Traveller, Roma or Gypsy community tend to focus on educational participation and exclusion, discrimination, identity and belonging with little focus on the representation of Traveller student across different types of schools and educational settings. This chapter examines the distribution of Traveller students across mainstream and alternative education settings in Ireland, and how this distribution varies across different types of schools and centres. Using data from the Growing Up in Ireland principal survey and survey data from Irish alternative education providers (The National Youthreach Programme), it explores the concentration of Travellers in mainstream provision, in designated disadvantaged schools (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools [DEIS]) compared to non-DEIS schools, and alternative education in Ireland. Findings show a higher representation of Traveller students in schools designated disadvantaged compared to non-disadvantaged settings and greater numbers of Traveller students in large primary and, to a lesser extent, secondary schools. The findings for alternative education show that Traveller young people make up 15% of learners which is higher than their representation in the general population or the school system. There is marked regional variation with higher representation of Travellers in alternative education settings in the West of Ireland compared to other regions.

With increasing policy emphasis on inclusive education and the need to increase retention of students from Traveller backgrounds, it is perhaps an opportune time to explore the distribution of Traveller students across different school and alternative educational contexts so that educational supports can be targeted more effectively.

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.

This chapter aims to critically analyse the implications that the national protectionist policies have on the global supply and value chains and the relocation of production. The analysis is based on the assumptions that the global economy is facing the possibility of decoupling of many trade connections, and this trend favours de-globalisation processes that have long been promoted by populism, nationalism and economic protectionism. It is concluded that global supply, production and value chains although being economically efficient are no longer any more secure under national protectionist policies, and therefore, the relocation of production processes is mainly due to the increase in the level of income and wages of the developing countries that are the destination and which reduce the advantages to relocate.

A relocalization movement, often referred to as neolocalism, is a foot with the aim of rekindling local and regional bonds between people and communities by intentionally and comprehensively crafting senses of place through various promotional strategies. Local-scale businesses often contribute to neolocal efforts through the integration of “place” with their brand development and marketing schemes. Together such efforts converge to form local consumption spaces that foster both economic vibrancy and social cohesion within and across communities. While sometimes recognized as a secondary benefit, environmental stewardship has yet to be fully developed as a neolocal construct and consistent trait of local consumption spaces. In this chapter, an extensive review of the intersection between the environmentalism, neolocalism, and eco-entrepreneurship literature is used to conceptually frame the notion of eco-consumption spaces. The insights generated lead to a proposed research agenda that includes recommendations pertaining to both empirical settings and methodological strategies.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the agri-food sector are continuously transforming their global value chains (GVCs) to address sustainable development challenges of food security (SDG2) and climate change (SDG13). However, the central role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in (re)creating GVCs across multilevel stakeholders through innovative approaches to solve sustainability challenges remains under investigated. This explorative study investigates how international NGOs influence the transformation of large-scale industrial animal agriculture to a more sustainable (cell-based) agri-food GVC. The authors conducted a case study on the Good Food Institute (GFI), an international NGO, that has been an active player in the transition to alternative sources of protein to solve animal-based agriculture sustainability issues. The results show that an international NGO can contribute to the transition to a more sustainable GVC and can enhance the GVC’s innovation capabilities.

Amid public acknowledgment of recurring ethical violations in the volatile financial service industry, internal auditing (IA) professionals do not seem to have done enough to perform their professional responsibility as a line of defense for their employing organizations. This chapter explores whether changes in an IA approach can effectively enable IA as a practice to fulfill its governance role in managing “conduct risk,” i.e., any behavior in a firm that could cause problems to consumer protection, market integrity or competition. We examine the ethical implications of the existing compliance-based IA approach and explain its ineffectiveness in auditing conduct risk within a turbulent environment. Using action research, we explain the germane changes necessary to define a new conduct-focused IA approach capable of predicting and preventing ethical wrongdoing. A conduct-focused approach launches auditors into unfamiliar but strategically critical areas to not only identify material risks but also add value to their organizations. The authors further examine how a change in the auditor’s mindset and other factors promote the effectiveness of the new IA approach in a sustainable way. This chapter contributes to the literature by investigating how internal auditors can better fulfill their professional responsibility when adopting a conduct-focused approach.