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Despite recognition of the value of networking, there has been little research into the networks of female entrepreneurial practitioners, particularly in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors, viewed traditionally as male‐dominated. This paper aims to provide greater insights into the dynamics and quality of female entrepreneurial networks.

Insights were derived through a qualitative, in‐depth, interview‐based study of 18 female entrepreneurs operating SET‐based ventures in Northern Ireland. The use of Nvivo as the data analysis tool imposed a discipline and structure which facilitated the extraction of core insights.

Aspects investigated include network type and composition; nature and frequency of engagement; and changes in network composition and networking activities through the business lifecycle. The results focus on implications of the findings for issues of quality in networks and their impact on the value of female networks.

An understanding of these issues offers opportunities to shape government interventions to assist female entrepreneurs embarking on a venturing pathway in SET‐based ventures, or those already operating in business, to be more effective in building, utilising and enhancing the quality of their networking activities.

In exploring networking and issues of quality for female entrepreneurs operating in SET‐based sectors, traditionally viewed as male‐dominated, the paper considers an under‐researched area of the female entrepreneurship literature.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

Entrepreneurs operate in conditions of dynamic uncertainty; identifying and exploiting opportunities presented by the business environment. Opportunistic search is core to entrepreneurial activity, but its dynamics are rarely explored. Groups of entrepreneurs are attracted to the same potential business opportunities. They have no incentive to cooperate, they may not even know of the existence of others. However, over time, clusters of entrepreneurs interested in the same opportunities develop. Aims to discuss the issues.

Ant colony optimisation modelling is used to simulate the activities of entrepreneurs in an opportunity rich environment. The entrepreneurs must identify the locations of the appropriate resources. Three simulations were run to observe entrepreneurial success in different environments.

A random search of the business environment for resources by individual entrepreneurs was unproductive. Once the entrepreneurs learned to read the business environment and so refine their search, they were increasingly efficient. This was even more pronounced when time allowed for search was constrained and weaker entrepreneurs had little influence.

The computer simulations demonstrate how a cluster of entrepreneurial activity may begin. The results raise questions about the appropriateness of policies supporting entrepreneurial activity and about the path dependency of cluster development. Empirical research is now needed to test these research implications.

Focusing on the little explored dynamics of opportunistic search by would‐be entrepreneurs in a spatially defined business environment combines previous research in the fields of entrepreneurial outcomes and cluster development. Using a multi‐agent search model to simulate the dynamic interaction of a number of entrepreneurs in the same business environment demonstrates early cluster formation without the protagonists relying on cooperative, competitive or value chain interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of income generation projects as a pedagogic method to assess students’ learning about social enterprises. The authors are interested in how and why this innovative approach might improve students’ understanding of the different aspects and attributes of social entrepreneurship.

The study used thematic analysis of qualitative data comprising the reflective logs of 87 students on an undergraduate entrepreneurship module in a university business programme. The major attributes of social entrepreneurship were identified from a review of literature, and the paper uses the logs to judge whether students had learnt about these attributes.

The results show that students developed an understanding concerning social enterprises’ diverse stakeholder environment, market needs, social enterprises’ ideological foundations, resource mobilisation processes and performance measurement – both social and financial. In addition, they developed skills in reflection and self-awareness, communication, empathy and the generation of new ideas.

The study is limited in that it focused on only one cohort of students, undergraduates. The authors cannot claim that the findings are generalisable to other students or contexts.

Students are better able to understand the needs and values of social enterprises. However, this is a resource intensive process for educators with implications for curriculum design and management.

This study sheds new light on how experiential learning helps to raise students’ awareness of social enterprises.

This study sheds new light on how experiential learning in the form of income generation projects helps to raise students’ awareness of social enterprises. Its value lies in helping to develop a novel and effective pedagogy for entrepreneurial learning.

The purpose of this article is to explore the role that different structures of socially embedded networks themselves play in tax non‐compliance or evasion, and the contribution that an application of network analysis can make to the study of tax compliance regulation.

This exploratory study applies a network approach and uses focus‐group interviewing to unveil tax evasive behaviours that are deeply embedded in specifically selected and structurally different trading networks.

Indicate the kinds of difficulties that tax regulators may face in their attempts to deal with a range of law‐defying practices, which operate both within and among some structurally diversified (social) trading networks of a multicultural nation. The data confirm convincingly that tax evasive behaviours are not solely peculiar to immigrant (NESB) business networks, but are mirroring many beliefs, norms and informal practices that also exist strongly in non‐immigrant networks.

A mixed‐embedded network approach that grasps the rich contexts and complexities involved in the informal behaviours of “networked” small‐business entrepreneurs is to be regarded as a powerful tool in the governance of modern taxation systems.

Fills a gap in the research (literature) on the tax‐compliance behaviours among citizens of a multicultural nation and may have potential for a wider application.

In 1990 we compiled an annotated bibliography of official state lists of endangered, threatened, and rare species. In gathering information for that bibliography, which appeared in Reference Services Review in Spring 1991, we found numerous unofficial sources of state lists, such as those developed by universities, institutes, and Natural Heritage Programs, which also provide valuable information on statuses of endangered, threatened, and rare species. A comprehensive search for unofficial lists results in this second bibliography.

Despite common perceptions about the informality of human resource management (HRM) practices within small firms, few studies have considered how HRM practices change with firm size. This paper explores how HRM practices of small firms change as the size of the firm increases. Using data from micro, small and medium firms in Queensland, Australia, the paper reviews the recruitment and selection practices, training methods, performance appraisal and the maintenance of HR records and policies in these firms. The findings indicate a move towards hierarchical structures, increased documentation and more administrative processes as the number of employees increases. The increase is rapid initially and then occurs at a slower pace thereafter. Such changes have implications for the management of the employment relationship. The paper concludes that HRM practices in small firms cannot be portrayed by a standardised description and that management training and advice for small firms must recognise the diversity associated with this important sector of the Australian economy.

This paper aims to engage with the concept of resilience as theorized by David Chandler in his book Resilience: The Governance of Complexity by drawing from the theory of governmentality presented by Michel Foucault and Jonathan Joseph.

Evolving from classical liberalism to neoliberalism and from natural sciences to social sciences, the term “resilience” raises many questions about its sustainability in terms of its meaning and complexity. While most scholars tend to underscore the significance and practicality of the term, a few scholars argue that it is a failed dogma with neoliberal characteristics. As this is a theory-based study, its methodology involves close readings of academic texts produced mainly by David Chandler, Michel Foucault and Jonathan Joseph.

The central argument in this paper is though Chandler convincingly explains the paradigm shift of the term resilience from classical to neoliberal, his theorizing lacks the understanding that the type of power and governmentality involved in individual freedom, autonomy and complexity are actually parts of the neoliberal state. Hence, the buzzword resilience today is actually an extension of the same neoliberal thought.

First, the author attempts to critically engage with the term resilience from a sociological point of view using purposively selected academic literature. Second, the paper attempts to bring Chandler’s conceptualization on resilience into the disaster context and evaluates its practicality within the tenets of neoliberalism by drawing on Joseph’s and Foucault’s theorizations.

Despite the potential for research institutes to advance interdisciplinary research on university campuses, There have been few studies on how interdisciplinary research centres integrate multiple disciplines in practice, how they influence the collaborative behaviours of scientists and how they establish collaborative communities. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how interdisciplinary research is being enabled at research institutes and offers signposts for how research institutes can further embed interdisciplinarity within their units.

Within this study, 30 interviews were conducted with leadership and faculty within 4 sustainability research institutes in the USA exploring how research institutes support interdisciplinary research within their units. A thematic analysis on the interview data revealed themes on how research institutes are enabling interdisciplinary research within their organisations and universities.

The study highlights eight themes on how research institutes are, and can further, enable interdisciplinary research within their organisations and universities. Some of the themes are fully implemented within the research institutes, whilst others are more aspirational and highlight where institutes can create additional capability and capacity for interdisciplinary research within their units and universities.

Whilst the study is limited to four major sustainability research institutes the findings will be applicable to all research centres and institutes attempting to create interdisciplinary research environments.

The study will be of particular interest to research institutes and university leadership who wish to cultivate a deeper culture of interdisciplinary research within their organisations.

The advancement of inter- and transdisciplinary research within universities are seen by many academic institutions, expert groups and funding bodies as essential for solving wicked problems and grand challenges facing society. The findings of this paper will help universities increase their capacity for interdisciplinary research.

There are few comparable publications in terms of methodology, approach and focus on research institutes.