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National and local policy supports the involvement of patients at all levels in the design, delivery and improvement of health services. Whilst existing approaches to support involvement have been described and disseminated, including the 4Pi National Involvement Standards, their application in quality improvement is rarely reported. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A quality improvement initiative within a mental health trust was developed with a multi-disciplinary team, including those with professional experience of delivering or improving care and those with lived experience. The aim of the initiative was to improve the physical health of inpatients within an acute mental health unit. This case study aims to describe how the integration of concepts from the 4Pi National Involvement Standards (Principles, Purpose, Presence, Process and Impact) provided a framework for engaging and involving service users. The case study also aims to describe how co-design was included within the 4Pi approach and supported the development of a tool to aid improving physical healthcare.

The 4Pi National Involvement Standards provided a guiding framework for the involvement of service users within a quality improvement initiative. Value of the approach was realised through the co-design of a tool developed by service users, along with healthcare professionals, to facilitate discussion and support shared-decision making about inpatients’ physical health.

Identifying “ways that work” for service user involvement is crucial to move beyond the policy rhetoric or tokenistic involvement. Involvement in quality improvement initiatives can bring benefits both to services and the service users themselves.

Whilst the 4PI approach is recognised as a useful framework for involvement, few examples exist of its practical applications within a quality improvement setting.

Effective discussion is inextricably linked to democracy. Social studies curriculum and instruction should engage students in practicing democratic skills and habits of mind. This case study provides a microanalysis of one U.S. History teacher’s commitment to fostering discussion in her classroom as a theorized pedagogical practice. A better understanding of what motivates teachers to engage students in classroom discussions paralleled with rich descriptions of how this teacher plans and implements discussion could encourage others to try this approach to teaching and learning.

This paper aims to understand and document evaluation criteria used in the new product development (NPD) process of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to support the management and control of their NPD projects.

This study combines exploratory and explanatory methodology (case studies) involving five Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are successful in NPD. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with nine selected managers and project managers to explore the process and evaluation criteria used to manage and control NPD projects.

The results highlight that cost, time and quality are key evaluation criteria used by SMEs to make decisions relative to the NPD project's success. Profitability, return on investment, expected sales and customer satisfaction are additional criteria used to evaluate NPD project's success. It has been also found that the SMEs did not consider sustainability issues in the criteria used as their focus are on the needs of stakeholders, mainly customers.

Limitations: The evaluation criteria are extracted from a limited number of SMEs that have successfully carried out NPD projects and may therefore be influenced by some contextual factors. The results cannot be generalized to all SMEs or to all projects, as their characteristics may differ. Implications: This study offers a novel outlook on NPD process in SMEs, by documenting criteria related to constraints in project management. The integration of theory of constraints contributes to increasing theoretical knowledge about the management and control of NPD projects in SMEs. It provides insight into how project managers (and other decision makers) can increase the chances of project success by managing project constraints and criteria.

The evaluation criteria identified in this study can therefore be of use to SMEs managers and project leaders seeking to improve the management and control of their NPD projects. These criteria can help them better manage their limited resources and skills and allocate them to the most promising projects. They can also help them conduct their NPD process more efficiently to achieve the intended objectives, including the desired project profitability targets.

This paper offers new insight and practical implications about evaluation criteria within the stages and activities of the NPD process that needed to be considered by SMEs' managers involved in NPD projects.

This article aims to depict the pivotal role Octavia Hill, Jane Addams and Mary Parker Follett played in the field of social entrepreneurship. The article aims to examine the contributions made by these remarkable women who made valuable theoretical and practical contributions to the emerging field of social entrepreneurship.

Synthesizing articles from history journals, writings about the figures of interest, published works by the figures themselves and other resources, this paper illustrates how Hill, Addams and Follett made valuable contributions to social entrepreneurship and questioned the rectitude of unadulterated capitalism.

This paper concludes that Hill, Addams and Follett refuted the viewpoint that self-interest and single-minded self-survival were the best ways to live and to conduct business. By their actions, the women showed that they did indeed bring “capitalism in question”, by recognizing the importance of seeking others’ interests.

This article highlights the contributions made by Hill, Addams and Follett, who made valuable contributions in the field of social entrepreneurship which is made evident by their work with housing settlements, community center development, etc.

This paper aims to investigate whether and how cross-sector partnerships (a growing yet controversial phenomenon) contribute to both non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational companies (MNCs) political powers.

The method consists of a single case study on a partnership involving a large MNC and a small NGO, in the delivery of lighting and cooking devices to BoP (bottom of the pyramid) populations.

Thanks to economic compromises and structural arrangements, both partners succeed to take advantage of the partnership to strengthen their respective (local and transnational) political power and to serve deprived populations’ needs.

This paper contributes to the political corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature by presenting cross-sector partnerships as a potential means to reconcile the “brother enemies” and increase both firms’ and nonprofit organizations’ political roles.

The results help both NGOs and MNCs in understanding the political stakes of cross-sector partnerships and in envisioning mechanisms to handle those collaborations so as to deepen their respective goals and build public goods.

While most of the literature focuses on the strategic rationales, this paper provides political rationales for cross-sector partnerships linking MNCs and NGOs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and understand the UN System’s adoption of IPSAS from a legitimacy perspective.

A content analysis of publicly accessible documents from the UN System archives was conducted. The analysis was framed through the broader lens of legitimacy theory, drawing attention to the rationalities of decisions taken.

This study illustrated how the need for accounting reforms was rationalised throughout the UN System of organisations. Decision-making processes were reflective of political concerns and the accompanying need to continually demonstrate accountability. The discursive strategies observed associated the need to improve accountability with the adoption of globally recognised accounting systems. However, such logic assumed that existing accountability deficits were intrinsically linked to accounting failures, which overemphasises accounting’s role.

The UN System’s decision to adopt IPSAS in 2006 has been followed by a substantial increase in the number of Member States following suit. However, governments and other organisations considering IPSAS adoption should be aware of the historical context in which the UN System’s decision was made.

This study addresses a lacuna in empirical studies providing an understanding of the role of accounting reforms within international organisations such as the UN System.

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of integrating material from the arts into postgraduate curricula to deepen students’ engagement with marketing phenomena. The authors assess the use of arts-based activities, within a broader critical pedagogy, for encouraging imaginative and analytical thinking.

The authors devised two learning activities and an interpretive method for studying their value. The activities were an individual essay connecting themes in song lyrics to marketing, and a group photography project. These were applied, within a broader, critical approach, in postgraduate modules on sustainability, ethics and critical marketing. Data collection comprised diaries kept by the teachers, open-ended feedback from students and students’ assignments.

Students showed high levels of engagement, reflexivity and depth of thought, in felt experiences of learning. Their ability to make connections not explicitly in the materials, and requiring imaginative jumps, was notable. Several reported lasting changes to their behaviour. Some found the tasks initially intimidating or, once they were more engaged, stressful or saddening.

This adds to scholarship on management education by showing the usefulness of an arts-based approach towards a transformative agenda.

It offers a template of how to draw from the arts to strengthen critical engagement upon which marketing teachers can build. It also contains practical advice on the challenges and benefits of doing so.

The authors provide evidence that this approach can enhance sensitivity and reflexivity in students, potentially producing more ethical and sustainable decisions in future.

The pedagogical interventions are novel and of value to lecturers seeking to enhance critical engagement with theory. An empirical study of an attempt to integrate arts into teaching marketing represents a promising direction, given the discipline’s creative nature.

Coordination of group activity is rarely more important than in a singing group that has no designated conductor. This paper aims to explore the group dynamics in an 11-man singing group whose members, all over 60, have without exception occupied senior leadership positions in their working careers. The study arose because responses to a wider research study revealed interesting perceptions of leadership issues in the group.

All the members participated in semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis of the responses was used to process the responses. This enabled the identification of practices that support the group’s success and illustrated how this group of practiced “leaders” respond to a (relatively) conductorless situation.

It was confirmed that the group exhibits several characteristics of self-managed teams and string quartets. All members felt empowered to take a lead, although their backgrounds might have predisposed them to take such initiatives anyway. But the long-serving female accompanist is, by virtue inter alia of her superior musicianship, which appears to overcome any gender bias, in many respects the de facto leader. In performance, the singers synchronize their singing in response to cues from each other, but this could work better if given more specific attention.

Whereas conducted choirs have been extensively studied, such a self-managed group of amateur singers, all of whom are accustomed to leading in their working careers, has apparently not been studied. This study sheds some light on techniques for overcoming the challenges of creating quality performance in such a group and insights for similar groups, not necessarily musical, are identified.

Physical activity is an important component of treatment for people living with mental illness, and exercise practitioners are well placed to deliver these interventions. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lock-down regulations, exercise professionals have rapidly adapted to the online delivery of services to continue care for their clients. To date, the research surrounding the delivery of exercise sessions via telehealth for this population has been scarce. Therefore, this study aims to explore how exercise professionals working in mental health have adapted to telehealth, the barriers and facilitators they have experienced and the implications for the future.

A qualitative study using semi-structure interviews was conducted. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Nine exercise physiologists working in mental health settings in Australia participated in the interviews. Two main themes were explored. The first related to the implementation of telehealth and was divided into four sub-themes: service delivery, accessibility and suitability, technology barriers and facilitators, adaptations to exercise prescription. The second theme related to attitudes and was categorised into two sub-themes: attitudes towards telehealth and future recommendations.

Telehealth appears to be a feasible and well accepted platform to deliver exercise sessions for people with mental illness, and this study provides guidance for clinicians including service and training recommendations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the experiences of exercise physiologists working in mental health and using telehealth.

Seeking ways towards a sustainable future is the most dominant socio-political challenge of our time. Marketing should have a crucial role to play in leading research and impact in sustainability, yet it is limited by relying on cognitive behavioural theories rooted in the 1970s, which have proved to have little bearing on actual behaviour. This paper aims to interrogate why marketing is failing to address the challenge of sustainability and identify alternative approaches.

The constraint in theoretical development contextualises the problem, followed by a focus on four key themes to promote theory development: developing sustainable people; models of alternative consumption; building towards sustainable marketplaces; and theoretical domains for the future. These themes were developed and refined during the 2018 Academy of Marketing workshop on seeking sustainable futures. MacInnis’s (2011) framework for conceptual contributions in marketing provides the narrative thread and structure.

The current state of play is explicated, combining the four themes and MacInnis’s framework to identify the failures and gaps in extant approaches to the field.

This paper sets a new research agenda for the marketing discipline in quest for sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research.

Approaches are proposed which will allow the transformation of the dominant socio-economic systems towards a model capable of promoting a sustainable future.

The paper provides thought leadership in marketing and sustainability as befits the special issue, by moving beyond the description of the problem to making a conceptual contribution and setting a research agenda for the future.