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Due to the influence of complex and intersecting factors, self-governed public open spaces (POSs) (managed by local communities) are subject to collective action dilemmas such as tragedy of the commons (overexploitation), free-riding, underinvestment and mismanagement. This review paper adopts a multi-dimensional and multi-tier social-ecological system (SES) framework proposed by McGinnis and Ostrom, drawing on collective action theory to explore the key institutional-social-ecological factors that impact POS self-governance.

In this paper, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was utilized to systematically screen and review the relevant literature for the period from 2000 to 2023 in three databases: Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. A total of 57 papers were chosen for in-depth analysis.

The literature review identified and categorized several variables associated with the self-organizing system of POS; consequently, an SES-based POS management framework was developed for the first time, consisting of 114 institutional-social-ecological sub-variables from different dimensions and three levels. Compared to ecological factors, among others, governance organizations, property-rights systems, socioeconomic attributes and actors' knowledge of SES have been commonly and primarily studied.

There is still room for the refinement of the conceptual SES-based POS collective action framework over the time (by adding in new factors), and indefinitely empirical research validating those identified factors is also worth to be undertaken, particularly testing how SES factors and interaction variables affect the POS quality (collective action).

The findings of this study can provide local policy insights and POS management strategies based on the identification of specific SES factors for relevant managers. Moreover, this research makes significant theoretical contributions to the integration of the SES framework and collective action theory with POS governance studies.

Purpose – This chapter investigates the role of enabling organizations in the processes whereby institutional investors collectively influence corporate managers on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. We develop a framework combining stakeholder and collective action theory to explain how institutional investors influence corporations through collective engagement and to specify how enabling organizations influence this process.

Methodology/approach – To evaluate our framework, we investigate the role of the organizational platform provided by the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative in supporting institutional investors’ collaborative engagement with corporations on ESG issues.

Findings – Our findings clarify how investors enhance their sources of power, legitimacy and urgency and attract managers’ attention through collaborative engagement, and show how they manage these attributes to reshape the legitimacy and urgency of their claims in the eyes of managers. Our results also show how enabling organizations such as the PRI initiative facilitate the emergence of collective action by lowering barriers to entry and providing a mobilizing structure, support collaborative efforts by adding their own legitimacy, normative power and persistence to the collaborative engagement, and create conditions for a lasting dialogue between investors and managers by providing a hybrid organizational space.

Social implications – In explaining how to enhance institutional investors’ collective action on ESG issues, this paper shows how we could reorient financial market forces toward sustainability.

Originality/value of paper – The paper benefited from a unique access to confidential and internal data from the UN-PRI initiative and provides a new framework.

Here I present a theory of collective action that emphasizes the role of status. I argue that collective action contributions earn individuals improved status by signaling their concern for the group's welfare relative to their own. Having received greater prestige for their contributions to group goals, individuals’ actual motivation to help the group is increased, leading to greater subsequent contributions to group efforts and greater feelings of group solidarity. This “virtuous cycle” of costly contributions to group efforts and enhanced standing in the group shows one way in which individuals’ prosocial behaviors are socially constructed, a consequence of individuals’ basic concern for what others think of them. I discuss a variety of issues related to the theory, including its scope of application, theoretical implications, relationship to alternative models of reputation and prosocial behavior, possible practical applications, and directions for future research.

Religion could drive development. Although Ghana is touted as the most religious country in the world, notably, some Charismatic/Pentecostal churches operate at the expense of community development and members’ welfare. This study sought to achieve three objectives: to determine whether there is an opportunity for organizing the various churches for interfaith cooperative collective action; to assess the association between people’s religiosity and the propensity to join interfaith cooperative collective action and to assess people’s perceptions of the institutional framework that could facilitate the organization of the religious community in Ghana for interfaith collective action.

Descriptive statistics and an ordered probit model (OPM) were used to analyze cross-sectional data from a representative sample of households in the Greater Accra Region. Thematic analysis was also used to analyze the qualitative data.

The study found that generally, there is a positive response to a proposal to mobilize churches in an interfaith cooperative collective action, but distrust poses a great threat to interfaith cooperative collective action. The study also found that affiliation with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and Pentecostal/Charismatic is negatively (positively) associated with the propensity to join a collective action, respectively. Finally, the results of the study found that accountability, proper management and fair distribution of the proceeds from a collective action will help in mobilizing churches in Ghana in an interfaith collective action.

This is the first major study to explore the possibility of interfaith collective action among religious denominations aimed at accelerating poverty reduction and wealth creation in any developing country.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2023-0670

This study examines how perceptions of injustice, anger, and group identification motivate follower intentions to engage in collective action against leaders. The study revolved around the Malaysian prime minister’s actions and responses toward allegations of misuse of public funds. Responses from 112 Malaysians via a cross-sectional survey revealed that follower perceptions of leader injustice are significantly related to anger toward the leader, which in turn is related to intentions to engage in collective action. The relationship between perceptions of distributive injustice and anger is moderated by group identification, while group efficacy moderates the relationship between anger and collective action intentions.

Under Malaysian Law, the maintenance and management of common property have traditionally been viewed as insoluble challenges in the self-organisational efforts for high-rise low-cost housing developments. As the population increases, more shared resources become heavily exploited with few willing to contribute towards the sustainability of resources. Many researchers argued a better way would be to convert these shared resources into a private or state-managed entity. Hence, with that assumption, this paper aims to examine how better physical characteristics can result in greater collective action.

This research paper adopted a quantitative method approach to determine how the standard of physical characteristics influenced the quality of collective action in high-rise low-cost housing. The method included a questionnaire survey of 519 parcel holders chosen via stratified purposeful random sampling from four high-rise low-cost housing areas.

The paper found a positive correlation between the quality of physical characteristics and the collective action gained. The findings highlighted that the standard of workmanship of high-rise low-cost units (including the common properties), the crime rate in the neighbourhood and the condition of lift systems – when improved – were significant positive predictors of collective action.

Housing developers should pay attention to the quality of both low-cost units and related common properties, as this endeavour will assist greatly in future collective action management.

The study was justified in terms of its originality as few research studies adopted the social-ecological system framework that focused on the correlation between the quality of physical characteristics and the collective action of parcel holders.

Social entrepreneurs engage in collective action to adapt and solve social problems in complex environments. Through collective action, they mobilise and access resources to create positive social change in local communities. While previous studies explain the role of social identity in promoting cooperation, this paper aims to examine shared meaning as a predictor of collective action in social entrepreneurial ventures (SEVs). This study was conducted among founders of SEVs focusing on their engagement in collective action.

The study adopted a cross-sectional survey to achieve its objectives. The population comprised 558 SEVs registered with the Kampala Capital City Authority in Uganda. A sample size of 226 social ventures was determined using Krecjie and Morgan and participants were selected using the simple random sampling technique. The questionnaires were distributed by two research assistants, and 210 completed questionnaires were returned. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse survey data and test the study hypotheses.

The study findings show that shared meaning in the form of teamwork and group efficacy predict collective action in SEVs.

The results have implications for social entrepreneurship researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Firstly, creating social ties by belonging to different groups in the community creates common understanding among social entrepreneurs and other actors fostering cooperation to solve problems in the local community. Secondly, understanding each other’s perspective well enough facilitates a shared view of social problems for combined action.

SEVs should provide relevant information using the right channels in local communities to promote collaboration. Failure to use the right communication channels may prevent collective action. Managers in social ventures should allow for open information sharing between themselves and the partners that they work with to address social problems. This enables them to share both the good and bad feedback. It also enables the growth of teams and improves how they work. The teams should be developed with specific responsibilities so that everyone is clear on what they should do while addressing social problems.

The researchers argue that shared meaning develops when social entrepreneurs interact with the local community and other stakeholders prompting joint action to address social problems. This study extends knowledge on collective action using the activity domain theory.

Megaprojects have large impact on the environment and stakeholders should take collective action to ensure that these projects are developed in a socially responsible manner. Hitherto, it is not known whether group and subjective norms and social identity could compel stakeholders to take socially responsible collective actions in megaprojects. The aim of this study is to design and test a model to boost stakeholders' intention to take socially responsible collective action in the context of mega water transfer projects in China.

A quasi-experimental causal research design was adopted to establish cause–effect relationships among the dependent variable (we-intention) and independent variables (subjective norms, group norms, social identity and desire). This study adopts the belief–desire–intention model and social influence theory to empirically investigate how to boost the stakeholders' intention to participate in socially responsible collective action. An online questionnaire survey was conducted and data was collected from 365 respondents who were involved in mega water transfer projects in China. The partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was employed to analyze the data.

The results from partial least squares analyses indicate that the presence of subjective norms, group norms and social identity (collectively known as social influence process) could increase stakeholders' intention to take socially responsible collective action. In addition, the desire to be socially responsible also boosts stakeholders' intention to take collective action. Desire partially mediates the relationship between social influence process and intention to take socially responsible collective action.

This study adds to existing knowledge by discovering social influence process as an antecedent to taking socially responsible collective action in megaprojects. Strong group norms and subjective norms could propel stakeholders to be more socially responsible. The study also adds to knowledge by discovering that stakeholders' desire to fulfill social responsibility also leads them to take concrete actions. Implications and recommendations are provided on how to manipulate different types of social influence processes to facilitate stakeholders to adopt socially responsible collective action in the process of managing megaprojects.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating role of collective action in the relationship between financial intermediation and financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda.

The paper uses structural equation modeling (SEM) through bootstrap approach constructed using analysis of moment structures to test for the mediating role of collective action in the relationship between financial intermediation and financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda. Besides, the paper adopts Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach to establish whether conditions for mediation by collective action exist.

The results revealed that collective action significantly mediates the relationship between financial intermediation and financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda. The findings further indicated that the mediated model had better model fit indices than the non-mediated model under SEM bootstrap. Furthermore, the results showed that both collective action and financial intermediation have significant and direct impacts on financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda. Therefore, the findings suggest that the presence of collective action boost financial intermediation for improved financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda.

The study used quantitative data collected through cross-sectional research design. Further studies through the use of interviews could be adopted in future. Methodologically, the study adopted use of SEM bootstrap approach to establish the mediating effect of collective action. However, it ignored the Sobel’s test and MedGraph methods. Future studies could adopt the use of alternative methods of Sobel’s test and MedGraph. Additionally, the study focused only on semi-formal financial institutions. Hence, further studies may consider the use of data collected from formal and informal institutions.

Policy makers and managers of financial institutions should consider the role of collective action in promoting economic development, especially in developing countries. They should create structures and design financial services and products that promote collective action among the poor in rural Uganda.

Although several scholars have articulated financial inclusion based on both the supply and demand side factors, this is the first study to test the mediating role of collective action in the relationship between financial intermediation and financial inclusion of the poor in rural Uganda using SEM bootstrap approach. Theoretically, the study combines the role of collective action with financial intermediation to promote financial inclusion. Financial intermediation theory ignores the role played by collective action in the intermediation process between the surplus and deficit units.

The purpose of this paper is to operationalize theories of social learning and collective action for campus sustainability practitioners at higher education instititions (IHEs) to enhance their work, and to introduce the concept of collective action competence as a practical tool.

This paper presents a theoretical argument based on the concepts of learning and collective action for stronger consideration of social learning, action competence and voluntary collective action in campus sustainability initiatives.

Many important sustainability outcomes depend heavily on voluntary behaviors by groups of campus stakeholders, making voluntary collective action an important, although underused, tool for campus sustainability practitioners. The term “collective action competence” is introduced and defined as the capability of a group of people to direct their behavior toward a common goal based on a collective literacy, a collective competence, and a collective need or goal.

The term “collective action competence” is introduced as a novel unifying concept that articulates a critical capability needed for collective behavior change in social settings such as HEIs. Collective action competence is based on the theories of collective action and of social and free-choice learning and on the concepts of action competence and strategic competence.