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The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of connective action characterised by interconnection and personal communication on social media (SM) for participating in collective action in the physical world of social movements.

A research model is developed integrating different modes of connective action into the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) to investigate pathways to participating in offline collective action (CA) from an individual perspective. Following a survey design approach, data collected from 194 respondents in the background of Egypt's social movements are examined using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling and mediation analyses.

The authors' main results reveal that interactive socialisation (IS) on SM provides an important momentum for the user to internalise (consume) and externalise (share) content online from a social learning perspective. In terms of translating these activities to participating in offline CA, the authors find support for two independent causal chains: An “instrumental” chain building on content externalisation (CE) and efficacy considerations and an “obligatory” chain based on content internalisation (CI) and collective identity.

The authors' results highlight the individual-level origins of offline mobilisation in social movements, which are not only grounded in social-psychology, but also develop out of interrelated connective actions supporting social learning. Prior work has mainly conceptualised the value of SM in social movements for online political communication. The authors' conceptualisation is novel in terms of integrating online and offline behaviours with social-psychological perspectives and the application with primary data in a protest movement context that heavily relied on connective actions for offline mobilisation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of connective leadership in the promotion of employee goal commitment, and to determine whether conflict can mediate the relationship between connective leadership and goal commitment during the integration of mergers and acquisitions (M & A).

The study draws on survey data (n=255) from Chinese employees who work for 12 native M & A enterprises. Structural equation modeling and regression analysis are applied to analyze the data.

The results show that connective leadership is positively related to employee goal commitment (p < 0.01). In addition, relationship conflict partially mediates the relationship between connective leadership and employee goal commitment. Task conflict fully mediates the relationship between connective leadership and employee goal commitment.

This study introduces connective leadership into M & A and may contribute to the literature related to connective leadership and M & A integration as well as the literature focussed on goal commitment, especially antecedents of goal commitment.

By focusing on the contextual conditions of South African digital entrepreneurs and the affordances of digital technologies, we understand how connective affordances of digital technologies enable a collective approach to digital entrepreneurship.

We do so through an interpretive field study of South African digital entrepreneurs operating in resource-constrained settings.

The findings highlight how entrepreneurs appropriate digital technologies in collectives to achieve connective actions and cooperate and compete simultaneously, giving rise to what we call coopetitive affordance, reflecting a fresh perspective on coopetition in increasingly digital and resource-constrained realities.

This paper extends the connective affordance perspective by illustrating how the concept of coopetitive affordance brings to light how contextual conditions create a humanitarian bond between entrepreneurs and a digital bond created by their appropriation of digital technologies in collectives.

The study utilises unique survey data gathered from 12,427 party members. The dependent variable measures party members’ in-party commitment and is based on willingness to donate money, to contribute effort, the feeling of belonging in the party network and social trust in the party network.

In this article, we study how different extra-parliamentary online and offline activities are associated with in-party commitment amongst political party members from the six largest Finnish parties. We especially delve into the differences between members of the Finnish parties.

We found that extra-parliamentary political activity, including connective action through social media networks and collective action through civic organisations, is highly associated with members’ in-party commitment. Additionally, members of the newer identity parties more effectively utilised social media networks, whilst the traditional interest parties were still more linked to traditional forms of extra-parliamentary political action.

By employing the sociological network theory perspective, the study contributes to ongoing discussions surrounding the impact of social media on political participation amongst party members, both within and beyond the confines of political parties.

The paper aims to answer the question “can the bipolar Negative‐Neutral‐Positive logic be extended and motivated in some probabilistic framework?”

Using the context of cognitive map interpretation of the conjunction and disjunction connectives in bipolar logic, three probabilistic causal reasoning have been put forward. The first one is based on the infinitesimal representation of material implication while the second one relies on the qualitative representation developed by Suppes and Cartwright. In both cases special conditions for transitivity of inference and multiple inputs scenarios are examined. The third developed approach implicitly omits the cognitive interpretation and rather relies on the idea that the causal independence structure can be substituted by some functional that combines independent inputs in such a way to force the output to be in full agreement with results expected through the conjunctive and disjunctive connectives.

The paper reports several theoretical findings regarding the different conditions ensuring the agreement and equivalence between the bipolar logic connectives and their probabilistic counterparts for each proposal. The paper also provides useful insights to link the finding to probabilistic argumentation system where pro and con arguments are considered simultaneously.

The paper offers theoretical basis for researchers investigating different categories of logics and contribute to the discussion linking logic to probability.

A survey of the composition of minced meat – fat, protein, gristle – was carried out in Somerset. Its findings are described and it is concluded that the recommendation of the Food Standard Committee for the control of the fat content of mince should be implemented.

This chapter aims to investigate how a range of emerging trends within the international community can be used to build a connective educational ecosystem based on an inclusive and universal process (Biggeri et al., 2017; Ziegler, 2017). The starting question is: how multidisciplinary teams in Italy could take action toward inclusive education?

Partnering is becoming a central system organization strategy for schools to adopt for successful innovative teams with creative educational ideas (Kelly et al., 2002), and here it is declined in the Italian context in which inclusive education was officially embraced in 1977 as a national policy (D'Alessio, 2011). National legislation (104/92 Law) made explicit the mandate that students with disabilities receive their education (to the maximum extent possible) with nondisabled peers in the general education classroom using appropriate supplemental aids and services in the least-restrictive environment (Anastasiou et al., 2015; Canevaro & de Anna, 2010).

It is crucial to encourage new forms of practice which require collaboration capabilities (Hattie, 2015; Vangrieken et al., 2015) between multidisciplinary teams that comprised general teachers, special education teachers, health professionals, school psychologists, school leaders, and the students' family (Meirink et al., 2010). These resources could be distributed across inclusive ecosystems to support all students by enabling them to prosper in an increasingly diversified and complex environment in which creativity, ability to innovate, entrepreneurship, and a commitment to continuous learning are joint and connective (EU, 2008). This creates a state of positive multiagency collaboration that promotes the well-being of students and the system.

This chapter explores a relatively underresearched assumption in the diversity literature, namely, that more variety in demographic characteristics, educational or functional backgrounds, or hierarchical status in the workforce represents a wider repertoire of perspectives, approaches, and ways of thinking. Using data from members of innovation teams across 27 organizations in 11 industries (for which variation in thinking should be highly valued), we explore at the individual level whether people with different demographic and informational backgrounds evidence differences in ways of thinking which we define in terms of cognitive styles, learning styles, cultural orientations, and communication preferences. We find large differences in ways of thinking due to culture and communication preferences but modest and limited differences in ways of thinking by level and type of education, occupational function, and hierarchical status. We find few differences by gender. The findings raise questions about the frequently repeated claims that categorical and informational diversity among organizational members reflects differences in ways of thinking.

This chapter draws upon the leadership and work of two social entrepreneurs who believe that inclusion of community members in project/venture planning and design is key to accelerate equitable system change. The social justice leaders featured, through their actions in diverse, marginalized communities, will provide a model of leadership behaviors that utilize a repertoire of styles framed in the Connective Leadership Model™. They are system-changing champions driven by their social justice passion which requires that they provide leadership through planning and design processes to achieve equity in communities and influence policy. Short case studies will define the venture’s mission, processes, and social change outcomes with examples of the type of leadership necessary for building inclusive and equitable community-based initiatives. Their words and actions will illustrate how leaders can innovate to create system impacts not by a single intervention but through multilayered processes with a broad range of benefits – for infrastructure, education, social, economic, and environmental justice programs. The results described will emphasize the critical elements of process, the insight and power of community input and involvement, and the influential cross-sector shaping of programs and policy to achieve sustainable change. This chapter concludes with a more detailed description of the Connective Leadership Model™ and how the model enables a leader to “consciously and systematically utilize a variety of behaviors,” effectively reacting to the leadership needs of a particular situation as well as using the achieving style behaviors most valued for a community-based system change venture (Lipman-Blumen, 2000, pp. 113–114).