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The economic and social problems, including high unemployment, facing the Greek economy in recent years are substantial. The role of the agri-food sector and agriculture in dealing with unemployment is a concern. To support the agricultural economy, a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2007–2014 was adopted and implemented in the EU Member States. However, boosting employment, in the industry itself and indirectly in the economy, has almost never been a key goal of any policy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the CAP 2014–2020 in maintaining and enhancing employment and income distribution in the region of Central Macedonia.

The authors used the regional social accounting matrix (SAM), which examines the depiction of the interconnections between the sectors of economic activity and local economy (households, businesses, public) but also interconnections and transactions with the rest of the world. The SAM presents a more complete picture of the economic figures of the region, evaluating the interconnections of cross-sectoral relations and the implemented policies, both in the production sectors and in the regional society.

For the Central Macedonia region, the agricultural sector is a key player, holding a regulatory role for regional economic viability, and shows marked connections with the other industry branches of the region.

The new CAP 2014–2020 through Pillar 2–Rural Development may reinforce the new role of the industry in terms of the environment, integrated rural development and social structure of rural areas, ensuring coherence.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical foundations of the solidarity network concept and its perceived utility as an enabling force for social organizations to influence change. The theoretical framework presented is intended to stimulate dialogue, interest and investigation on the subject of solidarity networks.

The paper adopts a discourse analysis‐type approach to developing a theoretical framework for conceptualizing solidarity networks through an analytical review of existing literature on solidarity and solidarity networks. It is through consideration of this literature that the “threads” of a theoretical model for solidarity networks are “woven” together.

Based on the findings of the analysis the paper asserts that the following characteristics are among the defining elements of solidarity networks and help to form the basis of a theoretical framework that strives to create a more cohesive understanding and an applied exploration for future analytical investigations. These characteristics are: support for “broad” values, anti‐oppression and vision‐based solidarity for the future; the flexibility and adaptability of the network's organizational structure and issue‐area(s) of focus; that network members are motivated by a sense of mutuality, or mutual self‐interest; that network members are motivated by “high‐order” values associated with the “public good”; and that there is a demonstrated ethic of social responsibility and social justice.

The paper represents a theoretically‐based approach to conceptualizing solidarity networks. It adds new dimensions to one's thinking about social networks as a form of social relationship and social network analysis (SNA) as a “tool” for describing social relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal those attributes of owners and managers that influence knowledge flows between owners and managers in a tourism destination network. The research question relates to whether homogeneity and/or heterogeneity attributes of the owners and managers are associated with the flow of information within a knowledge network.

Owners and managers of tourism and hospitality businesses in the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch conurbation were surveyed regarding their receipt of information from each other. Social network analysis (SNA) was applied to understand how job position, type of business, gender and education attributes influence the information flows within a knowledge network.

It was revealed that the ties or flows of information were influenced through the heterogeneity of the type of education attribute of a business owner or manager. Other attributes such as type of business, job position or gender were not associated with the receipt of information.

The contribution of the paper relates to increasing the understanding of an underlying attribute that influences information flows between owners and managers of tourism and hospitality businesses within a tourism destination.

The paper contributes to the understanding of a heterogeneous attribute that influences the flow of information within a tourism destination network.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of cross‐sectoral co‐operations and the potential role of tourism organizations in an integrated location management system, using the regional governance approach. The coordination between participants and the development of economic dynamics by coordinated networks are important factors determining the competitiveness of locations.

The paper undertook a qualitative and quantitative survey in Bavaria, which analyzed the role of a tourism organization in the location, using the example of cross‐sectoral interaction with the brewing industry. First, a qualitative explorative study was conducted analyzing the potential cross‐sectoral activities of the tourism organization with the brewery industry in Bavaria, and examined the indicators of power and legitimacy. A further quantitative survey was then carried out to assess the current situation of the cross‐sectoral interaction of the Bavarian tourism organization with the brewery industry and the position of the tourism organization in the location.

The results show that the role of the tourism organization in cross‐sectoral interactions with other parties in a region where tourism does not play a major role is not strong. It lacks the power to take a leading part in determining a region's attractiveness, and needs to develop its expertise as a cross‐sector intermediary for an integrative location management process. The results indicate potential for improvements in the field of communication and interaction to strengthen the position of the tourism organization.

The study results reveal that the philosophy of cross‐sectoral thinking is not yet strongly developed in the Bavarian tourism organization. It should develop a stronger network‐oriented perspective if it wants to become an intermediary between the local sectors and industries.

Applying the findings of the regional governance theory, the paper demonstrates the potential contribution of tourism organizations as cross‐sector intermediaries for location management processes, so that the various attractions at a location can all profit by working towards a more competitive and attractive location.

To help ensure that children with social and behavioral health problems get the support services they need, organizations collaborate in cross-sectoral networks. In this article, the authors explore and compare the structure of these complex child service delivery networks in terms of differentiation (composition) and integration (interconnection). In particular, the authors investigate the structure of client referral and identify which organizations are most prominent within that network structure and could therefore fulfill a coordinating role.

The authors used a comparative case study approach and social network analysis on three interorganizational networks consisting of 65 to 135 organizations within the Dutch child service delivery system. Semi-structured interviews with the network managers were conducted, and an online questionnaire was sent out to the representatives of all network members.

The networks are similarly differentiated into 11 sectors with various tasks. Remarkably, network members have contact with an average of 20–26 organizations, which is a fairly high number to be handled successfully. In terms of integration, the authors found a striking diversity in the structures of client referral and not all organizations with a gatekeeper task hold central positions.

Due to the scarcity of comparative whole network research in the field, the strength of this study is a deeper understanding of the differentiation and integration of complex child service delivery systems. These insights are crucial in order to deliver needed services and to minimize service silos and fragmentation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive meta-analytic examination of the relationship between employee age and customer mistreatment. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory and taking the cross-cultural and cross-sectoral differences into account and making the country-level and occupation-level comparisons possible for uncovering when age matters, the role of employee age on decreasing customer mistreatment is examined.

The data comprises of 103 independent samples collected from 48,067 frontline employees. Random effects individual correction meta-analysis procedure is used to aggregate correlation coefficients and correct them for sampling, measurement and range restriction errors. Meta-regression is used for examining the impact of key moderators.

Results consistently show that frontline employee exposure to customer mistreatment is decreased with age. Regarding national differences, negative associations are stronger in low power distance countries. Age has more potential to provide high-quality relations with customers in healthcare, banking, compared to call centers and hospitality sectors.

Healthy customer relations with fewer customer mistreatments come with employee age. However, results warn service managers about cultural and industry-related boundary conditions such as power distance and service orientation expectations.

This study is the first meta-analysis on the relationship between two contemporary challenges in organizational frontlines: the aging workforce and customer mistreatment. By conducting comprehensive data collection and analyses, this study concludes that older employees, especially in low power distance cultures, bring wisdom to service environments.

This paper aims to examine the extent of and key determinants for bank and insurance provider selection and usage by business customers from the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) segment, thereby aiming to increase understanding of the drivers of customers' cross‐buying behaviour across these financial service sectors.

Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with key decision makers from 22 SMEs within one country. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data.

Empirical findings suggest use of multiple banks as the norm among SMEs, whereas insurances are dominantly purchased from a single provider. As SME customers appear to prefer using separate, independent providers for their banking and insurance services, absence of customer loyalty programs, unfavourable pricing of the total offering and image conflicts were identified as main factors limiting the willingness to cross‐buy across these financial services sectors.

This qualitative research is focused on the financial industry within one country and bound to smaller business customers, limiting the generalisability of the findings.

The results imply that in order to succeed in cross‐selling bank and insurance services in the SME segment, financial service providers should improve their cross‐selling concepts by creating customer loyalty programs that would reward customer companies according to the use of multiple products in their total portfolio.

This study is the first to describe the customer perceived drivers of cross‐buying bank and insurance services from the same service provider in the business‐to‐business context.

Wicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors. This paper explores how public relations (PR) – as a boundary-spanning function at the nexus of corporate and political discourse – can support societies to tackle wicked problems.

This conceptual paper synthesizes literature on PR with a service ecosystem perspective. The authors use the service ecosystem design framework to structure the PR literature and develop a model of service ecosystem shaping for social change, which highlights the important role that PR can play in shaping processes.

The authors explicate how PR can (1) facilitate value cocreation processes between broad sets of stakeholders that drive positive social change, (2) shape institutional arrangements in general and public discourse in particular, (3) provide a platform for recursive feedback loops of reflexivity and (re)formation that enables discourse to ripple through nested service ecosystems and (4) guide collective shaping efforts by bringing stakeholder concerns and beliefs into the open, which provides a foundation for collective sense-making of wicked problems and their solutions.

This paper explains the complexity of shaping service ecosystems for positive social change. Specifically, it highlights how solving wicked problems and driving social change requires reconfiguration of the institutional arrangements that guide various nested service ecosystems. The authors discuss in detail how PR can contribute to the shaping of service ecosystems for social change and present a future research agenda for both service and PR scholars to consider.

Disasters continue to be most prevalent and severe for marginalised communities. To reach those furthest behind first, as the global community pledges in the 2030 Agenda, a critical assessment of equity in disaster risk governance is necessary. Yet, the understanding of factors that mediate the capacity of the governance processes to achieve equity ambitions is limited. This paper addresses this gap by proposing and testing a conceptual framework to assess equity in disaster risk governance.

The framework analyses the extent to which institutional relationships and data in risk governance support inclusion and diversity of voice and enable the equitable engagement of communities. The study applied the framework to key risk policies across governance levels in Brazil and Colombia.

The study finds that institutional awareness of cross-sectoral and -scalar coordination clearly exists. Yet, the engagement of actors further down the governance scale is framed reactively at all scales in both countries. The analysis of the risk data practices indicates that although data integration and sharing are key policy priorities, the policies frame the relations of disaster risk data actors as hierarchical, with data needs determined from the top down.

A key contribution of this framework is that its equity view results in a nuanced analysis, thus pointing to the differences between the two countries concerning the factors that mediate these challenges and providing specific entry points for strengthening equity in risk governance policies.