Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of regulatory focus in sustainable entrepreneurship processes to answer questions on how sustainable entrepreneurs pursue their goals and what motivates them. Knowledge about an entrepreneur’s motivational attribute is essential when trying to understand new venture creation processes. To determine an entrepreneur’s affiliation with one of the two self-regulatory systems, promotion focus and prevention focus, it is helpful to establish whether he or she is motivated by growth and development goals (promotion) or rather by responsibility and security goals (prevention).

In a qualitative study of seven sustainable ventures, two semi-structured interview rounds with 14 founders were conducted. Archival data from internal and external sources were gathered, resulting in more than 80 text documents.

Findings reveal that the self-regulatory focus of sustainable entrepreneurs changes during the entrepreneurial process with regard to the temporal dynamics of motivation. While conceiving ideas, sustainable entrepreneurs engage in a prevention-focused self-regulatory process because social or ecological problems induce them to direct their attention toward sustainable development goals. During rollout, in contrast, they increasingly engage in a promotion-focused self-regulatory process and concentrate more on venture growth goals.

The results highlight the important role of a regulatory fit between key self-regulatory entrepreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurs’ regulatory orientation toward increased motivation and enjoyment when pursuing goals.

This study’s contributions extend and combine the theories of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial motivation, and entrepreneurial processes in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. They are valuable for understanding the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurial action.

This research aims to analyze to what extent sustainability and its related core aspects are integrated in media and communication's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe.

A total of n = 1068 bachelor and master’s degree programs, as well as their related curricula/program specifications, from 28 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis.

Results show that the level of curricular integration of sustainability aspects in the field of media and communication is low (14%) to very low (6%) on module level. In most cases, sustainability remains an abstract guiding principle that is not translated into a dedicated course offer. This can indicate the difficulty of operationalizing such a concept as sustainability, which is experienced by not only higher education institutions but also policy and society as a whole. In addition, the results leave space for a reflection on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions.

The authors are aware that not all teaching (content) is depicted in curricula. Especially where teaching is research-based, The authors assume that sustainability (communication) is more present as the curricula' analysis can represent it. In addition, the fact of solely investigating English language curricula can be seen as a further limitation.

This research is one of the few attempts to verify the actual integration level of sustainability aspects in the curricula of a specific sustainability-relevant discipline, which is neither conducted as a case study nor as a single-country analysis.

This chapter explores the role of nodes in knowledge networks. The authors characterize knowledge nodes by the type of actors they represent, including individual human agents, collective human groups and teams, explicit non-human objects and resources, and non-human agents and machines. The authors define knowledge nodes by their role in the network, including producer, consumer, or broker of knowledge, and in terms of the stock of knowledge they represent and their capacity to absorb knowledge made available in the network.

This chapter focuses on the middle level of organizations. It is a critical synthesis level for culture. The authors explain how this level is influenced by the higher and lower levels of the organizational culture. The authors discuss how factors from the higher and lower levels may affect this level. It is at this level that culture has the greatest effect on an organization’s business capabilities, and therefore its operations and performance.

This chapter provides a deep dive into knowledge networks. The authors provide an inclusive definition of a knowledge network. A knowledge network includes nodes as sources and targets of knowledge, relationships as knowledge links, and messages as knowledge transactions and flows. The authors note how knowledge networks differ from other types of networks, specifically their dynamic and chaotic state and continuous transactions. These peculiarities reflect the economic properties and behaviors of knowledge. The elements of networks described in Chapter 2 are elaborated for knowledge networks. The chapter calls out knowledge network domains, geographies, typologies, nodes, messages, and relationships.

This chapter focuses on community and social group networks. All six facets of knowledge networks are described. The importance of three of the six facets is called out, including geography, domain, and the messages exchanged across the network. The authors provide profiles of five networks, including family networks, neighborhood networks, issue and support networks, community organization networks, gangs and criminal networks, and sports and gaming networks.

This chapter focuses on accelerating the adoption and promotion of the solution across the organization. The authors define acceleration as achieving the maximum effective and appropriate use of the solution across the organization. This capability is strategic – it ensures that any new intelligence solution or activity is part of its business product line. The initial focus is on internal business products, but organizations are also encouraged to see new solutions as potential external products. To ensure the product is strategically leveraged, business managers, designers, and analysts must work with leaders to socialize solutions and encourage their adoption. It also means being open to adapting and calibrating the solution over time. This chapter also includes practical business stories.

The purpose of this paper is to describe two cycles of learning study (LS) involving eight elementary teachers in British Columbia, Canada. The study explored the teachers’ experiences of learning to plan and teach lessons as informed by recent brain research.

The case study was constructed using data sources including teacher semi-structured interviews (pre-study, post-study and delayed post-study), classroom materials (including student assignments), LS training materials, fieldnotes and recordings of meetings and research lessons; sources were triangulated. Thematic analysis was applied. Contemporary neuroscience perspectives framed the LS discourse and analysis.

The teachers developed theoretical coherence and could better articulate reasons for their pedagogy. They developed understandings of the cognitive architecture underlying functions like learning and memory, allowing them to identify pedagogical actions that are consistent with human biology and understand why these actions are effective in promoting learning.

LS is shown to be an effective professional development (PD) model where theoretical knowledge, like neuroscience, could be employed and tested in classroom settings to provide depth to support teachers’ praxis. This teaching–research nexus supports exploration of fruitful connections between theoretical knowledge and education to advance the science of learning and the science of instruction.

Findings demonstrated how LS could be employed with alternative theoretical perspectives to promote teacher PD, thus extending beyond the dominant use of variation theory. Also, illustrated is the potential use of LS to bridge the knowledge gap between neuroscience and education.