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Research has shown that business model innovation can facilitate most ventures to innovate and remain competitive, yet there has been limited work on how digital leadership capabilities influence business model innovation. Building on the dynamic capabilities view, we address this gap by linking digital leadership capabilities with business model innovation via managerial decision-making through provision of grants received by new ventures.

The study is cross-sectional research. Data have been collected utilizing purposive sampling from 313 founding members of new ventures in high-velocity markets, i.e. from Pakistan. SPSS has been used to conduct the moderated mediation analysis.

Digital leadership capabilities foster the business model innovation of the new ventures because they enable new ventures to capitalize on digital technologies and create new ways of generating value for the customers and themselves. Moreover, managerial decision-making mediates digital leadership capabilities and business model innovation relationship, whereas, grants moderate the indirect positive effect of digital leadership capabilities on business model innovation via managerial decision-making. The study generates initial evidence on the impact of digital leadership capabilities on business model innovation via managerial decision-making for new ventures. We advance knowledge on new ventures’ business model innovation by deep-diving into dynamic capabilities view and emphasizing digital leadership capabilities as a significant driver for business model innovation.

With the help of dynamic capabilities theory, this study analyzes how new ventures make use of digital leadership capabilities to promote business model innovation.

Citizen engagement can promote value creation in urban development projects. This potential stems from the granting of decision-making authority to citizens, labeled citizen enfranchisement in this study. Citizens are focal stakeholders of urban development projects and enfranchisement grants them an explicit say on such projects. Despite this potential for enhanced value creation, there remains limited understanding about how project organizations enfranchise stakeholders in the front end of urban development projects.

In this research, we designed a multiple-case study to analyze two novel citizen engagement processes in Northern-European cities. In these processes, citizens were enfranchised in ideating, designing, and making selections on urban development projects. We followed a multimethod approach to data collection. The collected datasets include document data, interview data and observation data.

Our findings demonstrated a distribution and redistribution of decision-making authority throughout the phases of the citizen engagement processes. Citizens’ voices were amplified throughout the project front end, although episodes of decision-making authority held by the cities took place periodically as well. By granting explicit decision-making authority to citizens, citizen enfranchisement facilitated a more democratic urban development process, promoting value creation.

In contrast to the earlier research, the findings of our study illustrate citizen engagement taking place at so-called higher levels of stakeholder engagement. In particular, our study reveals a granting of de facto decision-making authority to citizens, also known as citizen enfranchisement. These findings contribute to the earlier research on stakeholder engagement in projects, where the influence of stakeholder engagement has often been considered symbolic or limited.

China’s foreign aid efforts in Africa remain contentious. Chinese foreign aid tends to be different from “traditional” development assistance in that it frequently involves firms as the implementing agents of projects. Firms bring unique resources to public–private partnerships (PPPs) formed with government agencies, but their possible self-interested nature also gives rise to concerns over their development impact. Yet, on a larger scale, little is known about the characteristics of Chinese PPPs in foreign aid. Using project-level data available for 1,308 Chinese aid projects in 50 countries across Africa, the author characterizes the projects undertaken by firms and government agencies in a PPP and contrasts them to those executed by Chinese government agencies without firm involvement. This exploratory data analysis suggests that important differences apply, as Chinese PPPs tend to target different sustainable development goals (SDGs), work on the basis of distinct aid conditions, and implement projects that tend to be larger than those that are solely run by government agencies. Such observations raise important questions of an ethical, theoretical, and international nature, and warrant further research. The author develops a research agenda that aims at issues particularly important for business ethics scholars, organization theorists, and international business scholarship.

The purpose of microcredit is to offer small loans to people who are not covered by traditional financial channels. It can facilitate entrepreneurship, boosting local socio-economic development and improving environmental and political factors.

This paper aims to analyse microcredit in Italy, focusing on a project based in Rione Sanità, Naples. Rione Sanità is one of the poorest areas of Southern Italy, displaying high rates of criminality and unemployment, especially among youth, women, migrants and the vulnerable. The district is renowned for its fine and ancient handicrafts, food, trade and historical heritage – potential drivers for boosting tourism in the area. Qualitative methodologies were used to collect primary data through field visits and interviews with project bankers, local businesses, artisans, associations and religious representatives, project volunteers, as well as participation at local meetings. These data were corroborated by budget analysis based on the project's accounting.

The study shows encouraging results for the project and policy prospects. Despite the tiny starting numbers, there emerges a significant potential for microcredit to spread in the district, as in Southern Italy, providing an effective strategy to combat unemployment, usury and criminality, yielding community development and favoring broad societal challenges.

With this evidence, the paper attempts to shed some light and verify the potential of microfinance projects as a driver of sustainable development and ethical finance in poor areas of developed countries.

This paper aims to explore how social procurement (SP)-related capabilities might be developed within public authorities.

The paper utilizes qualitative research, based upon an inductive research design. This leads to a model to inform future research and practice.

Within the context of a “disconnected and nascent institutional field of practice” (Loosemore et al., 2023), the research generated rich data illustrating how certain English public authorities have developed relatively mature SP capabilities and applied them within the procurement process. The former included the appointment of “champions”; the founding of groups/units; training using webinars, online resources and case studies; “toolkits”, including policy documents, process guidance and measurement tools and networking. The latter included consultation with social value recipients and close engagement with both internal stakeholders and suppliers. The research also revealed the internal political skills of “champions”, as SP challenges incumbent logics regarding procurement objectives and practices.

First, the paper provides a potential roadmap for organisational capability development. Second, the research makes clear that public authorities should not seek to reinvent the capability wheel. Engagement with peers, advisory bodies, established “toolkits”, etc. is imperative, with much expertise publicly available. Third, it also suggests that smaller public authorities might seek to act as part of a consortium rather than go it alone, given the investment required for effective SP. Fourth, the research showed that practitioners need to understand SP as not simply a development challenge but also a political one.

The paper contributes to the literature by analysing SP from the largely overlooked resource-based perspective, by providing rich data on buy-side practice, by usefully adding to the literature's emerging “practice theme” and by offering guidance to buy-side managers within public authorities.

In this chapter, we discuss talent development in the context of higher education. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of inclusive and exclusive approaches to talent development, we present empirical data that detail how the participants of a focus group study perceive talent development in higher education. Our data show the importance of a contextualized reading of talent development as the competitive context in academia hinders an inclusive focus on talent development. This context results in a performance-centred, instead of a development-centred approach to talent management, where outperforming others in narrowly defined areas (e.g. publication record) is the main goal. We show that in such a context the development of competitive talent is rewarded, and the development of communal talent is not. The focus on performance instead of (inclusive) development becomes more pronounced when employees move through their career and is believed to have several negative consequences. Mostly women perceived that such a non-inclusive approach to talent development hinders the development and deployment of their talents and obstructs their career progression.

Professional development (PD) is an essential component of continuing learning for in-service teachers. This paper discusses a school-based example of using the best practice of coaching in early childhood education supported by a professional development school partnership. We explain how a teacher identified need led to a collaborative, multistep approach to meeting that need in connection to State mandates.

In this research, we used a case study methodological approach with a team of preschool teachers at one school. The model combines use of PD sessions, classroom coaching, classroom observation and reflection.

Teachers’ feedback indicates that using the strategy positively impacted most of the participants’ ability to support communication, community-building and inclusive practices in their classrooms. The data that emerged in the following year evidenced increased use of visual supports in classrooms, use in connection with literacy goals and interest in creating new uses in the school.

This article contributes an action-oriented school-based example of bridging research to practice to support teachers’ needs through PD and coaching in a PDS. The design and practical implications may interest preschool educators, instructional coaches, administrators, professional development schools and others involved with monitoring teacher development initiatives.

This paper describes the rationale and key aspects of how one school-university partnership leveraged resources to create, implement and refine an innovative professional pathway called the Early Childhood Certificate (ECC) program which reflects the National Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Essential Guideline 4: Reflection and Innovation. The ECC program is an innovative, career-building model that leverages resources between a predominantly white regional state university, a nonprofit organization serving as a Head Start grantee, a large urban school district and community-based education settings across a Midwestern metropolitan region.

This descriptive narrative documents how the ECC program developed as a professional pathway for early childhood educators to scale up their skills for teaching young children while strengthening their capacities and credentials within the early childhood education (ECE) profession pipeline. The narrative includes relevant literature and examples from the field.

This paper includes a discussion of the benefits and challenges related to the design, implementation and refinement of the professional learning ECC program.

This is a descriptive narrative. As such, generalizability is lacking. Research is needed to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of innovative teacher education programs.

Relevant research and lessons learned provide guidance for other school–university partnerships to consider how to meet workforce and career needs for educators in the field of ECE.

School–university partnerships can be change agents and positively impact early childhood educators' career development.

This paper addresses the need for understanding how predominantly white early childhood teacher education programs can partner with schools and agencies and then together leverage resources to support workforce and career development opportunities.

SRI Sukuk, with its outcome-based emphasis, aims to align the Islamic finance industry with its original ideals and address criticisms related to form over substance. In Malaysia, while the pioneering Sukuk Ihsan was a “social” sukuk, recent SRI Sukuk issuances have predominantly been “green” or “sustainable” sukuk. This paper aims to evaluate the Malaysian SRI Sukuk market, identifying factors favouring “green” sukuk. It also examines whether structural issues in Sukuk Ihsan deterred subsequent issuers from “social” sukuk. The emergence of SRI Sukuk responds to sustainable development goals and the shift towards a low-carbon economy. Sukuk Ihsan, as the first Shariah-compliant pay-for-success structure, poses complexity and risk management challenges to meet performance criteria.

The study used a qualitative method in the form of a critical review of literature, interview sessions with experts and stakeholders who are familiar with SRI Sukuk and Sukuk Ihsan and a case study analysis of Sukuk Ihsan.

The popularity of “green” sukuk reflects the growing global environmental consciousness. The main factors driving the popularity of “green” sukuk are the maturity of the market and the existence of a strong supporting infrastructure for “green” issuances while the positive profiling benefits and availability of incentives for “green” issuances also contribute to a lesser extent. The recommendations include the promotion of “social” sukuk by regulators through a focus on establishing a similar supporting infrastructure for “social” sukuk as there are for SRI and standard Sukuk. In addition, issuers of “social” sukuk may want to reconsider the inclusion of key performance indicators (“KPI”) into the structure of future “social” sukuk issuances.

Although all respondents considered Sukuk Ihsan to be a success, some potential areas of improvement were also noted. These include the structuring of future “social” sukuk issuances with a bigger discount to compensate for the additional risk being assumed by the investor; the need to be more careful in the KPI selection process; and one respondent even went so far as to suggest the possibility of totally removing the step-down feature of Sukuk Ihsan.

Industry implications of Sukuk Ihsan study include findings that require balancing disclosure and economics by providing additional disclosure requirements for SRI Sukuk that may pose risks without corresponding benefits for issuers. KPI selection and investor confidence should also be properly identified, as KPIs are essential for the pay-for-success model to work successfully. For sukuk holders, findings indicate that any approval for waivers during issuance can impact investor confidence negatively. Investor literacy and impact understanding should also be improved for social Sukuk success. Investors should understand the different risk exposures and evolving impact requirements vital for sustainable growth.

The findings provide significant implications for social impact Sukuk issuance. They include providing a substantial case study for future social impact issuances, based on the pioneering impact of Sukuk Ihsan. Furthermore, Sukuk Ihsan’s unqualified success validates the feasibility of socially responsible sukuk. Despite its early introduction, both tranches being fully subscribed reflects robust investor interest. Stakeholders were also proud of their involvement in such an initiative, viewing it as a significant achievement in creating societal impact.

Although there have been several prior studies done on Sukuk Ihsan, the focus of those studies was on its structure and the novelty of its “step down” returns structure where investors would receive lower returns if certain key performance indicators (“KPIs”) are met by Yayasan AMIR in the execution of its Trust School Programme. Bearing in mind that the first Sukuk Ihsan has a June 2022 maturity date, and the results of its KPIs were announced in December 2021, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only documented case study that comprehensively reviews Sukuk Ihsan and identifies lessons learned and/or opportunities for improvement for the benefit of potential SRI Sukuk issuers in the future.

Studies on technology and interpreting have increasingly explored how technology influences the role and performance of interpreters in their practice; however, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews and analyses. This paper aims to synthetically review the state-of-the-art application and integration of various interpreting technologies, identify the key trends of recent studies, and evaluate the associated opportunities and challenges.

Adopting a systematic review approach, 40 articles on technology and interpreting practice from 2013 to 2024 were selected and analysed.

A growing number of empirical studies on technology-mediated remote interpreting and technology-supported interpreting is observed in public service settings, suggesting that mobile and emerging technologies have gained more attention alongside phone and video. In addition, mixed results are revealed with respect to the impact of technology on interpreting performance.

This review not only provides a bird’s-eye view of how interpreting practice has reconciled with different technologies but also offers insights into the changing role of interpreters, the need for training, and the direction for future research.