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There is a paucity of studies on factors influencing social entrepreneurial behaviours or actions. Against this background, this study aims to explore factors and challenges affecting Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions in Nigeria.

This study adopted a qualitative approach, and data were gathered through three focus group discussions involving 25 people (18 Enactus members, 4 faculty advisors and 3 business advisory board members). The study adopted a content analysis technique for data analysis.

The findings reveal that social mission orientation, desire to create social impact and social problems influence Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions. Other influencing factors include social entrepreneurial passion, moral obligation, social empathy and social support. In addition, the study finds that financial and time constraints affect Enactus members’ social entrepreneurial actions.

The findings have implications for social entrepreneurs/enterprises, governments/policymakers and Enactus members.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that provides insights into the factors influencing a group of people towards social entrepreneurial actions.

Organizations are increasingly joining inter-organizational networks to foster sustainable employability for their employees. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and mechanisms central to their success as experienced by key stakeholders.

An explorative, qualitative approach was adopted, using four focus groups with network coordinators (N = 18) and HR professionals (N = 14). Fourteen Dutch inter-organizational networks were represented. Respondents were recruited through purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. Thematic analysis was applied using open coding to generate themes.

The results of this study outline environmental, structural, and inter-personal factors and mechanisms that contribute to the success of inter-organizational networks that aim to foster sustainable employability for their employees. The environmental factors and mechanisms consist of challenges stemming from the labor market. The structural factors and mechanisms include: a network’s flat structure, flat fee, lack of informal rules, the allocation of roles and expectations for stakeholders and shared network activities. Lastly, the inter-personal factors and mechanisms are: communication among stakeholders, establishing reciprocity, interaction and collaboration between stakeholders, the valuation of trust, a convivial culture and shared vision among stakeholders. The dynamics between these factors and mechanisms are compared to other forms of inter-organizational networks. Furthermore, several recommendations for network coordinators and practitioners regarding the development of networks are presented.

This study provides insights into the factors and mechanisms that are regarded by stakeholders as influencing the success of inter-organizational networks in their ability to foster sustainable employability for workers. We have identified a unique model that captures this new way of inter-organizational collaboration and builds on insights from literature on collaborative governance regimes, institutional fields and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Specifically, the model provides a framework that consists of environmental, structural and interpersonal factors and mechanisms for network success. This study increases our understanding of how collaborative efforts can be fostered beyond organizational boundaries and existing Human Resource Management practices.

This paper aims to understand how virtual influencers (VIs) can promote interethnic tolerance, online, among youth as a social good.

This paper conducted qualitative research using interpretive analysis with RTA (Reflexive Thematic Analysis) on data collected through focus groups.

This paper revealed that the quality of the VI’s content is a leading factor influencing VI's ability to promote interethnic tolerance, but creating content that is constantly authentic, appealing and inclusive to diverse ethnic groups in a particular context is challenging.

The study has some limitations related to the specific context on which it is focused and therefore transferring the findings to different contextual conditions requires caution, and also can be extended with positivist validation.

Findings from our study can drive future projects where real VI artifacts will play the role of a mediator in building strong relational trust among youth belonging to different ethnic groups. The findings indicate that VIs can be effectively used to foster interethnic tolerance if involve diverse team members who understand the ethnic culture deeply and social media experts, to create high-quality content to overcome some limitations.

VIs can be used as social interventions to promote interethnic tolerance and to reduce prejudices and anxiety in online youth communication.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no known studies investigated the potential of VIs for promoting interethnic tolerance among ethnically diverse youth groups. Hence, this study paves the way for further refinement on using cutting-edge technology for social good, since it is highly challenging, often resulting in wasted money.

University students are a unique population with great potential to adopt eating habits that promote positive human and planetary health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the current perceptions of sustainable eating behaviours among the students and to examine the determinants of sustainable eating behaviours.

Data were collected from December 2020 to May 2021 through focus group discussions among university students in Ontario, facilitated through synchronous online sessions. There were 21 student participants during the course of five focus group sessions (4–5 participants per session) from various departments within the university. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed for main themes and concepts using open coding; deductive coding based on the framework by Deliens et al. as well as the literature; and inductive coding for emerging themes.

The students had different perceptions about what constituted sustainable eating behaviours, some of which were not based on fact. A variety of individual, environmental (macro, micro and social) and university characteristics were mentioned as factors influencing sustainable food choices, with “food literacy” and “campus food” being the top two factors.

This study presents a novel and holistic overview of how sustainable eating behaviours and sustainable foods are perceived among university students and identifies the perceived determinants of adopting sustainable eating behaviours. This study helps with identifying opportunities to promote sustainable eating behaviours among university students and the design/implementation of informed interventions and policies aimed at improving eating behaviours.

This case study sought to investigate the relationship between pre-service teachers’ participation in designing and delivering one-on-one literacy intervention lessons to beginning readers and their own evolving self-efficacy in literacy instruction.

The study was embedded within a 4000-level course in the elementary education major where pre-service teachers learn to administer, analyze and interpret a variety of literacy assessments. Based on the results of these assessments, pre-service teachers designed and implemented literacy lessons (twice a week, 30-min sessions) that addressed the beginning readers' specific instructional needs. Through collecting pre/post data with their first-grade intervention students, and participating in reflective “check-ins” (surveys, a focus group and end-of-course written reflection), a portrait of increased pre-service teacher self-efficacy in literacy instruction comes into focus.

The data showed, primarily through the thematic analysis of qualitative data, that the experience of conducting a one-on-one intervention with a striving reader impacted pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy positively.

The methodology of this study was limited by the small sample size and the low participant response rate on the quantitative survey measure.

This paper highlights one aspect in which clinically-rich field experiences can make a difference in the literacy instruction self-efficacy of pre-service teachers.

This study adds to the support for authentic instructional applications of course content in educator preparation programs, specifically in Professional Development School (partner school system) contexts. The aspect of observing and measuring intervention student progress was one lens through which pre-service teachers viewed their efficacy. Further investigations focusing on other assessment-instruction cycles could provide additional insights.

Technological advancements and global societal changes reshapes manufacturing industry emphasizing needs for competence development of industrial professionals. The purpose of this paper is to study how organizational learning supports the development of academic structures, creating agile and sustainable formal educational models meeting novel competence needs.

The qualitative case study, part of a longitudinal research study, focuses on internal academic processes supporting a new formal educational model. Qualitative data was collected through five focus groups, incorporating 32 informants from different HEI function categories.

Changing traditional academic structures requires joint engagement between all HEI functions, emphasizing organizational learning with subprocesses of searching, creating, sustaining and exchanging knowledge in a learning loop. Results show a consensus among the different HEI functions regarding the value of the HEI’s coproduction with society; however, bureaucracy and academic structure hinder flexibility. Cross-functional teams building a “chain-of-trust” throughout the HEI coupled with full management support show opportunities to progress into a learning organization.

Organizational learning within HEIs requires trustful and open communication, multifunction knowledge exchange, holistic views of processes and system thinking, achieved through cross-functional teams and continuous improvement through learning loops.

Industry-academic collaboration on formal education for lifelong learning needs to become both agile and resilience to meet technological advancement and sustainability.

Novel technology, digitalization and sustainability gain ground and require that society and organizations, including academia, change and learn. This means that academia is meeting new challenges and needs to develop internal processes.

Both technological and human-centric perspectives need to be acknowledged when combining lean production practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. This study aims to explore and explain how lean production practices and I4.0 technologies may coexist to enhance the human-centric perspective of manufacturing operations in the era of Industry 5.0 (I5.0).

The research approach is an explorative and longitudinal case study. The qualitative data collection encompasses respondents from different job functions and organizational levels to cover the entire organization. In total, 18 interviews with 19 interviewees and five focus groups with a total of 25 participants are included.

Identified challenges bring forth that manufacturing organizations must have the ability to see beyond lean production philosophy and I4.0 to meet the demand for a human-centric perspective in socially sustainable manufacturing in the era of Industry 5.0.

The study suggests that while lean production practices and I4.0 practices may be considered separately, they need to be integrated as complementary approaches. This underscores the complexity of managing simultaneous organizational changes and new digital initiatives.

The research presented illuminates the elusive phenomena comprising the combined aspects of a human-centric perspective, specifically bringing forth implications for the co-existence of lean production practices and I4.0 technologies, in the transformation towards I5.0.

The study contributes to new avenues of research within the field of socially sustainable manufacturing. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the human-centric perspective when transforming organizations towards Industry 5.0.

Research with vulnerable groups is crucial to get their input into public policy design that will directly impact on them. However, there are many methodological and ethical challenges involved in encouraging participation from groups with a wide range of intellectual, cognitive and physical capacities while ensuring that the rights and well-being of participants are protected. Rather than exploring ethical theories, this chapter is a case study describing the practical ethical considerations that were involved in designing and holding a series of focus groups with adult health and social care service users from vulnerable cohorts. It is based on a series of focus groups which the Institute of Public Health (IPH) held with specified cohorts as part of a policy development process on adult safeguarding for the Department of Health (DOH) in Ireland. The four cohorts were people with intellectual disability, cognitive impairments, significant mental health challenges and nursing home residents. This chapter does not describe the findings of the focus groups but outlines the ethical and methodological considerations that arose in designing and conducting this research, and the practical ethical safeguards employed to mitigate risk and comply with Irish and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation governing health research. It outlines the ethical issues around protecting confidentiality and using incentives to encourage participation, how individuals' capacity to give informed consent was maximized, the risk-assessment and mitigation procedures used to prevent harms arising and the measures put in place to provide follow-up emotional support to participants.

This study aims to explore the experiences of peers working in a range of roles within a single NHS mental health service. This study also aims to provide evidence of the impact of existing support, organisational structure and culture around peer working and provide recommendations for a Good Practice Guide for Peer Working. Peer roles require lived experience of mental health conditions and/or services. While the impact on them of using their own lived experience is not fully understood, anecdotal evidence suggests that peer workers may experience a greater emotional impact than other mental health workers. Burnout and retention are particular concerns.

This was a two-stage study using focus groups and reflexive thematic analysis in Stage 1. The key themes formed the basis of the Stage 2 workshop, which provided recommendations for a Good Practice Guide. The study team consisted of peer researchers with lived experience, supported by a Lived Experience Advisory Panel.

There is a perceived lack of support and an increased peer burden for peer workers. Recommendations included relevant ongoing training and development; support and supervision; and organisational cultural change.

Working within a peer-led co-production framework, this study contributes to the development of the evidence base for peer emotional labour. Based on the findings, a Good Practice Guide for Peer Working is being developed to promote good practice for the development of future peer worker roles.

The purpose of this study is to investigate offline retailers’ cryptocurrency adoption through the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT/2), technology acceptance model (TAM) and other related variables.

A mixed-method (QUANT-Qual) was employed. The study employed a quantitative approach (partial least squares-structural equation modeling) for Study 1 and a qualitative focus group discussion for Study 2. The qualitative segment enhances the comprehension and interpretation of outcomes derived from the quantitative analysis.

Study 1 identified six crucial factors in cryptocurrency adoption: trust, personal innovation, hedonic motivation, social influence, safety and a positive attitude. Perceived ease of use, price value and satisfaction were non-significant. Study 2 elaborates on the findings, and highlights the reasons for the insignificant factors.

This research contributes to theoretical knowledge by empirically testing established technology acceptance theories like UTAUT/2 and TAM in the context of retail cryptocurrency adoption. It introduces previously unexplored factors, such as personal innovativeness, hedonic motivation and safety/reliability, enriching the theoretical landscape.

This study provides practical insights for cryptocurrency stakeholders, including government, regulators, consumers, businesses and the financial sector, regarding retailers' intentions to adopt cryptocurrencies in North Cyprus.

This study can enhance understanding of factors facilitating cryptocurrency integration into mainstream retail, potentially reshaping traditional finance. Economically, adoption can boost financial inclusion, offering efficient transaction methods. This transition may disrupt existing economic models, drive payment technology innovation and change consumer behavior toward digital assets.

This study stands out by using a mixed-method approach to comprehensively examine cryptocurrency adoption by offline retailers, considering various factors and providing a holistic perspective, unlike previous research that often focused on specific user groups.