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This paper aims to introduce this special issue of ITP on systems for human benefit (S4HB), to develop and promote the idea of S4HB, and advocate that more research be conducted on the design and diffusion of S4HB.

This conceptual paper argues that S4HB are systemically under‐researched based on a historical perspective on IS research and proposes an agenda for research on the design and diffusion of S4HB.

The paper identifies extant areas of S4HB, such as health and education, but also advocates that new areas of S4HB be identified and new kinds of S4HB be designed. It further discusses how diffusion is a key issue to the realisation of human benefits and contrasts diffusion of S4HB with more commercial business systems as a motivator for further research. Finally it sets out a brief agenda for research in S4HB, including: development of a vision for research on S4HB that emphasises design for solving human problems; research on diffusion of S4HB; revision of the way impact is assessed by journals to include assessment of the significance of the problem and the achievement of human benefit; and promotion of a research culture, policies, and funding that emphasises S4HB.

This is the first paper to pull together a common perspective on the disparate areas of S4HB. The paper identifies what S4HB are, what their goals are, what areas are concerned, and sets out an agenda for what research is needed to realise them and their benefits in society.

In order to achieve sustained competitive advantage through developing human capital, organizations, apart from human resource management practices, concentrate on developing transformational leaders and implementing knowledge management (KM). To take part in their efforts, this paper intends to explore leadership and KM literatures to examine the interrelationship between transformational leadership, KM, and employee‐perceived human capital creation or benefits.

A systematic literature review is carried out of traditional and contemporary theoretical and empirical research studies to support the nexus of interrelationship between transformational leadership, KM, and human capital. This review is mainly integrated using a model and propositions that relate transformational leadership and KM with human capital benefits.

Transformational leaders have potential to affect their employees' perceptions of human capital benefits. They also have the greatest potential to augment these benefits through involving them in the KM process, establishing organizational culture, and encouraging communication among employees.

This model suggests that human resource managers should provide training to managers with regard to developing transformational leadership behavior, since this behavior contributes to human capital creation by which an organization achieves competitive advantage. Furthermore, this study mainly focuses on leaders as transformational leaders, since these leaders are highly capable of stimulating their followers' creativity. Therefore, this study only considered the components described by Bass and Avolio.

This paper contributes to leadership literature by adding the notion of transformational leadership as an antecedent of human capital creation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of both managerial commitment and the professional development of human resources on the benefits obtained from Kaizen implementation at the planning stage in Mexican maquiladora companies.

As part of the methodology, a questionnaire is validated and administered to 423 workers in different companies from the states of Tabasco, Baja California, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Moreover, a structural equation model is proposed to relate four latent variables: two concerning managerial commitment and the professional development of human resources, and two more related to the kinds of benefits obtained (economic and for human resources).

Results demonstrate that managerial commitment has a direct and positive impact on economic benefits and those for human resources. The major contribution of this study is, however, the determination of dependency measures between these variables.

This research contributes to the improvement and change, since the results of the research can be extended to the sustainability of other improvement activities, presenting additional areas for future research, such understanding will increase the likelihood that the results of application of Kaizen are sustained, eliminating waste and improving support within the organization. Finally, this research makes contributions to the field of industrial engineering and management disciplines of engineering and operations management, as it focusses on the improvement of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy, these systems they are integral to the modeling of this investigation.

This study tests the hypotheses and their relation to the sustainability of Kaizen in time for them to use the analysis technique of structural equations. For the author, this is the first study to determine the causal relationships between the critical success factors and benefits of Kaizen, determining a measure of dependence between them.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical framework that links the expenditures on human capital to the resulting long‐term benefits, and thus provide a model for reporting human capital on balance sheets. The framework identifies different kinds of accounting treatments for different kinds of human capital related expenses.

This paper sub‐divides expenditures related to human capital into four categories, based on the expenditure‐long‐term benefits relationships, using a Cartesian axes‐based approach.

The paper shows that a sub‐class of expenditures occur that are within the control of the organisation and provide economic benefits over several periods. As such, these expenditures can be capitalised. Furthermore, expenditures that do not provide long‐term benefits or result in lower productivity also exist. These need to be addressed by the management.

This model needs to be formally field‐tested.

The analytical framework may be used in practice by managers for analysing the benefits of the different types expenditures on human capital. It can also be used by researchers to analyse the benefits of the expenditures on different types of intellectual capital and financial accounting standard setters to standardise the appropriate accounting treatments for different types of human capital related expenditures.

This is the first study that breaks down the human capital related expenditures into comprehensive categories based on the expenditures‐benefits relationships such that positive and negative intangibles are identified, and examines the financial accounting and strategic managerial accounting implications of both kinds of intangibles.

The global trend of an ageing workforce and government policy directions towards reversing early retirement trends raises the issue of the costs to employers of an older workforce. Data on older workers human resources costs are lacking generally in Australia and other countries. This analysis of human resource costs and benefits relies on aggregate Australia national human resources benchmarking data that are applied to older workers. The study is based on the ratio of duration of employment of older workers compared to younger workers and uses this ratio as a multiplier of human resource costs. The analysis considers recruitment, training, absenteeism and work injuries of older compared to younger workers. The analysis found that net benefits occurred through recruitment and training benefits over the costs of absenteeism and work injuries. Further non‐quantified benefits of older workers identified in international case studies are also explained. These quantified and non‐quantified benefits of older workers suggest that identified positive inducements to employers exist which support human resources investments in older workers.

Economic activity is typically provided by three distinct sectors. For-profit entities seek to maximize owner profit by providing various goods and services. The not-for-profit sector consists of private or quasi-public entities that provide goods and services without regard to making an explicit profit. Government entities extract resources from the economy and redistribute them to achieve certain public goods.

Recently a fourth or gray sector has developed that combines elements of the other three. As a corporate form that explicitly sacrifices profit maximization to advance some predetermined social good, benefit corporations are one example of this gray sector. Owners are aware of this dual mission but still invest as the social objectives are consistent with their personal goals. Thus, the benefit corporation can be viewed as a for-profit entity subject to an explicit social welfare constraint.

Since the late 1960s governments have spent trillions of dollars on a wide variety of social welfare programs. Nevertheless, poverty persists and government altruism may have made poverty more intractable in some respects. Economic logic suggests that providing social welfare transfer payments with few work or training requirements can make recipients dependent and enable dysfunctional behavior. Over time this may rob recipients of opportunities for labor and self-sufficiency.

Benefit corporations are typically viewed as a form of socially responsible investment that leverages the economic advantages of market-based systems. To date, however, little has been written about the benefit corporation’s potential ethical dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to provide a moral argument based in Catholic Social Teaching to support the use of benefit corporations as a substitute for some government service programs. Our arguments are centered on the primary principle of Human Dignity and will include, but not be limited to: Work, Solidarity and there role social and economic society as well as the Role of Government or Subsidiarity (including the Welfare State).

This research aims at examining public parks as a complex, interrelated system in which a public park’s natural system and its man-made system can work together within an ecocentric approach. It will create a framework that can support the design and management of public parks.

The article first introduces previous research and justifies the need for a new approach. It then uses conceptual analysis to examine the concepts that construct a park’s system through previous theoretical research. Finally, the public park system is constructed by synthesising its components and showing the interrelations between them. These components are defined based on previous theoretical and empirical research.

A public park system is defined as consisting of a natural system and a man-made system with multiple components that interact to offer the overall experience in a park. The defined system can be a useful tool for decision-makers, managers and designers in the analysis and evaluation of existing and potential projects to achieve multifunctional parks that are better utilised and have a wider influence.

The research offers an alternative approach for framing public parks that do not deal with their components in isolation from each other. This view of public parks brings together perspectives from different literature into one coherent framework that emphasises mutual dependencies and interactions in one integrated whole.

This paper expounds theoretical reasons behind and practical applications of urban natural space as part of the ontological whole of the city.

In this paper, nonsecular and secular relationships between humans and nature are explored from an ontological perspective.

The characteristics of the savanna hypothesis are shown to be tectonic elements that have been used historically in human-defined landscapes and can be implemented in urban planning and design to enhance urban green spaces and improve the overall quality of urban life.

The human–nature relationship has morphed and adapted as civilizations and their belief systems have grown and fallen aside. The human–nature relationship has affected the form of cities while human development and technological advancements have affected nature’s representation in the urban realm. Throughout the periods of nonsecular affection for nature and secular applications of nature, one theme has persisted: human innate preference for certain arrangements of certain natural elements. Though existing long before the first human settlements were formed, the savanna hypothesis was not coined until the 20th century.

Ultimately, the savanna hypothesis is exhibited as a joining concept that connects nonsecular affection for nature to secular qualities of urban nature and natural infrastructure.

Sustainable operations are increasingly part of firms’ competitive strategies. Research widely investigates the relationship between sustainable operations and competitive advantage, considering financial performance as a dependent variable, and shows controversial results. The purpose of this paper is to operationalize competitive advantage as internal and external intangible benefits, such as human resource (HR) and customer benefits. HR benefits concern the deployment of a workforce pursuing a firm’s goals and strategy; customer benefits concern the improvement of a firm’s relationship with its customers.

Empirical results are provided in an analysis of data from a survey conducted on a sample of 107 Italian firms in the food industry. A single industry and country are selected to avoid possible differences in regulations and in operations processes. Structural equation modelling is used to test hypotheses relating sustainable operations to HR and customer benefits.

The authors distinguish between green and social operations practices. Green operations practices directly impact customer benefits but not HR benefits. Social sustainable operations practices do not directly impact customer benefits but instead have a direct impact on HR benefits. Hence, through HR benefits, they have an indirect impact on customer benefits.

The authors provide results showing to operations managers that both green operations and social operations are crucial to obtaining customer benefits. Social operations do this by enhancing HR benefits. Green operations instead are not positively related to HR benefits.

This research serves as an original contribution to the sustainable operations literature in two ways. First, from a resource-based perspective, the relationship between sustainable operations, HR benefits, and customer benefits is proposed and tested. Such benefits are also shown to be interrelated based on the service profit chain model. Second, green and social operations practices are analysed separately providing a nuanced view of benefits related to sustainable operations.

IUCN ‐ The World Conservation Union defines a protected area as an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means. The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) describes a protected area as a geographically defined area, which is designated or regulated and managed to achieve specific conservation objective. Protected areas‐national parks, wildlife reserves, wilderness areas, etc. ‐ are the cornerstones of national and international conservation strategies. They act as refuges for species and help maintain critical ecological processes and ecosystem services that intensely managed landscapes and seascapes cannot provide. These places provide space for natural evolution and future ecological restoration. In recent years there has been growing recognition of the benefits that protected areas provide for people: genetic resources for pharmaceuticals and agriculture, traditional medicines; recreational opportunities and ecotourism revenues; sustainable sources of goods such as non‐timber forest products; and refuge for traditional and vulnerable human societies (Dudley et al. 2005). A wide range of management objectives, approaches and types of governance are used within protected areas in different countries. In terms of management objectives, these range from strict protection and exclusion of humans to broad‐scale approaches that include cultural landscapes such as farms and managed forests. IUCN‐The World Conservation Union subdivides protected areas into six categories based on management objectives: Ia: strict nature reserve/wilderness protection area; Ib: wilderness area; II:national park; III:natural monument; IV:habitat/species management area; V:protected landscape/seascape; and VI:managed resource protected area. In terms of governance types, protected areas may be managed directly by a government, co‐managed with other actors such as nongovernmental organizations, or even declared and managed collectively by indigenous peoples and local communities or by the relevant individual or corporate landowner. Today, there are more than 100,000 designated protected areas in the World Database on Protected Areas covering around 11.4 per cent of Earth’s land surface, along with more than 1,300 marine protected areas covering less than 0.5 per cent of the oceans (Dudley et all. 2005).