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There are multiple questionnaires in the literature that try to gather university students’ perception about sustainable development (SD), but they are mainly focused on determining the students’ knowledge and attitude about sustainability. As the existing questionnaires did not fit the type of analysis that is intended to carry out, a new questionnaire was developed, adapted to the aims and context (engineering students) of the pretended study. The questionnaire contains two scales; one to determine the level of insertion of sustainability and the other to measure the importance that students give in their training process to the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. This new instrument requires a validation process to ensure its content – validity, reliability and clarity. The aim of this paper is to describe the validation process.

This paper shows the validation process of a questionnaire designed ad hoc to measure the students’ perception on SD inclusion level in three current engineering degrees, at the Engineering School of Bilbao (EIB) that belongs to the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The questionnaire validation process was conducted in three stages: experts on the subject provided their advice to ensure the study objectives, a small number of students contributed to clarify the statement of the questions, and thus, to increase the reliability of the questionnaire and finally, a larger number of students completed the survey to analyse the internal consistency of the two scales in the questionnaire with the Cronbach’s alpha test.

As a result of the entire validation process, an appropriate scale has been obtained to measure the importance that students give to the three dimensions of sustainability, economic, environmental and social, and to the sustainability overall. Furthermore, an appropriate scale to measure the insertion level of sustainability in engineering studies has been developed. However, the insertion scale needs a revision in the items of social and economic dimension to be valid to conduct disaggregated studies by dimensions.

The surveys published in the literature try to determine the knowledge and attitude that students have regarding SD. However, this new questionnaire, whose validation process is described in this paper, aims to know how engineering students of the EIB perceive the level of insertion of SD in their academic programs, from a frequency perspective, and the importance they give to it, both personally and professionally, given to the analysis a holistic perspective. Thus, the questionnaire can be used by higher education institutions to design strategies for inserting SD in engineering studies.

Grounded on the X Reality framework and human–machine collaboration, this study aims to explore the potential of immersive augmentation through artificial intelligence (AI) service robots for promoting social inclusion in the hospitality industry.

Three experimental studies across diverse hospitality contexts examine the effects of immersive augmentation using inclusive-AI service robots compared to standard-AI robots. The studies also uncover the underlying process of perceived ethicality and the moderating role of customers’ familiarity with AI.

The results indicate that immersive augmentation through inclusive-AI service robots generates higher levels of supportive tipping behavior (Studies 1 and 3), superior buying intentions (Study 2) and an increased likelihood for customers to pay a premium price (Study 2). These effects are mediated by perceived ethicality (Studies 1–3). However, the impact of immersive augmentation for social inclusion is contingent upon customers’ familiarity with AI: customers with high familiarity with AI exhibit lower levels of supportive tipping behavior (Study 3).

The findings emphasize the importance of perceived ethicality and customers’ familiarity with AI in determining the effectiveness of immersive augmentation for social inclusion in hospitality.

This study contributes to the literature by exploring the potential of immersive augmentation using AI service robots for social inclusion in hospitality. It offers novel insights by highlighting the importance of perceived ethicality and customers’ familiarity with AI. The findings provide valuable guidance for hospitality managers seeking to leverage AI technology to foster social inclusion.

This study examines the roles of poverty reduction and social inclusion as socioeconomic factors in achieving sustainable development (SD) in Nigeria from 1970 to 2019.

Vector error correction model (VECM) is adopted as the analytical technique. Three groups of factors are employed when determining SD: economic (per capital gross domestic product [GDP] and the inflow of foreign direct investment [FDI]), social (life expectancy, school enrollment, poverty and the proportion of women in parliament) and environmental (CO₂ emission and natural resource endowment).

The findings reveal that the economic factors (GDP per capita and the inflow of FDI to the GDP ratio) and two of the social determinants (life expectancy and school enrollment) have a positive effect on SD while the remaining two social determinants (poverty gap and the proportion of women in parliament) and the environmental determinants (CO₂ emission and natural resource endowment) have a negative influence on SD in Nigeria during the period under study.

First, this study integrates social inclusion into the poverty–SD nexus in the same study framework for a thorough analysis given that social inclusion has been identified as one of the leading variables affecting sustainability. Second, this study fills a gap in the literature by accounting for economic, social and environmental factors that influence SD, as opposed to the majority of existing studies that only employed environmental variables when examining the relationship between poverty and sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Grameen America's response to COVID-19 pandemic. This is accomplished by identifying and analyzing the key initiatives implemented by Grameen America within the framework of selected United Nations' Sustainability Development Goals (UN’s SD Goals).

This study has used qualitative content analysis to analyze financial and nonfinancial information of Grameen Bank.

This study follows a qualitative content analysis method to precisely gauge the shift in Grameen’s strategy and focus, as well as to assess the impact of its initiatives on the small business community before and after the pandemic. The findings showcase that Grameen’s longstanding mission to alleviate poverty is in line with the UN’s SD Goal 1. Also, Grameen’s commitment to create partnerships with external organizations to offer credit and noncredit services and support is consistent with UN’s SD Goal 17.

Notwithstanding the significant contributions of this case study, the findings are limited in some respects. First, this case study focuses on the Grameen America’s unique experience regarding its response to COVID-19 pandemic. This may affect the interpretation and generalization of the findings of this study. Performing comparative views across wide range of relevant microlending institutions could help improve the generalization of the findings. Also, this case study examines the impact on women and minority groups who were particularly affected by the pandemic. The results should, therefore, be interpreted with care as circumstances may change over time.

The implication for practice is that policymakers should encourage the creation of more member-based financial and non-financial institutions that can help members integrate financially and socially into society. Also, practitioners should increase their ethical duties and responsibilities to their members in society in good and bad times as members tend to value the ethical aspect of financial businesses.

The social implication of the findings is that helping members of society to cope with the difficulties brought about by COVID increased the sense of belonging among members and made them feel cared for, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion among underserved people.

Prior literature addressed the initiatives of microlending institutions such as Grameen Bank to achieve financial inclusion among financially vulnerable women. This case study contributes to the literature on financial inclusion and poverty alleviation by examining Grameen America’s response to the pandemic by identifying and assessing Grameen America (GA’s) key initiatives and their impact within the framework of the UN’s SD Goals in the post COVID-19 world.

According to the literature, a lack of resources is seen as a major barrier of implementing inclusive education. Previous studies, which have mostly been limited to the perspective of teachers, show that the perception of resources has a considerable influence on teachers' self-efficacy and in particular on their attitude towards inclusive education. The 'Perception of Resources Questionnaire' (PRQ) by Goldan and Schwab (2018) is the first instrument to assess the perspective of students. The PRQ was applied in the present study comprising N = 701 students from lower-secondary level in Germany. It is aimed to explore whether the perception of resources has an effect on relevant dimensions on the side of the students. Results of multilevel regression analyses show that students' perception of resources is a significant predictor of their well-being in school, academic self-concept and social inclusion. Finally, the results are discussed with regard to practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which racioethnicity influences perceptions of inclusion (i.e. information sharing, collective efficacy, satisfaction and relationship conflict) when working in racially heterogeneous groups.

Individuals were placed in groups in order to participate in ethical-decision making tasks.

Results reveal that individuals representing varied racioethnic groups are in general satisfied working in racially heterogeneous groups. However, reports of relationship conflict and information sharing varied as a function of racioethnicity.

The authors discuss possible rationales for differences in how racioethnic groups perceive and experience group processes over time as well as practical implications for social psychology and diversity in teams.

The chapter examines the relationship between social inclusion patterns and economic development in selected EU countries. This research has two objectives: (i) to reveal whether there are similarities among the EU countries in nation’s social inclusiveness of three demographic groups, namely the entire population, immigrants, and Roma communities; and (ii) to analyze the influence of social inclusion indicators on sustainable economic development and prosperity for the EU countries by accounting for the ethnicity impact. The chapter presents the results of a cluster analysis approach, which indicates best-positioned countries and emphasizes vulnerabilities in terms of social inclusiveness both in a broad demographic sense (the entire population) and a narrow sense (immigrants and respective Roma population). The chapter then employs a panel data regression approach to investigate which social inclusion indicators might have the potentially influencing role on economic development. Seven alternative proxies for sustainable economic development and prosperity measures were used. The social inclusion indicators, as explanatory variables, are represented by the education-related indicators and labor market-related indicators. The robustness and stability of the estimates are validated by including several interaction terms in the baseline regression model to account for the occurrence of the financial crisis. Overall, improving both population as well as immigrants’ inclusion is shown to have an important impact on sustainable economic development in the EU countries.

This study drew on person-organization fit and ideological psychological contract theories to test whether inclusiveness, operationalized as sense of belonging, could be explained by congruence/discrepancy between employees' personal value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and employees' views of perceived organizational commitment to these initiatives. The study also examined whether sense of belonging, and perspectives of DEI initiatives, differed between majority [New Zealand European (NZE)] and minority [Māori/Pasifika (MP)] workers.

A total of 771 employees from a New Zealand healthcare organization completed an online survey. Further to mean difference tests to contrast majority and minority group experiences, polynomial regressions with response surface methodology were conducted to examine congruence effects on sense of belonging.

While MP workers attributed greater personal value to DEI initiatives and viewed the organization as prioritizing these initiatives compared to NZ European (NZE) workers, MP workers experienced a lower sense of belonging. Further, the authors' results show that congruence at higher levels of personal and organizational importance ascribed to DEI initiatives was associated with greater sense of belonging. Contrary to the deficiency-based discrepancy effect proposed, the lowest levels of belonging were experienced at low levels of organizational commitment to DEI, regardless of personal diversity value. Additionally, MP were more susceptible to ideological psychological contract breach than NZE workers.

The authors' study highlights that while positive diversity climate perceptions are closely linked to perceptions of inclusion, organizations will discern the factors that contribute to or undermine inclusiveness by also gaging personal value DEI initiatives and the unique experiences of minority and majority groups.

This study is the first to examine the effect of diversity-related value congruence on employees' sense of belonging, and to uncover racioethnic differences in these effects.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on how perspectives and assumptions embedded in the complexity paradigm contribute to make logistics management research better aligned with real-life logistics. This is necessary, due to increasing supply chain complexity caused by an increasing request for sustainable development (SD).

The research is exploratory and based on a narrative literature review of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) from a complexity science perspective. Qualitative research interviews have been conducted with 12 logistics and supply chain managers in international companies and have focussed on their daily experiences and the underlying assumptions related to their actual work.

Logistics and SCM research is embedded in the functionalistic paradigm with reductionistic assumptions as the dominant logic. These do not sufficiently align with the complexity related, for example, to the daily work of SD in logistics management practice.

It is proposed that the inclusion of complexity-based assumptions in logistics management research can increase realism in the advancement of the discipline. A key result is that the recognition of logistics as complex means inclusion of human and social aspects – which is apparent in any logistics process or phenomenon – in logistics knowledge creation processes.

Increased realism in logistics management research by addressing complexity, instead of merely reducing it, will provide logistics and supply chain managers with increased understanding and appropriate knowledge when they deal with emerging challenges such as SD.

Based on Boulding’s levels of complexity, this paper challenges the underlying assumptions of logistics management in research and practice, and provides reflective frameworks for advancing the discipline and aligning it to the complexity of contemporary challenges in logistics management.

This study examines whether inclusion values predict organizational outcomes through mediating effects of inclusive HR practices and investigates whether intellectual (human and social) capital serves as a contingency variable in moderating the relationship between practices and outcomes.

Organizational-level data were collected from 79 senior-level executives. Hypotheses were examined via regression analyses and the product-of-coefficients approach was used to test for indirect and conditional indirect effects.

This study found a positive relationship between inclusion values and inclusive HR practices and between inclusive HR practices and organization-level outcomes. Inclusive HR practices mediated the relationship between values and outcomes and intellectual capital moderated the relationship between practices and outcomes, such that inclusive HR practices played a greater role in augmenting outcomes for organizations with lower intellectual capital.

Alignment of inclusion values and inclusive HR practices is important for organizational effectiveness, and inclusive HR practices are likely to play a particularly important role when an organization is relatively weak in intellectual capital.

This paper broadens the inclusion literature by using a macro-level lens to understand how organizational inclusion values and practices may relate to organizational outcomes. It also shows the importance of intellectual capital as a contextual variable in the inclusion practice to outcome relationship.