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In recent decades, oxytocin (OT) has been extensively studied across disciplines. Yet, the role of OT has been discussed little in the context of politics. This chapter proposes that studying the role of this hormone can enrich and advance the study of politics. The chapter reviews the previous findings on OT categorized into two sections: one that focuses on the biological mechanisms and therapeutic potentials and another that focuses on the effects on social behaviors. This review is not exhaustive but is intended to bring political scientists up to date with the progress in OT studies. Next, this chapter highlights that studying the role of OT in political context will benefit both the OT and political science literature, since there is currently a great interest in the context-dependent nature of OT. I highlight several research questions that can be answered at this intersection. Rather than waiting for other disciplines to complete unfolding the precise role of OT, students of biopolitics can make important contributions. Political science can further understand the biological underpinnings of concern for others and partisan behaviors, while OT applied to real-world settings would demonstrate how different contexts shape its effects.

In recent years, investment management education has become increasingly relevant. As a result of this development, it is essential that various role players should be consulted to ensure that investment management is taught in line with practitioners’ requirements. The South African Qualifications Authority also specifies that educators and practitioners should collaborate to maintain relevance in all fields of education. The importance of various areas in investment management was investigated. This article compares the ranking of these areas in terms of their importance as perceived by academics and practitioners. The study being reported also aimed to determine whether gaps exist between the areas that academics regard to be important and the areas that practitioners regard as such. Areas that are generally regarded to be most important include asset allocation, fundamental analysis and the measurement of risk and return. Areas that are regarded to be least important include arts, antiques and other hard assets; rights and capitalisation issues; and real estate. Areas in need of research include the measurement of risk and return; asset allocation; derivatives; and global markets and instruments. The findings of this study could have a significant impact on the provision of relevant training for South African investment specialists.

This chapter sketches a new development in responsible investing, namely impact investing. Impact investing, which we define as the entire spectrum of investments deliberately aiming to create shared value, can be seen as an integrative approach to wealth creation through investments. The case of microfinance is used to illustrate this new development.

The chapter combines a viewpoint and a case study that serves to illustrate the practical relevance of the viewpoint.

The chapter starts with a brief overview of the origin and rise of responsible investments, followed by a description of mission-related investments and impact investing as its latest development. Microfinance is presented as a special case, thereby focusing on the investors, the asset allocation and the meaning – and application – of the notion of impact.

The chapter shows that a focus on social and financial returns can be combined without having to make serious financial sacrifices. It also demonstrates that investments can come from investors as diverse as pension funds, foundations or high net-worth individuals.

If impact investing really takes off – particularly supported by institutional money – there will be much more opportunity to tackle social and environmental innovation than without those investments.

The chapter challenges (institutional) investors to evaluate their responsible investment strategy and to rethink their asset allocation. Impact investing can become an important addition to the responsible investment landscape.

The anti-apartheid movement represented a cornerstone for socially responsible investors in the 1970s and 1980s driven by the willingness to promote lasting social change. What happened next in terms of socially responsible investing (SRI) in the free South Africa? This chapter explores the local development of SRI in South Africa post-apartheid.

An in-depth literature review combined with a content analysis 73 SRI funds’ investment mandates were undertaken to investigate the local development of SRI in South Africa over the period 1992–2012.

Mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence have both shaped the phenomenon of SRI in South Africa. SRI in South Africa represents a melting-pot of societal values anchored in a local developmental and transformative political vision, some local and global Islamic religious values, and worldwide SRI and CSR homogenisation trends.

This chapter is the first attempt to outline the mechanisms of local divergence and global convergence that have moulded SRI in a democratic South Africa.

Developments in the global and national economies as well as the labour market, have made it necessary that more attention be paid to entrepreneurship and the updating of curricula presented by tertiary institutions. For this purpose reliable and valid information is required. The primary objectives of this article are to report on the levels of students’ entrepreneurial traits, to establish whether these traits are interrelated, and to determine the extent of the impact that demographic variables have on these entrepreneurial traits. A convenience sampling method (n = 1,215) was used. The best developed entrepreneurial traits observed included: “Competing against self‐imposed standards”, “Self‐confidence” and “Dealing with Failure”. Statistically significant relationships were also identified between the entrepreneurial traits of students and the tertiary institution attended, and students’ gender, race and age.

It is generally accepted that the payment of dividends is the most important and most widely used instrument for the distribution of value to shareholders. Shareholders also prefer to receive regular dividends rather than irregular cash payments. A well‐known model that attempts to explain dividend policy is that of Lintner (1956). This study investigates whether Lintner’s model can be used to explain South African dividend payments and compares this model with another, less sophisticated, model, namely the “percentage model”. Lintner’s model does not have a very good fit, probably as a result of the small sample used. Nearly half of the 200 largest companies that are listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange were excluded from the study as they were not listed for a sufficiently long period. Other companies were excluded on the grounds of having maintained their dividends on the same level for at least two consecutive years.

As more and more organisations need not only be competitive in their internal markets, but need to be globally competitive, these economic changes impact on the content and context within which business education takes place. Company changes in the new millennium will impact on educational institutions, especially the traditional role of the business educator. As an example, due to the nature of companies becoming more and more information sensitive, managers and leaders alike need to enhance their oral and written communication skills. The pace of change within the economy as a whole is asking of managers and leaders alike to become more flexible and progressive in their management style, including developing entrepreneurial and innovation skills. Especially in the South African environment, it is important for leaders to realise the incredible potential in valuing the diverse perspective and talent of each person. The leader of the future has to learn to assist people of divergent values, beliefs and backgrounds and to weave all employees’ efforts into ultimately benefiting each individual and the organisation as a whole. Hence, what managers must be able to do in future will have a direct impact on what is needed in management education.

The COVID-19 outbreak reached a critical stage when it became imperative for public health systems to act decisively and design potential behavioral operational strategies aimed at containing the pandemic. Isolation through social distancing played a key role in achieving this objective. This research study examines the factors affecting the intention of individuals toward social distancing in India.

A correlation study was conducted on residents from across Indian states (N = 499). Online questionnaires were floated, consisting of health belief model and theory of planned behavior model, with respect to social distancing behavior initially. Finally, structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that perceived susceptibility (PS), facilitating conditions (FC) and subjective norms are the major predictors of attitude toward social distancing, with the effect size of 0.277, 0.132 and 0.551, respectively. The result also confirms that the attitude toward social distancing, perceived usefulness of social distancing and subjective norms significantly predict the Intention of individuals to use social distancing with the effect size of 0.355, 0.197 and 0.385, respectively. The nonsignificant association of PS with social distancing intention (IN) (H1b) is rendering the fact that attitude (AT) mediates the relationship between PS and IN; similarly, the nonsignificant association of FC with IN (H5) renders the fact that AT mediates the relationship between FC and IN.

The results of the study are helpful to policymakers to handle operations management of nudges like social distancing.

The research is one of its kind that explores the behavioral aspects of handling social nudges through FC.

Sustainable investments (SI) represent a promising class of investments, combining financial returns with mitigating environmental challenges, achieving SDG goals and creating a positive business impact. An enhanced global focus on climate change developments in the backdrop of COP26 and COP27, raised the need for comprehensive literature mapping, to understand the emerging themes and future research arenas in this field.

The authors apply a quali–quantitative approach of bibliometric methods coupled with content analysis, to review 1,022 articles obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) database for 1991–2023.

The results identify the leading authors and their collaborations, impactful journals and pioneering articles in sustainable investment literature. The authors also indicate seven major themes of SI to be financial performance; fiduciary duty; CSR; construction of ESG-based portfolios; sustainability assessment tools and mechanisms; investor behavior; and impact investing. Further, content analysis of literature from 2020 to 2023 highlights emerging research issues to be SDG financing via green bonds and social impact bonds; investor impact creation via shareholder engagement and field building strategies; and governance related determinants of firm-level sustainable investments. Finally, the authors discuss the research gaps across these themes and identify future research questions.

This paper crystallizes research themes in sustainable investment literature using a vast coverage of globally conducted studies published in reputed journals till date. The findings of this study coupled with future research questions provide a well-grounded foundation for new researchers to further explore the emerging dimensions of this field.

Creating employment for all seems to be impossible in emerging nations as the unemployment rate is rising faster than the number of job openings available. Studies on the other hand show that creating jobs is simple if the right resources and opportunities are made available. The present study aims to examine the effects of various demographic social and environmental factors on the entrepreneurial intention of engineering undergraduates in Chhattisgarh state.

Correlational research design was incorporated in the present study. The author applied stratified random sampling to collect samples of 1,000 engineering undergraduates enrolled in their third and fourth years in different technical colleges/universities in Chhattisgarh state. Structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to analyse the data.

The results revealed that demographic, social and environmental factors greatly influenced engineering undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention. However, age and occupation do not predict their self-employment intention.

The present research itself is a novel study, especially in Chhattisgarh state, where the area of examining the effects of demographic, social and environmental factors on entrepreneurial intention among technical undergraduates has been limitedly explored.