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This chapter employs a longitudinal social network approach to research small group teaching in higher education. Longitudinal social network analyses can provide in-depth understanding of the social dynamics in small groups. Specifically, it is possible to investigate and disentangle the processes by which students make or break social connections with peers and are influenced by them, as well as how those processes relate to group compositions and personal attributes, such as achievement level. With advanced methods for modelling longitudinal social networks, researchers can identify social processes affecting small group teaching and learning.

How general can a “general” theory of entrepreneurship be? Abstraction is a necessity but is it possible to include venture opportunity variation in a general theory of entrepreneurship building on two contrasting perspectives such as equilibrium economics and disequilibrium economics. Two important boundaries need to be explicated. First, defining entrepreneurship as the creation of new economic activity includes both the creation of new means – ends (cf. Schumpeter, 1934) – as well as optimizing within known means – ends frameworks (cf. Kirzner, 1997). Second, such a theory includes an opportunity – actor nexus because it is the first tangible or intangible evidence of existing venture opportunities. Formal models of entrepreneurship often start with a person and at some point in time an exchange of persons with firms take place which is confusing because both levels of analysis and outcome are mixed with each other. Apparently, there is no such thing as entrepreneurship without actors, but if we want to create knowledge about the creation of economic activity, we need to frame our boundary around the nascent initiative instead of single actors and/or teams of actors because value can only be assessed in relation to the costs of services withdrawn. Analogous to this is, for example, the theory of firm and the theory of organizations with boundaries well beyond single actors or groups of actors. Another factor behind a venture-based theory of entrepreneurship comes from empirical evidence from the Swedish PSED, which suggests that approximately 16% (n=97) nascent entrepreneurs are exchanged during the start-up process. Formal models of entrepreneurship could therefore start with the nexus of venture opportunities and enterprising actors as suggested by Shane (2003) or with resources as suggested by Davidsson (2000) and progress forward in the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurship models built around the economic activity itself needs to be dynamic allowing different outcomes and feedback loops because resource combinations alter our perception of value and diffuses information, which may lead to additional resource combinations (Hayek, 1945).

As a Quality Management (QM) framework, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model has stakeholder management at its core. In EFQM (2012), based on which assessments were made until 2021, “creating a sustainable future” was a fundamental principle, but how it translated to a Sustainability Orientation and delivered to stakeholders remains questionable. This study aims to investigates the Sustainability Orientation within EFQM (2012) and its associations with Results for stakeholders.

Longitudinal assessments of recognized-for-excellence organizations by a partner of EFQM are considered. Using factor analysis, scores on the sub-criteria that defined “creating a sustainable future” are investigated, and a Sustainability Orientation is inferred. Panel regressions and structural equation modeling assess the correlations between Sustainability Orientation and Results. A qualitative analysis follows, where sustainability reports from role-models within this population are text mined to examine whether and how they reflected the guidance in EFQM (2012) concerning “creating a sustainable future”.

Direct and indirect positive associations between the Sustainability Orientation implied by EFQM (2012) and stakeholder-performance are confirmed. Yet, inferences from text mining of reported priorities of role-models of excellence illustrate that EFQM (2012) might have driven different strategies towards sustainability.

Despite conceptualizations that the EFQM model embeds a Sustainability Orientation, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, its existence and likely impact remain to be examined. By combining longitudinal statistical analysis, structural equation models and text mining, consistent insights on the link between Sustainability Orientation and organizational performance are obtained.

This paper aims to provide a systematic meta-analysis from the year 2000 up to 2021 by reviewing relevant studies in extant literature related to the impact of social media on mental health.

This study adopts bibliometric methods and longitudinal statistical analysis to analyze extant literature. The structured literature review and meta-analysis findings on social media usage (SMU) and its impact on mental health indicate emerging research patterns in potentially leading to an integrative view.

This paper highlights the importance of challenges regarding SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. This study shows interesting meta-analysis on the issues such as Facebook and teenagers’ mental health; Instagram and teenagers’ mental health; Twitter and teenagers’ mental health; and so on from the past 20 years.

This paper is a literature review on a critical social issue like SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. The meta-analysis is conducted only on the indexed paper and does not take the books, blogs and other kinds of literature in this domain. The analysis is carried out only for the research articles published from 2000 to 2021.

Social media refers to any platform involving interactive digital technologies that encourage and facilitate users’ participation. SMU and its impact on users’ mental health can be attributed as contributing factors to the next global crisis. Studies suggest that increased SMU can potentially make users socially anxious. This study provides input to the policymakers, scholars and practitioners to understand the gravity of the situation and develop appropriate policy to overcome the challenges.

The rapidly evolving nature of technology and social media calls for a careful examination of its risks despite the many benefits of e-participation and digital interaction. Although there is widespread acknowledgment of the problematic revelation that the pattern of SMU closely mirrors mainstream addictive behavior; yet, there are only a limited number of comparative studies available. This may be one of the few studies which highlight the issue of SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. Moreover, this study also adds to the body of literature.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative analysis and usage overview of the most common business excellence models: the European Foundation for Quality Management Model, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Model, the Deming Prize Model and the Iberoamerican Model for Excellence in Management.

In order to achieve such goals, the authors have performed a set of statistical analysis over public data sets, related to each one of the analyzed models, as well as making a comparative analysis of the model contents.

The different business excellence models do share a similar set of principles and criteria. However, different adoption patterns have been found across regions of the globe, regarding the use of such business excellence models over the last decades.

As far as the authors were able to find out, based on the literature review carried out, this is the first time that a set of statistical data results, related to the worldwide implementation of business excellence models, is being presented for publication.

Much of contemporary institutional theory rests on the identification of structured, coherent, and encompassing logics, and from there proceeds to examine multilevel dynamics or the relationship between logics in a field. Less research directly studies the internal properties and dynamics of logics and how they are structured over time. In this paper, we propose a method for understanding the content and organization of logics over time. We advocate for an analysis of logics that is grounded in a repertoire view of culture (Swidler, 1986; Weber, 2005). This approach involves identifying the set of cultural categories that can make up logics, and measuring empirically the dimensions that mark a cultural system as more or less logic-like. We discuss several text analytic approaches suitable for discourse data, and outline a seven-step method for describing the internal organization of a cultural repertoire in term of its “logic-ness.” We provide empirical illustrations from a historical analysis of the field of alternative livestock agriculture. Our approach provides an integrated theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis of logics across a range of settings.

Much of contemporary institutional theory rests on the identification of structured, coherent, and encompassing logics, and from there proceeds to examine multilevel dynamics or the relationship between logics in a field. Less research directly studies the internal properties and dynamics of logics and how they are structured over time. In this paper, we propose a method for understanding the content and organization of logics over time. We advocate for an analysis of logics that is grounded in a repertoire view of culture (Swidler, 1986; Weber, 2005). This approach involves identifying the set of cultural categories that can make up logics, and measuring empirically the dimensions that mark a cultural system as more or less logic-like. We discuss several text analytic approaches suitable for discourse data, and outline a seven-step method for describing the internal organization of a cultural repertoire in term of its “logic-ness.” We provide empirical illustrations from a historical analysis of the field of alternative livestock agriculture. Our approach provides an integrated theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis of logics across a range of settings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the information sourcing practices of small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) associated with the development of different types of innovation (product/process/market/organizational). The relationship between different types of innovation and firms' performance is also to be examined.

The paper is based on a quantitative study of a sample of SMEs located in the Northern Savo region in Finland. The entrepreneurs completed a questionnaire pertaining to, for example, whether their firms had introduced novel innovations and what were the sources of information behind these innovations.

The introduction of novel product and market innovations appears to be associated with the use of more or less freely accessible information sources. The findings also indicate that the introduction of novel product, process and market innovations is positively associated with firms' growth. None of the types of innovation studied was found to have a positive relationship with firms' profitability.

As the analysis was based on self‐reported data provided by the entrepreneurs of SMEs, the authors had to rely on their judgment regarding the novelty of the innovations they had introduced. Moreover, as the study was conducted in a single region with its idiosyncratic features, the generalizability of the findings to other regional contexts remains somewhat ambiguous.

The study suggests a need to re‐evaluate the innovation‐related services available to firms in the regional innovation system. The findings also imply the need for entrepreneurs and their firms to upgrade their competences in order to enhance their innovation and networking capabilities.

Relatively modest amounts of research have addressed the information sourcing practices of SMEs in relation to different types of innovation, both in terms of the object of change and the extent of change. The paper addresses this.

This study aims to examine the evolution of spatial–temporal patterns in China’s hotel industry from 1978 to 2018.

A database comprising over 140,000 hotels with more than 30 rooms was created. The exploratory spatial–temporal data analysis (ESTDA) method, based on space–time cube model, was used to explore and visualize the spatial–temporal pattern of hotels.

The Chinese hotel industry can be divided into two development stages, namely, a large hotel-dominant stage before 2000 and a small–medium-sized hotel-dominant stage after 2000. China’s prefecture-level cities were clustered into four tiers. The higher the tier, the earlier the city will initiate hotel development. The Chinese hotel industry has four continuous hotspots (the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim and Sichuan and Chongqing) and some temporary hotspots.

This study lacks quantitative investigation, which could show the underlying mechanism of the evolution of the Chinese hotel industry.

This study is the first to investigate China’s hotel evolution over 40 years by applying big data and the ESTDA method. The systematic and evolutionary exploration will enable hotel researchers to understand the spatial–temporal nature of hotel distribution better. Introducing the ESTDA method into tourism and hotel research also provides an additional tool to researchers. Hotel investors and operators, city and tourism planners and market regulators can learn from the evolution of location patterns to make better where and when decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the financial well-being of often-neglected group in the society. The authors examined the role of risk management and social capital in the financial well-being of the retirees in Nigeria.

A quantitative method of research is used with a six-point Likert scale questionnaire. A survey was conducted to 376 retirees from public organizations to determine the perception of their financial well-being in post-retirement era. The sample population is selected using the simple random sampling technique. An exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to analyze the data.

The results indicate that both risk management and social capital are significant predictors of retirees’ financial well-being in the Nigeria context. All respondents have a good education background.

This study focused on retirees who have worked in public organizations in Nigeria. Thus, it is likely that the results may not be generalized to other settings. The results show that to promote financial well-being among retirees, the focus should be put mainly on individual risk management and maintaining good social capital.

The present study is first of its kind that focuses on contributory role of risk management and social capital in influencing the financial well-being of retirees in Nigeria. Findings make a novel contribution to retirees’ financial well-being literature by clarifying the significant role played by risk management and social capital in promoting the financial well-being of retirees in a developing country, specifically in Nigeria.