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1 – 10 of 187Larry W. Isaac, Daniel B. Cornfield and Dennis C. Dickerson
Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend…
Abstract
Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend sociological knowledge about how movements (sometimes) diffuse and amplify insurgent actions, that is, how movements move. We extend movement diffusion theory by drawing a conceptual analogue with military theory and practice applied to the case of the organized and highly disciplined nonviolent Nashville civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We emphasize emplacement in a base-mission extension model whereby a movement base is built in a community establishing a social movement school for inculcating discipline and performative training in cadre who engage in insurgent operations extended from that base to outlying events and campaigns. Our data are drawn from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted with participants of the Nashville civil rights movement. The analytic strategy employs a variant of the “extended case method,” where extension is constituted by movement agents following paths from base to outlying campaigns or events. Evidence shows that the Nashville movement established an exemplary local movement base that led to important changes in that city but also spawned traveling movement cadre who moved movement actions in an extensive series of pathways linking the Nashville base to events and campaigns across the southern theater of the civil rights movement. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.
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Torgeir Aadland, Gustav Hägg, Mats A. Lundqvist, Martin Stockhaus and Karen Williams Middleton
To increase the understanding of how entrepreneurship education impacts entrepreneurial careers, the purpose of the paper is to investigate the role that a venture creation…
Abstract
Purpose
To increase the understanding of how entrepreneurship education impacts entrepreneurial careers, the purpose of the paper is to investigate the role that a venture creation program (VCP) might have in mitigating or surpassing a lack of other antecedents of entrepreneurial careers. In particular, the authors focus on entrepreneurial pedigree and prior entrepreneurial experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from graduates of VCPs at three universities in Northern Europe were collected through an online survey. Questions addressed graduate background prior to education, yearly occupational employment subsequent to graduation and graduates' own perceptions of entrepreneurial activity in employment positions. The survey was sent to 1,326 graduates and received 692 responses (52.2% response rate).
Findings
The type of VCP, either independent (Ind-VCP) or corporate venture creation (Corp-VCP), influenced the mitigation of prior entrepreneurial experience. Prior entrepreneurial experience, together with Ind-VCP, made a career as self-employed more likely. However, this was not the case for Corp-VCP in subsequently choosing intrapreneurial careers. Entrepreneurial pedigree had no significant effect on career choice other than for hybrid careers.
Research limitations/implications
Entrepreneurial experience gained from VCPs seems to influence graduates toward future entrepreneurial careers. Evidence supports the conclusion that many VCP graduates who lack prior entrepreneurial experience or entrepreneurial pedigree can develop sufficient entrepreneurial competencies through the program.
Originality/value
This study offers novel evidence that entrepreneurship education can compensate for a lack of prior entrepreneurial experience and exposure for students preparing for entrepreneurial careers.
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Iselin Mauseth Steira, Karin Wigger and Einar Rasmussen
Having a varied set of skills is essential for becoming and succeeding in entrepreneurship, and developing students’ entrepreneurial skills is a key objective of entrepreneurship…
Abstract
Purpose
Having a varied set of skills is essential for becoming and succeeding in entrepreneurship, and developing students’ entrepreneurial skills is a key objective of entrepreneurship education programs at universities worldwide. Moreover, measuring the learning outcomes of education is essential for designing effective training. This review provides a framework of the variety of skills measured in the entrepreneurship education literature.
Design/methodology/approach
We reviewed the entrepreneurship education literature and identified 79 studies that used skill-related measures. We identified, grouped, and operationalized entrepreneurial skills related to the entrepreneurial tasks of sensing, acting, and mobilizing under uncertain conditions.
Findings
We synthesized the current knowledge related to developing various entrepreneurial skills and provided a framework of ten types of entrepreneurship-related skills measured in prior studies of entrepreneurship education initiatives. We showed that entrepreneurship education develops various skills relevant to entrepreneurship and other concepts, indicating the value of entrepreneurship education for increasing students’ general skill level.
Originality/value
Our framework provides a valuable tool for discussing what skills-related training should be included in entrepreneurship education curricula and how the learning outcomes from entrepreneurship education can be measured. Focusing on students’ entrepreneurial skills is closer to entrepreneurial action than intentions or mindsets, and skills are a more realis-tic and inclusive outcome of entrepreneurship education than start-up rates and self-employment. Thus, entrepreneurial skills are a useful concept for clarifying and measuring the specific learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education.
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Saeed Loghman and Azita Zahiriharsini
Research focusing on psychological capital (PsyCap) has been mainly conducted at the individual level. However, recent research has expanded investigations to the collective level…
Abstract
Research focusing on psychological capital (PsyCap) has been mainly conducted at the individual level. However, recent research has expanded investigations to the collective level with a greater focus on team-level PsyCap. Although, as demonstrated by recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the relationships between individual-level PsyCap and the desirable/undesirable outcomes are fairly established in the literature, less is known about such relationships for team-level PsyCap. One of these important, yet least investigated, research areas is the research stream that focuses on the relationship between team-level PsyCap and the outcomes of health, Well-Being, and safety. This chapter aims to highlight the role of individual-level PsyCap as an important predictor of employees’ health, Well-Being, and safety outcomes, but also to go beyond that to provide insights into the potential role of team-level PsyCap in predicting such outcomes at both individual and team levels. To do so, the chapter first draws upon relevant theories to discuss the empirical research findings focusing on the relationship between individual-level PsyCap and the outcomes of health, Well-Being, and safety. It then focuses on team-level PsyCap from theoretical, conceptualization, and operationalization perspectives and provides insights into how team-level PsyCap might be related to health, Well-Being, and safety outcomes at both individual and team levels. Thus, this chapter proposes new research directions in an area of PsyCap that has been left unexplored.
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This chapter examines the Netherlands’ challenges in safeguarding its low-lying coastline against rising sea levels and the consequences of coastal defense strategies on marine…
Abstract
This chapter examines the Netherlands’ challenges in safeguarding its low-lying coastline against rising sea levels and the consequences of coastal defense strategies on marine life, particularly in relation to SDG14. Sea-level rise necessitates increased soft coastal defense strategies, affecting seafloor areas and marine biodiversity through sand extraction and sand nourishments. The use of hard structures for coastal defense contributes to the loss of natural coastal habitats, raising biodiversity concerns. The chapter explores the potential benefits of artificial hard surfaces as marine habitats, emphasising the need for careful design to prevent ecological problems caused by invasive species. Strategies for enhancing biodiversity on human-made hard substrate structures, including material variations, hole drilling, and adaptations, are discussed. The ecological impact of marine sand extraction is examined, detailing its effects on benthic fauna, sediment characteristics, primary production, and fish and shrimp populations. Solutions proposed include improved design for mining areas, ecosystem-based rules for extraction sites, and ecologically enriched extraction areas. The ecosystem effects of marine sand nourishments are also analysed, considering the impact on habitat suitability for various species. The chemical effects of anaerobic sediment and recovery challenges are addressed. Mitigation measures, such as strategic nourishment location and timing, adherence to local morphology, and technical solutions, are suggested. The chapter underscores the importance of education in Nature-based Solutions and announces the launch of a new BSc programme in Marine Sciences at Wageningen University & Research, integrating social and ecological knowledge to address challenges in seas, oceans, and coastal regions and support SDG14 goals.
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Sunny Mosangzi Xu and Paul R. Carlile
This paper revisits the foundational concepts of agency and action in routine dynamics to provide guidance for intentional and directional change in a world in flux from a routine…
Abstract
This paper revisits the foundational concepts of agency and action in routine dynamics to provide guidance for intentional and directional change in a world in flux from a routine dynamics perspective. First, the authors put forward a relational-temporal triad of agency as a ratio of the past, present, and future to outline what gives shape to individual action. Second, the authors combine with this a relational-temporal triad of routine as a ratio of patterning, performing, and projecting to outline what gives shape to social action. Based on this, the authors reconceptualize the dynamic of routines as an enfolding inside-out and outside-in process that expresses the relational constraints between the intentionality of individual action and the directionality of social action. In managing a world in flux toward desirable futures, routines – as temporal structures for carrying out organizational work – need to be able to carry some degree of continuity to bring about change in fulfilling a desired and identified direction. The authors identify in-tension-less, in-tension-al, and in-tension-ful as three different degrees of intentionality in individual action and continuing, renewing, and transforming as the spectrum of a continuum of directionality in social action for routine change. Using time to bring in a fully relational understanding of agency and action in routine dynamics, the authors render the complexities of structure-agency and continuity-change dualities clearer and reveal their otherwise latent properties. This more complete picture of routine dynamics would allow for more intentional organizational routine change forward when facing significant environmental and social challenges in a world of flux.
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Maeenuddin, Shaari Abdul Hamid, Annuar Md Nassir, Mochammad Fahlevi, Mohammed Aljuaid and Kittisak Jermsittiparsert
Microfinance emerged as an essential catalyst for socio-economic development and financial inclusion to reduce poverty. Microfinance institutions cannot meet their primary…
Abstract
Purpose
Microfinance emerged as an essential catalyst for socio-economic development and financial inclusion to reduce poverty. Microfinance institutions cannot meet their primary objective of poverty reduction if they are not sustainable financially. With the theoretical support of profit incentive theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of organizational structure (OS), growth outreach (average loan per borrower [ALPB] and number of active borrowers), women empowerment (percentage of women borrowers [PWB]), liquidity, leverage and cost efficiency (cost per borrower) on the financial sustainability of microfinance providers (MFPs) in India and explore the possible moderating effect of the national governance indicators (NGIs).
Design/methodology/approach
A financial sustainability index has been developed by using principal components analysis, including both conventional measures (return of assets and return on equity) and efficiency measures (operational self-sufficiency and financial self-sufficiency). Due to the existence of endogeneity and heteroskedasticity, this study uses two-step system generalized method of moments estimates to examine the relationships for a period of 2006 to 2018.
Findings
The finding reveals that there is a strong significant relationship between financial sustainability and its influential factors. Organizatioanl Structure, loan size, women borrowers, Gross Domestic Products and inflation enhance the financial sustainability of India’s microfinance sector. However, a number of borrowers, liquidity, leverage and operating costs negatively affect the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. The estimates demonstrate that NGIs significantly moderate the association between financial sustainability and its influential factors. The NGIs negatively affect the positive impact of Organizatioanl Structure on financial sustainability. National governance increases the positive effect of loan size (ALPB) and reduces the negative effect of a number of borrowers and leverage on the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. However, NGIs negatively affect the positive relationship between Percentage of Women Borrowers and Financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers of India.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that incorporates all of the six dimensions of the National Governance Indicators (NGIs) and uses as a moderator. Secondly, a financial sustainability index has been developed for measuring the financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers (MFPs).
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Yot Amornkitvikai, Martin O'Brien and Ruttiya Bhula-or
The development of green manufacturing has become essential to achieve sustainable development and modernize the nation’s manufacturing and production capacity without increasing…
Abstract
Purpose
The development of green manufacturing has become essential to achieve sustainable development and modernize the nation’s manufacturing and production capacity without increasing nonrenewable resource consumption and pollution. This study investigates the effect of green industrial practices on technical efficiency for Thai manufacturers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) and inefficiency effects model, as pioneered by Battese and Coelli (1995).
Findings
This study shows that, on average, Thai manufacturing firms have experienced declining returns-to-scale production and relatively low technical efficiency. However, it is estimated that Thai manufacturing firms with a green commitment obtained the highest technical efficiency, followed by those with green activity, green systems and green culture levels, compared to those without any commitment to green manufacturing practices. Finally, internationalization and skill development can significantly improve technical efficiency.
Practical implications
Green industry policy mixes will be vital for driving structural reforms toward a more environmentally friendly and sustainable economic system. Furthermore, circular economy processes can promote firms' production efficiency and resource use.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the effect of green industry practices on the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing enterprises. This study also encompasses analyses of the roles of internationalization, innovation and skill development.
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Marisa Santana-Martins, M. Isabel Sánchez-Hernández, Jose Luis Nascimento and Florence Stinglhamber
This research aims to identify whether leaders' affective organizational commitment influences employees' affective commitment to both the leader and the organization…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to identify whether leaders' affective organizational commitment influences employees' affective commitment to both the leader and the organization. Additionally, the study explores the role of employees' emotional awareness in shaping these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Examining a sample of 154 leaders and 249 employees in multinational companies, this study adopts a multilevel approach.
Findings
The results reveal a positive influence between the two foci of commitment (leaders and organization) at both the leader and employee levels. Furthermore, it confirms that employees' emotional awareness plays a positive role in the commitment process.
Practical implications
This research highlights the significance of implementing internal policies and measures that consider the various foci of commitment. To foster employees' commitment, it is crucial to establish a robust alignment between human resources management and leaders.
Originality/value
This study delves into the exploration of two commitment foci to deepen our comprehension of the directional relationship between them in the workplace. More specifically, our research scrutinizes the impact of leaders' affective organizational commitment on employees' affective commitment to the organization, while also analyzing its reciprocal influence on employees' affective commitment toward their leaders.
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