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Community Makers (https://communitymakers.co) is an active UK wide network that evolved rapidly in response to COVID-19 and the negative impact of social isolation and distancing on people and families affected by dementia. The network is led by the Alzheimer’s Society, UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and The Association for Dementia Studies, at the University of Worcester. This study aims to investigate what works for whom and why and in what circumstances as a basis for the development of an online toolkit for people supporting people affected by dementia to connect and reconnect during the pandemic and beyond.

The development of the toolkit was informed by an iterative approach of engagement with people affected by dementia, learning from a network of community organisations and a rapid realist literature review.

Four common factors that combine to make a successful support intervention, regardless of its type, size or location were identified: relationships, purpose, technology and community. The application of the factors, adopted as principles, is illustrated by applying them to three real-world examples.

The main output was the online tool kit, which is a resource of creative ideas to inspire groups with different approaches to digital involvement and help reduce social isolation.

This report offers new insight, based on identification of four principles, into how people affected by dementia can be supported online and offline during a pandemic and beyond.

This paper is submitted for a special issue of Asian Education and Development Studies on the topic of Greater China Development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges and opportunities of developing a free trade zone (FTZ)/free port in China’s Hainan island.

Hainan is to be Mainland China’s newest and largest FTZ. However, the experience of the existing Mainland FTZs is not encouraging, their limited, piecemeal reforms attracting little interest from foreign investors. To make a difference and provide a new engine of growth for the Mainland economy, the approach for Hainan needs to be much bolder. Hainan should aim to develop as a free port, a services centre and a financial centre.

Regarding the financial sector development, the opportunity should be taken to experiment with special drawing rights. Hong Kong can provide the exemplar and expertise to jump-start Hainan’s development. To provide critical mass, mutual access should be opened between Hainan and the nine Mainland municipalities of the Greater Bay Area. An inner border will be needed to distinguish the experimental area from the rest of the Mainland, and an outer border to preserve its integrity vis-à-vis the international environment.

If Hainan can be developed into the China Offshore Centre, it would have the potential to restart the Mainland’s stalled reform process, and to relieve international trade and financial tensions.

This paper aims to reconceptualise the literature on learning organisations, fourth blueprint management and entrepreneurialism to develop the idea of a global learning network.

This notion is used to highlight successful leadership and management practices used by a transnational organisation to respond to change in a way that fosters entrepreneurial action.

The author has identified al‐Qaeda as a pertinent and timely example through which to examine this new perspective because of its unique culture and enabling structure that encourage members to act as both “environmental scanners” and agents of influence in affecting change.

The al‐Qaeda case study illustrates how the four elements of metastrategic design – namely: vision, identity, configuration, and action – can operate to sustain organisational learning and renewal for more conventional transnational organisations.