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The purpose of this paper is to examine the business education curricula in South Africa in relation to social entrepreneurship and to ascertain pre-service teachers’ perspectives of the reasons for social entrepreneurship not being included in these curricula as observed in classroom teaching practices.

Through interpretivist inquiry, third-year pre-service teachers’ (n=92) comments on online group blogs were analysed to clarify a range of meanings and understandings of their responses.

Social entrepreneurship as a concept and as an ideal as well as certain fundamental concept is not adequately integrated in the business education curricula in secondary schools in South Africa. Furthermore, the schools where the pre-service teachers conducted their teaching practice were failing to integrate activities associated with social entrepreneurship in their business education curricula.

The study was limited to a single tertiary institution. Similar studies in both developing and developed contexts in schools could be initiated as a means of teaching social entrepreneurship for social justice as a subject efficaciously.

The study recommends that social entrepreneurship should be implemented earlier in the secondary education system as a means of enhancing the social entrepreneurial capacities of school learners.

This is the first study examining the secondary education curricula in a developing economy, such as South Africa, in relation to the absence of the emerging concept of social entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to present the investigation of damage severity of reinforced concrete (RC) beam subjected to increasing fatigue loading using intensity of acoustic emission (AE) signal.

Together 17 RC beams with dimension of 150 × 150 × 750 mm were prepared. Third point loading fatigue test was performed based on load at the first crack (Pcr) and the ultimate static load (Pult). The frequency of 1 Hz was used with the increasing fatigue loadings, 0.5Pcr (P1), 0.8Pcr (P2), 1.0Pcr (P3), 0.2Pult (P4), 0.5Pult (P5) and 0.6Pult (P6). The damage severity of crack for each phase of loading allowed the identification of the crack modes of the beams, namely, Zone A (no significant emission), Zone B (minor), Zone C (intermediate), Zone D (follow-up) and Zone E (major).

The intensity analysis indicated clear trend with respect to crack propagation in the beam and, hence, can be used to monitor the crack occurrence in the beam.

The intensity analysis has been carried out for the beam subjected to increasing fatigue loading. The analysis was based on the AE data obtained from channel basis and located event.

The behaviour of chemically modified cellulose towards dyeing is an interesting subject. Cellulose undergoes substantial changes in its chemical and physical properties by chemical modification. Some investigations were carried out to study the effect of these changes on dyeing and dyeing properties of cellulose. Previous reports have disclosed that the dyeability of chemically modified cellulose differs significantly when compared with the unmodified cellulose. Among the modified cellulose studied were partially acetylated cellulose, cyanoethylated cellulose, carboxymethylated cellulose, cellulose tiaocarbonate and cellulose copolymerized with various vinyl monomers.

The purpose of this paper is to create a key performance indicator (KPI) that can be used as the benchmark tool for teaching performance and practices of both excellent teachers (ETs) and non-ETs and to investigate the possible interrelationships between the five thinking domains (teachers’ teaching philosophy, teaching objective, pedagogical content knowledge, teachers’ expectations and management style).

This study uses a quantitative approach with a sample of 306 ETs from eight states including the Federal Territory. Exploratory factor analysis was used to validate the instrument and confirmatory factor analysis for model fit.

The findings showed that an excellent classroom management style was the most significant domain for KPI with the highest factor loading, followed by ETs’ teaching philosophy and objectives. It revealed that there was no significant relationship between ETs’ expectations and their classroom management style and that the relationships between the other domains were weak.

With this research creating a KPI model for excellent teaching practices, it is suggested that an in-depth review should be conducted concerning the standardization of the classroom management and the national teaching objectives in Malaysia. Perhaps representatives from the Ministry of Education and the school principals could go into the field to determine whether the excellent and non-ETs are fulfilling the national education objectives and meeting the expectations. This could lead to setting KPIs for achieving teaching objectives among the ETs.

This paper aims to explain the extent of social responsibility disclosure by Brazilian philanthropic higher education institutions (PHEIs). This paper assumes that there is information asymmetry between these organizations and their stakeholders.

The presence of indicators on the organizations’ webpage generated a disclosure index for each PHEI of the sample. Afterwards, this paper performed regression tests, which identified the determinants of PHEIs social responsibility disclosure extent.

The results support the legitimacy theory as a theoretical basis for social responsibility disclosure extent. The evidenced indicators and the non-rejected hypotheses, related to complexity, diversification, regional factor, specific event and quality, confirm the concern with transparency and accountability of commitments assumed by the social contract.

This research is limited to social responsibility disclosure related to the legitimacy theory and the interests of some stakeholders and to Brazilian PHEIs and their webpages. These limitations mean opportunities for future research studies addressing different information disclosure, foundations of other theories, interests of each specific stakeholder or other stakeholders in other communication channels and other countries, which enable comparisons of results.

The disclosure of extent determinants serve as the basis for the establishment of disclosure and accountability policies for PHEIs.

The originality of this research consists of analyzing the determinants of disclosure from the information of the stakeholders’ interest. They are able to legitimize organizations, allowing them to remain in the community where they operate.

Supported Employment Enterprises (SEEs) are a unique sector of small and medium‐sized enterprises that provide meaningful, gainful employment, training and development opportunities for people with a disability. SEEs are run specifically to provide employment but are also commercial enterprises trading with other businesses. Many of these SEEs are not profitable and work under severe financial and operational constraints despite help from local authorities and the Supported Employment Procurement and Consultancy Service (SEPACS). This paper examines the effectiveness of the marketing strategies, plans and tactics of SEEs. The methodology used a national survey questionnaire sent to 96 SEEs listed in a directory of products and services produced by the Employment Service. The response rate was 45 per cent. The results showed that there is a general weakness of marketing strategies and plans in these organisations and highlighted the dysfunctional impact of local authority policies and practices. Marketing mix techniques were generally well understood by most SEEs managers.

This study aims to investigate the impact of board diversity characteristics, namely, independence, gender, age and nationality of directors on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures.

Content analysis was used to determine CSR disclosure. This study used panel data analysis to investigate the influence of board diversity characteristics on CSR disclosures.

Panel data analysis show that the level of CSR disclosure has increased over the period of study. Results also reveal a positive and significant association between the level of CSR disclosure and board diversity variables.

This study examined only companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange. Therefore, the generalisation of the results might be limited to the listed companies only.

Findings are relevant to policymakers, professional organisations and practitioners in Jordan and in other Arab countries.

The role of women in the boardroom is important to ensure more CSR activities by the listed companies. Jordan being a Muslim country should take the initiative to introduce laws to increase the number of women to the board.

This study offers significant contributions to existing CSR literature in Jordan and in other Arab countries by introducing female directors. Findings are important to policymakers. They should implement quotas for women in the boardroom, and adopting such a policy will increase the participation of women in the decision-making process of the companies and reduce gender bias.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a full‐scale testing of the role of marketing and its relevance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The objective is to present the results of a rigorous assessment of a new model of marketing in SMEs.

A positivist approach relied on the use of the hypothetico‐deductive method to produce the theoretical model. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied to investigate the model. This paper reports on a large‐scale questionnaire survey, follow‐up interviews with SMEs owner‐managers and the use of published accounts to show how companies have performed during this study.

The role and relevance model of marketing in SMEs has been thoroughly investigated and tested. The model offers a straightforward way of diagnosing the situation within an SME. The simplicity of the model allows for a clearer understanding of what is often a complex and messy situation within these companies and their business environment. Some findings suggest a positive link between a company's financial performance and its approach to marketing within the model.

The paper concludes that the model goes a long way to explaining the behaviour of SMEs with regard to marketing. The model appears to be viable and could be used to analyse and diagnose the situation regarding marketing within SMEs.

The paper offers a unique theoretical and practical insight into the issue of marketing in SMEs.

This article illustrates the significance of pathways in cultural landscapes. It does so via an in-depth analysis at the paths in the historic community of Masulih, located in the Iranian province of Gilān. The town of Masulih, including its surrounding landscape, has an inter-connected systems of pathways that serve to tie the area together as coherent whole, making it an excellent site to explore the significance of path systems. On a functional level the neighbourhoods and homes, bazaar, teahouses, mosques, and Imāmzādih, in addition to the grazing lands and paths connect shrines outside the community. However, the paths of Masulih are significant beyond their mere utilitarian function as travel routes. This paper finds that various attributes of the paths are interrelated: the relation of path to topography; the cyclical and seasonal usage of paths; the path's function as connector of the bazaar and tea houses where individuals meet and socialize; paths serve as an stage during the lunar rituals that allows for further socializing; lands near and far are connected by the network of paths. Finally, this paper documents the dynamic connections between paths, landscape, built environment, and individuals in Masulih.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of board gender composition, board independence and the existence of a board sustainability committee on the corporate social and environmental performance of Australian firms.

The dataset comprises 2,188 Australian Securities Exchange listed firm-year observations (407 individual firms) from 2004 to 2015. The ASSET4 environmental, social and governance database is used to measure corporate social and environmental performance and their sub-dimensions.

Our results show that firms with higher board gender composition, greater board independence and sustainability committees tend to have better social and environmental performance. This paper also provides empirical evidence of the positive association of these variables on the sub-dimensions of social and environmental performance. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection and various forms of endogeneity.

This is the first study that examines the relationship between sustainability committees and corporate social and environmental performance in the context of Australia. This study also overcomes the relatively small sample size and shorter study period issues of similar studies in Australia that provide inconclusive evidence on the relationship between each of board gender composition, board independence and corporate social and environmental performance.