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This conceptual article presents a schematic of rat maternal behavior and niche stress epigenetic effects as a case study that is then aligned with current evolutionary concepts, which raises new questions regarding immigrant assimilation and niche dynamics.

The necessary background material for rat maternal and niche(s) stress factors are incorporated into a recursive, test-operate-test (rTOT), information-only-transfer, schematic (Patterson, 2023), which is an extension and refinement of the test-operate-test-exit (TOTE) schematic of Miller et al. (1960).

The generated epigenetic rTOT demonstrates the fundamental evolutionary unit of the flexible organism within its niche(s). The rTOT also confirms that epigenetic processes, epigenetic inheritance and phenotype plasticity are significant conceptual tools for understanding evolution. The teleology of rat adaptations for niche fitness via maternal behavior has been demonstrated. Sterling's (2011) allostasis, or predictive homeostasis, is extended to include species-niche(s) interaction(s) that are governed by recursive information feedback loops that function via self-organized criticality (SOC) for species and niche(s). Use of a rat model for biosocial issues in humans is strengthened.

Epigenetic rTOT only covers the species side of the evolutionary unit. Niche(s) require(s) a separate rTOT schematic. The information modeled does not include the entire system producing epigenetic effects but models a substantial portion of it.

Epigenetic rTOT demonstrates the utility of phenotypic plasticity, epigenetics and epigenetic inheritance as explanations for inheritable behavior patterns. rTOT is a useful computational model for evolutionary issues. The issues involved in niche modeling using an rTOT schematic are briefly reviewed.

When the demonstrated epigenetic model of rat genetics and inherited behavior are applied to the issues of immigrant enclaves, epigenetic complications for the difficulties of assimilation into the culture within which the enclaves are embedded become apparent. However, the questions raised must be addressed with extreme care to avoid cultural imperialism. Such cultural issues must be modeled with an rTOT application that covers the materials involved. The limitations of human Learning III restrictions when attempting to model Learning IV issues are addressed. Research into the means by which abuse and trauma are maintained by epigenetic means is urgently needed.

The rTOT schematic visualizes rat maternal behavior and stress epigenetic effects that produce inheritable behavior patterns, which answers Jablonka's (2017) request for new computational modeling representations. The concept of allostasis, or predictive homeostasis, (Sterling, 2011) is extended to the niche(s) of the organism under study so that allostasis becomes a fully cybernetic concept governed by SOC for both the organism and its niche(s). This new case study confirmed evolutionary effects of epigenetics, epigenetic inheritance and phenotypic plasticity. Niche control of organism evolution is presented. Epigenetic applications for immigrant assimilation issues have been suggested and niche dynamic questions have been raised.

This paper aims to explore the complete process and underlying mechanism that social enterprises obtain legitimacy during interactions with stakeholders from theoretical integration of institutional theory and organization ecology perspective.

Based on theoretical classification, this paper selects six typical Chinese social enterprises and conducts a multi-case analysis.

The study finds that social enterprises aim at legitimizing single entity or industry and shaping stakeholders’ cognitive boundary simultaneously. Therefore, by adopting constrained cooperation and competition activities, social enterprises use normative isomorphism to achieve personal legitimation and combining ecological niche construction, social enterprises achieve organizational legitimation. By adopting fragmented cooperation-dominant or competition-dominant activities, social enterprises use mimic isomorphism supplemented by competitive isomorphism or population structure creation to obtain industry legitimation. By adopting dynamically integrated coopetition activities, social enterprises use mimic isomorphism and reflexive isomorphism to reach field legitimation.

This paper proposes a mechanism model that the coopetition with stakeholders influences the legitimation process, identifies four stages of social enterprise’s legitimation process and the types of legitimacy obtained in each stage and fills the gap of Chinese indigenous social enterprise research.

Although studies of “core competence” appear frequently, the concept lacks a clear definition that allows one to operationalize it and use it to develop falsifiable predictions. We propose a definition based on the phenomenon that core competence is typically applied to – adaptations to different external context. Sourcing insight form the paradigm of organizational ecology, we develop arguments rooted in theories of structural inertia and environmental imprinting. Empirical analyses of failure rates of entrants in the Italian automobile industry confirm our propositions that core competence is a source of competitive advantage when industry entry is based on relevant capabilities and a source of inertia and obsolescence when core competences need to be substantially altered. We conclude that whether core competence materializes as a dynamic capability or exposes the firm to liability to selection and obsolescence is a random process. Its outcome hinges on environmental variation and the resulting firm-environment (mis)alignment and is thus largely beyond managerial control.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible moderating role of organisational characteristics (organisational structure, management style and decision-making style) in the relationship between strategy and organisational performance among large construction organisations in South Africa.

The study adopted a quantitative research approach using a questionnaire survey to obtain data from 72 large construction organisations in South Africa. Using hierarchical multiple regression, the paper examines the relationship between the constructs discussed in the study.

The internal characteristics of the organisation form the vital basis for achieving optimal performance. The results obtained from the analysis revealed that decision-making style directly influences the measure of organisational effectiveness, while it could also be inferred that organisational characteristics partly moderate the relationship between competitive strategy and organisational performance. The findings indicate that internal characteristics is one of the means through which organisational strategic factors and contextual aspects are organised to achieve greater organisational performance levels.

The findings have theoretical implications for strategic management literature in construction as it extends the scope of research on strategic management from assessing a set of individual management practices to evaluating a complex mechanism that connects internal characteristics and competitive advantage. It is believed that this study will contribute positively to the role of organisational characteristics in the competitive strategy-performance relationships in large construction organisations in South Africa and to the ongoing discussion on emerging strategic management issues in construction.

The analogy of the city as an evolving system is an enduring one that is both universally acknowledged and greatly researched in equal measure. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential for urban characterization studies, emerging from the fields of cultural heritage and landscape, to provide a rich source of data for exploring the characteristics of spatial adaptation and innovation over time.

An analysis of commercial organizational space in the city of Sheffield, UK is provided here as the subject of study which employs English Heritage's Historic Landscape Characterization dataset to explore temporal characteristics of commercial space within a broader context of change, at the city‐wide scale.

It is proposed here that to achieve culturally sustainable development against a context of urban “deterritorialization” and homogenization the very character and distinctiveness of innovation and change needs to be explicitly acknowledged. An evolutionary approach to organizational space is suggested here as a means to locate such adaptation and spatial change in “place”.

It is hoped that the approach presented may provide an important stage in thinking about the spatial relationships between business and society over time and particularly their interdependence within a city ecology. The scope is therefore to explore multi‐level evolutionary characteristics of socio‐cultural space, appreciating multi‐scale temporal change through a broad lens of Darwinism.

Diversity and inclusion is a key focus of the profession. This paper investigates the ecological inherited niche of Indonesia and which employers accounting students choose and whether this will result in a diverse and inclusive profession. The authors conceptualise diversity as the demand-from the profession encompassing professional accounting firms, and inclusion as the supply of individuals wishing to enter the profession.

The 1377 responses to a questionnaire survey of students deciding on their career paths were analysed using a multinomial logistic regression and path model.

The findings show that a lack of diversity in the profession is caused by the ecological background, constructing a local niche, that prevents diversity. This is manifest in ethnicity, gender and education, whereby the local niche consists of Chinese males recruited from B-rated private universities. To bring diversity and inclusivity into the workplace, the profession needs to entice people from multi-faceted groups and match ecological niche underpinnings to expectations of the professional landscape. Non-Chinese females are needed to become role models and trail blazers to establish a diverse profession. The public interest will then be better served.

This study uses niche construction as the theoretical framing and demonstrates that the profession needs to take action to become truly diverse and inclusive.

This paper aims to respond to the strong calls for interdisciplinary solutions to address the many and varied challenges that major disasters create in urban (tourism) spaces, and provide a holistic conceptualisation of organisational responses to disruptions in the external business environment. It argues that organisations need to actively (re)formulate a sustainable business proposition to passively adapt to environmental conditions and modify the selective environment.

This study uses a qualitative approach to introducing and examining the concepts and theoretical constructs underpinning the proposed conceptual schemata. The content-driven inductive approach used here is based on an extensive review of the disaster recovery, crisis management, entrepreneurial strategy and urban tourism literature with a focus on organisational perspectives. It systematically brings together the theories and research findings from these separate strands of literature.

While the extant literature focuses on the importance of effective adaptability to survive and thrive in environmental uncertainties, some aspects of the relevant evolutionary processes are not addressed in the context of urban tourism. Indeed, a systematic approach that questions how urban tourism and hospitality businesses react to crises has been long overdue. This paper, therefore, introduces niche construction theory (NCT) as an alternative and proposes an integrated framework to understand the environmental conditions of urban tourism and organisational evolution during post-disaster turbulence.

The proposed model emerging from a multidisciplinary literature review acknowledges boundary conditions in the tourism industry-specific interpretation of a crisis situation. The tenets of NCT need to be adopted flexibly rather than as part of a strictly prescriptive process to allow for all aspects of the related business responses to play out and become exposed to the emerging selection pressures.

The argument underpinned by the theoretical constructs of niche construction encourages and offers a framework for practitioners to actively (re)formulate business proposition and (re)construct organisational niche to survive post-disaster turbulence in the business environment and exert influence over their own evolution.

This paper offers different angles, filters and lenses for constructing and interpreting knowledge of organisational evolution in the context of crisis management. The conceptual schema (Figure 2) emerged as a novel contribution itself providing a necessary lens to interpret the empirical data and understand the complexities of the organisational responses to the disruptive post-disaster turbulence in an urban tourism business environment.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to demonstrate how memes perpetuate trauma with a schematic. This conceptual paper uses the “begin with the end in mind” meme to format the presentation of the necessary components for the schematic of how trauma persists across generations. It is the third paper in a series of applications of the recursive, test-operate-test schematic to the systemic effects of the information processes involved in trauma. The schematic presented permits evaluations of solutions to interrupt the generational trauma cycle.

The required schematic components are described. Trauma (actual or perceived threat to survival) will be briefly discussed. Evolutionary processes that create the psychophysiology necessary to support nominal social expectations (NSEs) memes and metaphors will be summarized. The development of NSEs will be discussed. Metaphors and memes necessary for the creation of the schematic and esoteric events at level Learning IV will be briefly described. Finally, Figure 3, which illustrates the maintenance of NSEs and attempts to prevent their violation, will be explained.

It is asserted that functional human social behavior requires NSEs. Trauma is found to persist through the presence of anti-nominal NSE memes that are transduced by the individual into anti-nominal metaphors, which then damage grid, place and dentate gyrus cell (GPDG) neurophysiology. The damaged neurocircuits allow the use of anti-nominal NSE metaphors within our individual neurophysiology. Furthermore, anti-NSE memes interfere with the self-organized criticalities (SOCs) of genetic-epigenetic processes necessary for the intergenerational transfer of functional social behavior. When anti-NSE nominal metaphors are transduced back into anti-NSEs, social niche memes, the trauma process is reiterated. Anti-NSE memes and metaphors are found to be inappropriate criteria central to the maintenance of persistent trauma. Therefore, anti-NSE memes have hijacked our epigenetics and our social niches. Solutions are available because during our evolution, the Homo clade developed esoteric capabilities and the ability to bring back what information we can from those encounters. This physiology operates around the 5HT2A neural receptors that process hallucinogens, such as psilocybin. Accessing this resource system, either through naturally occurring altered states of consciousness or through micro-dose pharmaceutical psilocybin and related neurotransmitters, produces a significant structural change in the GPDG system to reset the NSE system illustrated in the schematic to its nominal status so that we can maintain nominal NSE relationships within our meme niche(s).

The source of persistent trauma in our social niche(s), the means by which the trauma is maintained and the means to mitigate and perhaps eliminate persistent trauma are identified. Based on these three conclusions, it is difficult to make decisions regarding corrective actions because of ubiquitous anti-NSE memes and because of the limitations of our ordinary consciousness.

If we wish to survive as a species, we will need to discover the criteria necessary to maintain our niche(s) congruent SOCs and use them instead of tyrannical memes described by Dawkins (1989) to make decisions about ourselves and our niche(s).

Significant courage is required to identify the memes that maintain trauma because many of them are culturally sacred cows. Unfortunately, we have known since Bremner's (1995) MRI study of posttraumatic stress disorder that trauma causes brain damage. Fortunately, our NSE genes compel us to pursue restitution of the memes that maintain our trauma-inducing cultures.

Several original assertions are presented. While the Homo clade ancestors began the creation of the social niche(s) that led to Homo sapiens sapiens, it is asserted that the australopiths created the NSE memes which are the foundation behaviors that permit our social niche(s). Furthermore, NSEs were produced by enhanced intentionality skills and NSEs were created by both genetic and memetic processes. The evolution of intentionality-NSE neural networks is asserted as the source of intentional material manipulation. While anti-NSE memes are claimed as the source of persistent trauma, the practice of esoteric technologies is presented as a solution to persistent trauma.

This paper aims to explore the impact of enterprise niche on dual innovation performance and the moderating role of innovation openness on the relationship between enterprise niche and dual innovation performance.

This study uses the panel data of the enterprise technology patents of China's Top 100 Electronic Information Enterprises from 2009 to 2018. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Niche width has a significant positive impact on exploitative and exploratory innovation performance. Niche overlap has an inverted U-shaped effect on exploitative innovation performance and significantly positively affects exploratory innovation performance. Innovation openness negatively moderates the impact of niche width on exploitative innovation performance and positively moderates the impact of niche overlap on exploitative innovation performance.

This study provides new insights into the effects of enterprise niche on dual innovation performance by showing the moderating role of innovation openness. The study finds a strategic logic of moderate niche overlap, clarifies the innovative effect of different innovation openness modes and reveals the construction and management mechanisms of enterprise niche and innovation openness strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning, as well as the drivers, of innovation in theory and practice for gaining insight into the reasons why the diffusion of innovative technologies fails; even though they promise a superior performance compared to incumbent technologies. The paper describes an explorative study of the diffusion of domotics technologies in residential construction.

Innovation systems theory, which points to the “technological regime” in the actor network as a key element in the diffusion, acceptance, and application of new technologies was used to analyse the diffusion of domotics technologies in residential construction.

The results underscored the expected “bottlenecks” in the technological regime of the innovation system that curtailed the diffusion of domotics technologies in construction.

The novelty of the paper is in the approach of the research and the collected data on the technological regime amongst the stakeholders. These stakeholders were principally involved in development and implementation of the domotics technologies in residential construction; these observations provided useful insights into the diffusion of domotics technologies.