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In this article, the authors analyse a complex social process affecting historic public paths in rural areas in southern Spain. Despite the fact that urban populations are demanding the enhancement of this type of natural heritage for tourism, sports and recreational use, some parts of the network have been abandoned or usurped.

The study is multidisciplinary, comprising three interlinked studies. The cartographic study comprises an inventory of public paths in rural areas based on administrative sources. The legal study analyses local, regional and national regulations governing agricultural, environmental, heritage, sports and tourism uses of the infrastructure. The sociological study analyses social discourses on the uses of public paths, and identifies conflicts between farmers, landowners, environmentalists, sportspeople and tourists.

The preliminary results identified an important public paths network in Andalusia, approximately 160,000 km. The legal study found that there are laws regulating use, although local authorities do not monitor compliance or provide solutions to enhance management. The sociological study determined the attribution of environmental, cultural and economic value to public paths, but also the existence of conflicts between rural and urban populations.

Given that this is ongoing research, only state of the art and some preliminary albeit sufficiently consistent results are presented.

The results could help to guide public policy and governance of public paths.

Public paths promote rural development and a green/sustainable economy.

The research results and conclusions are original.

The study explores the possibility of developing a valid scale for integrated management of heritage sites to bring a holistic approach to heritage properties' conservation practices.

The study followed the exploratory sequential method. An in-depth interview was adopted for exploring indicators, and a questionnaire survey was administered for descriptive analysis.

Cultural resources conservation strategies have been analyzed from a tourist, local communities and stakeholder's perspective with local-specific indicators. The study indicates that a multi-dimensional approach that integrates tourists, local communities and other stakeholders-based indicators can be developed at the destination level for the integrated management of heritage properties. Tourist-centric, local community-specific and stakeholder-oriented approaches could act as catalysts for more pragmatic conservation practices in the local areas based on the site-specific indicators.

The study is limited to lesser-known heritage sites located in the southern provincial states of India. The technical conservation strategies on the structure and architecture are not part of the study. Theoretical implications on the study of this kind can contribute to the literature as it throws light on future studies seeking local-centric conservation and management practices of heritage sites hitherto less explored in the domain of conservation science. The scale provides insight into the appropriate form of intervention that the local communities, tourists and other stakeholders can do at the heritage sites, hence the possibility of garnering the attention of other discipline strivings towards the conservation of heritage sites and to apply along with other relevant variables. It is expected that the study might expedite the knowledge accumulation in conservation science.

The scale can be used in a similar context for the integrated management of heritage sites. The study can assist the policymakers and planners in seeking the support of stakeholders, local communities and tourists for the implementation of heritage conservation and management programs. Such a local-centric management strategy promoting responsible consumption and production could contribute to SDG 12. Further, the study can also contribute towards SDG 11.4, which calls for strengthening the effort to protect and safeguard cultural and natural heritage. This scale can be a tool for destination management organizations (DMOs) to understand the level of intervention of local communities, tourists and other stakeholders at the heritage site.

The integrated management approach of heritage conservation immensely helps the lesser-known heritage sites the world over as such structures are out of the focal point of government funding and other conservation efforts. The synergy of the integrated approach could protect lesser-known unfunded heritage sites, and thereby, the cultural reflections of the community concerned can be made available for future visitors’ consumption.

The study attempted to understand the conservation approaches for lesser-known heritage sites with the support of both demand and supply-side stakeholders. Such a collaborative approach is the first of this kind in the conservation of heritage sites in India.

This study aims to introduce and evaluate a model of host community support for sustainable tourism development (SSTD) based on the influential factors contributing to community support in a biosphere reserve.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3 software is applied to analyze data collected from 473 residents of the Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve, Iran.

The findings reveal that the locals’ community support is affected by their level of environmental awareness, opportunity and attitudes toward SSTD. However, the results do not reveal an influence of environmental knowledge and community attachment on SSTD. The findings enrich the existing literature on community attitude predictors by showing that locals’ SSTD level is not consistently based on common predictors. Such support strongly depends on host communities’ attitudes toward supporting tourism, which is definitely not the same among residents. It is imperative to know whether people’s attitudes arise from a desire to protect the area or for reasons of self-interest.

The findings provide further support for the tenets of the segmentation approach and challenge existing knowledge on host communities’ attitudes about factors influencing residents toward SSTD. The findings have several practical implications regarding community participation for regional and national authorities and destination policymakers.

采用SmartPLS3软件建立偏最小二乘结构方程模型, 对从伊朗米安卡莱生物圈保护区的473名居民获得的数据进行分析。

本研究旨在介绍和评估基于影响促进生物圈保护内社区支持的可持续旅游发展(SSTD)的东道社区支持模型。

结果表明, 本地社区的环境意识水平、机会和对SSTD的态度影响着社区支持。然而, 研究结果并没有揭示环境知识和社区依恋对SSTD的影响。

这一发现丰富了现有的关于社区态度预测因子的文献, 表明当地人的SSTD并不一致基于共同的预测因子。这种支持很大程度上取决于东道社区对支持旅游的态度, 这在居民中肯定是不一样的。有必要了解人们的态度是出于保护该地区的愿望还是出于自身利益的原因。此外, 研究结果为细分方法的原则提供了进一步的支持, 并挑战了关于东道社区对影响居民SSTD态度的现有认知。

Se aplica un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales con el programa SmartPLS 3 para analizar los datos recogidos de 473 residentes de la reserva de la biosfera de Miankaleh (Irán).

Esta investigación pretende introducir y evaluar un modelo de apoyo de la comunidad anfitriona al desarrollo del turismo sostenible (SSTD) basado en los factores que contribuyen al apoyo de la comunidad en una reserva de la biosfera.

Los resultados revelan que el apoyo de la comunidad local se ve afectado por su nivel de concienciación medioambiental, sus oportunidades y sus actitudes hacia el desarrollo del turismo sostenible. Sin embargo, los resultados no muestran una influencia del conocimiento medioambiental y el apego de la comunidad sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.

Los resultados enriquecen la literatura existente sobre predictores de la actitud de la comunidad al mostrar que el nivel de desarrollo turístico sostenible de los autóctonos no se basa únicamente en factores tradicionales. Dicho apoyo depende en gran medida de las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas hacia el apoyo al turismo y éste no es el mismo entre los residentes. Es necesario conocer si la actitud de los individuos surge de un deseo de proteger la zona o por razones de interés propio. Además, los resultados corroboran los principios del enfoque de segmentación y retan los conocimientos existentes sobre las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas acerca de los factores de los residentes sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.

A comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.

Management in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.

Finding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.

Currently, consumers of financial products and services have become more vulnerable to predatory financial institutions, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, financial consumers like the persons with disabilities (PWDs) should be equipped with knowledge and skills to help them to evaluate complex financial products on offer in financial markets, especially in developing countries to avoid being victims of fraudulent lending. The purpose of this study is to establish whether customized financial literacy mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

SmartPLS 4.0 was used to construct the measurement and structural equation models to test whether customized financial literacy significantly mediates the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

The results revealed a partial mediating effect of customized financial literacy in the relationship between financial consumer protection and financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic. Conducting customized financial literacy increases financial consumer protection by 12 percentage points to promote financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs in rural Uganda post Covid-19 pandemic.

This study focused only on customized financial literacy and financial consumer protection to promote universal financial inclusion of PWDs’ owned MSMEs post Covid-19 pandemic. Future studies may use data collected from other vulnerable groups amongst the unbanked population in developing countries, Uganda inclusive. In addition, this study also collected only quantitative data from the selected population. Further studies can be conducted using key informant interviews and focused group discussion to get the perceptions of the PWDs on being protected from exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions.

The findings from this study can help policymakers in developing countries like Uganda to revise the existing consumer protection law to include strong clauses on protection of people with special needs like the PWDs. The law must ensure that they are not exploited by financial institutions because of their conditions. The law ought to make sure that the PWDs are educated about their rights in the financial market place and all information on financial products offered by financial institutions should be simplified and interpreted to them before they make consumption decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is amongst the first few studies to provide a meticulous and unique discourse on the ever increasing role of financial literacy combined with consumer protection to reduce consumption risks within the financial markets, especially in developing countries in the aftermath of global pandemic shocks. This study uses the social learning theory, theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour to elucidate how customized financial literacy can enhance consumer protection to increase financial inclusion of groups with special needs like the PWDs who have become more susceptible to exploitation by unscrupulous financial institutions in under-developed financial markets, especially in post Covid-19 pandemic.

To ensure that students are well prepared to successfully analyze this case, they should be familiar with the following concepts, theories and principles:

▪ Stakeholder theory

▪ Concept of duty to consult and accommodate

▪ Concept of social license to operate (SLO)

▪ Concept of indigenous economic self-determination

▪ Indigenous world view

▪ Seventh generation principle

▪ Cree principles

▪ Dene principles

The information provided in this case was gathered by the authors through face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, e-mail exchanges and secondary research. Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) separates business operations from council operations through use of corporate entities (as shown in Exhibit 1 of the case). Meadow Lake Tribal Council II (MLTCII) is the corporate entity that oversees two companies referenced in the case: Mistik Management and NorSask Forest Products LP. Interviews were conducted with the General Manager at Mistik Management, Certification Coordinator at Mistik Management, Chief of Buffalo River Dene Nation, Chief of Waterhen Lake First Nation, MLTC Vice-Chief, Board Member and Advisor to MLTCII, President and CEO of MLTCII, MLTCII Business Development Consultant and a former consultant with MLTC, NorSask Forest Products and Mistik Management.

Mistik Management Ltd., a forestry management company co-owned by the nine First Nations of MLTC, was a leader in economic reconciliation in 2022. However, the company had dealt with significant challenges not long after it was established in 1989. Richard Gladue, former Chief of the one of MLTCs Member First Nations and a leader in economic development at MLTC, had been actively involved in establishing the organization. Gladue loved the life and vitality of the boreal forest in the Meadow Lake region and felt a sense of responsibility to take care of the forest and the land for generations to come. This responsibility was balanced with the acknowledgement that the forest also provided vast economic development, employment and wealth generation opportunities for MLTC and its Member First Nations.

In the early 1990s, MLTC and Mistik Management dealt with a year-long blockade by a group of protesters that included members of Canoe Lake Cree First Nation, one of the Member First Nations of MLTC. They had not been consulted on Mistik’s processes and policies, and the company’s clear-cut logging had affected their ability to continue their traditional way of life and practices on the land. After the incident, Mistik Management moved more quickly to invest in a co-management process that they were still refining and using in 2022 when consulting with Indigenous groups and communities.

A natural resource economy brings together Indigenous peoples, industry and government. In this case, students will learn about the important role that relationships play and how decisions are made when balancing complex legal, environmental and economic interests. Students will learn about the history of duty to consult and accommodate in Canada; conduct a stakeholder analysis and reflect on how decisions affect stakeholder interests; and make recommendations for meaningful Indigenous engagement strategies using the concept of social license and indigenous principles.

This case is suitable for use in undergraduate courses on indigenous business, ethical decision-making, public policy and/or natural resource development. There may also be applications in other fields of study, including anthropology, economics and political science.

If the case is used in an indigenous business course, it would be best positioned in the last third of the class, after topics such as duty to consult and accommodate, social license and meaningful engagement with indigenous communities have been covered. If used in an ethical decision-making course, it would be best used when discussing stakeholder theory and engaging in stakeholder analysis. If used in a public policy course, the case could be used to start a discussion around the duty to consult and accommodate indigenous communities in Canada. If used in a natural resource development course, the case would be best used as an example of indigenous economic development.

This paper aims to establish a reliable scale measuring occupants’ levels of environmental trust in their work settings’ indoor air quality and explore the relationship between occupants’ levels of environmental trust and their perceived control over the air quality in their workspace.

The authors conducted occupant surveys concerning indoor air quality in an office building, and collected corresponding indoor air quality measurements. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis results are reported to reveal occupants’ levels of environmental trust and perceived control.

Results reveal that psychological perceptions of indoor air quality can be quite neutral, even shortly after an extreme wildfire event resulting in very poor air quality in an urban area. Occupants’ sense of trust that their office building could protect them from harmful air outside, and their belief that the building could protect them from seasonal smoky conditions, each correlated positively with employees’ sense of control over the indoor air quality in their personal workspace.

This case study adds to an interdisciplinary understanding for facility managers and organizational leaders concerning a way to measure occupants’ sense of control over the indoor air quality in their building, as well as their environmental trust in terms of how protected they feel from harmful air quality conditions.

Scholarly interest in the business effects of organised crime (OC) has recently increased. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on the conditions under which OC could pose a threat to or take control of firms within a particular context.

We use narrative synthesis and thematic analysis, with a sample of 46 theoretical and empirical studies published over the past 30 years on the relationship between OC and firms within the disciplines of Business, Management and Accounting (BMA).

SLR and thematic analysis show that scholarly interest has focused on four key domains: OC as a firm, the impact of OC on firms, firms’ efforts to counter OC’s influence and governmental interventions. Using medical metaphors, we also develop a diagram depicting the interplay between OC and firms within the BMA literature.

This study contributes to the literature shaping an agenda to steer future research towards these four key themes. The effectiveness of anti-OC tools and measures depends on a thorough understanding of local norms, behaviours and business practices. In addition to measurement and methodological challenges, several grey areas remain, including the distinction between criminal enterprises and legitimate businesses. Ambiguities also surround the circumstances under which the OC preys upon firms or employs them to establish dominance over a territory.

This study aims to integrate the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory into a meta-analytic framework to synthesize green consumption literature.

By integrating the findings from 173 studies, a meta-analysis was performed adopting several analytical methods: bivariate analysis, moderation analysis and path analysis.

VBN- and TPB-based psychological factors (adverse consequences, ascribed responsibility, personal norms, subjective norms, attitude and perceived behavioral control) mediate the effects of altruistic, biospheric and egoistic values on green purchase intention. Further, inconsistencies in the proposed relationships are due to cultural factors (i.e. individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity, short- vs long-term orientation and indulgence-restraint) and countries’ human development status.

The authors selected papers published in English; hence, other relevant papers in this domain published in other languages might have been missed.

The findings are useful to marketers of green offerings in designing strategies, i.e. specific messages, targeting different customers based on countries’ cultural score and human development index, to harvest positive customer responses.

This study is the pioneering attempt to synthesize the TPB- and VBN-based quantitative literature on green consumer behavior to resolve the reported inconsistent findings.