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The purpose of this study is to assess the contributions of graduate research to social innovation and change for learning and improved transdisciplinary practice. Universities, as centers of teaching and research, face high demand from society to address urgent social and environmental challenges. Faculty and students are keen to use their research to contribute to social innovation and sustainable development. As part of the effort to increase societal impact, research approaches are evolving to be more problem-oriented, engaged and transdisciplinary. Therefore, new approaches to research evaluation are also needed to learn whether and how research contributes to social innovation, and those lessons need to be applied by universities to train and support students to do impactful research and foster an impact culture.

This paper uses a theory-based evaluation method to assess the contributions of three completed doctoral research projects. Each study documents the project’s theory of change (ToC) and uses qualitative data (document review, surveys and interviews) to test the ToC. This paper uses a transdisciplinary research (TDR) quality assessment framework (QAF) to analyze each projects’ design and implementation. This paper then draws lessons from the individual case studies and a comparative analysis of the three cases on, namely, effective research design and implementation for social transformation; and training and support for impactful research.

Each project aimed to influence government policy, organizational practice, other research and/or the students’ own professional development. All contributed to many of their intended outcomes, but with varying levels of accomplishment. Projects that were more transdisciplinary had more pronounced outcomes. Process contributions (e.g. capacity-building, relationship-building and empowerment) were as or more important than knowledge contributions. The key recommendations are for: researchers to design intentional research, with an explicit ToC; higher education institutions (HEI) to provide training and support for TDR theory and practice; and HEIs to give more attention to research evaluation.

This is the first application of both the outcome evaluation method and the TDR QAF to graduate student research projects, and one of very few such analyses of research projects. It offers a broader framework for conceptualizing and evaluating research contributions to social change processes. It is intended to stimulate new thinking about research aims, approaches and achievements.

This chapter considers assistive technology (AT) for learners from an economic perspective. Drawing on human rights and human capability approaches, we suggest that individual practitioners can identify the likely cost implications of provision and nonprovision to support their recommendations and assist funders and policymakers to make fiscally sound decisions. We present a range of approaches to evaluating and documenting the costs and outcomes of AT for learning and education. Policy and resourcing contexts are discussed, as is the role for the practitioner in systemic advocacy for early investment in AT to support individual and societal outcomes.

It has been argued that it is in the best interests of IT professionals, to adopt and enforce professional codes in the work place. But there is no code for usability engineers, unless one accepts that it is a branch of software engineering. The new joint ACM/IEEE‐CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics is applied to actual usability cases. This enables usability engineers to interpret this code in their profession. This is achieved by utilizing four case studies both directly in terms of the ethical issues involved and in the light of the code. Also examined are the short‐comings of the code for the domain of usability engineering, and suggestions are made for enhancements for future revisions of the code.

This paper attempts to contribute to an expanding body of literature that critically engages with both the theory and practice of market segmentation. Through the theoretical lens of liminality and its implicit elements, the notion of boundary creation inherent in age‐based market segmentation of the youth market is explored.

Using empirical data collected as part of a longitudinal study on liminal consumers, marketing's attempt at laying down parameters and constructing borders is presented as a strategic exacerbation of liminal zones already replete with tension and ambiguity.

It is concluded that theoretical consideration of this data highlights the fluidity and porous nature of such constructed boundaries, rendering attempts at creating discernable, knowable segments, potentially futile. Thus by critically viewing this segment, not just as a marketing demographic, but as a liminal zone, an alternative consideration of the theory and practice of age segmentation is presented.

The longitudinal study spanned a period from midway through the participants' final months of primary education and early stages of secondary education. Research that focused on their completion of a year in secondary education would perhaps have yielded further insights.

This research offers tangible insights into the social worlds of a burgeoning market segment, albeit a liminal one, offering actionable realities based on the inextricable intertwining of their consumption practices and lived experiences.

Rather than view children as socio‐cultural non‐descripts who are of interest to marketers purely for their ability to be located along a continuum of cognitive development, this research aims to understand and explore the specific intricasies of the tweens' mediation of their liminal world using consumption practices

Consumption practices emerged that highlighted the attempted resolution and mediation of such tensions while also pointing to the clear mutability and ambiguity of supposed borders between child, tween and teen segmented groups. Age‐segmentation, conceptualised by marketers as a strategic creation of borders so as to enhance product offerings little reflects the realities of how age is perceived, experienced and acted out by those categorised within the margins and parameters of targeted marketing. By viewing this segment, not just as a marketing demographic but as a liminal zone where liminars “elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space”, an alternative consideration of the theory and practice of age‐segmentation is presented.

The aim of this paper is to qualitatively examine the ways in which primary school children, aged between 7 and 12, perceive various facets of obesity as defined by the common sense model of illness representation (CCM).

The study was qualitative in nature. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 33 children on all dimensions of the CSM. Twenty four children were normal weight and nine were overweight. A drawing task formed the methodology for the “identity” section of the interview.

Although children identified food intake as a main cause of obesity, almost half did not name sedentary behaviours as a cause of obesity. Duration (timeline) of obesity was regarded by most children as reliant on a person's undertaking of positive health behaviours. Normal weight children were found to list more severe consequences of obesity than the overweight group. It was found that experience contributed to the detailed knowledge of overweight children's perceptions of cures of obesity. Overweight children also spoke of personal incidents of barriers to cures.

The findings suggest that the CSMs can be used to classify children's perceptions of obesity. Future childhood obesity interventions can utilise these findings to create campaigns and strategies that are more consistent with children's understandings of this condition.

To the authors' knowledge, no previous study has examined children's perceptions of obesity beyond perceived causes.

In recent years, the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTA) has led to rapid economic boons and political security among nations. This study investigates whether the percentage of expats or permanent foreign residents plays a role in deciding which countries to partner with in bi-lateral FTAs. Previously, the reasons for FTA formation were believed to be primarily based upon economic, geographic, and political reasons. However, through the use of social network analysis, a larger picture can be mapped which allows for a more comprehensive understanding of key players in the current state of FTA formation in relation to the immigrant network that they share between them. More specifically, through computerized social network analysis, centrality can be calculated to determine the key players and the most central immigrant populations. When analyzing both the immigrant centrality in relation to FTA centrality, it becomes evident that there is a high correlation between the two factors. Thus, the findings highlight that immigration trends can be used as a predictor of FTA formation. As a result, it emphasizes the weight of immigration policy on the formation of bi-lateral FTAs.

The purpose of this paper is to propose emotional intelligence (hereinafter EI) competences as a key predictor for overall cross‐cultural adjustment of managers and professionals in its three respective dimensions: work, interaction and non‐work adjustment. This explorative study contributes to the assessment and selection of potential professionals for international assignments by identifying the combination of soft competences and selected pre‐existing personal factors that can predict cross cultural adjustment beyond traditional technical or functional skills.

Data were gathered via a pre‐validated multi‐item questionnaire. The latter was administered in two languages: English and Spanish and two steps of multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, in addition to the main variables (i.e. main effect). A total of 16 individual, organisational and context‐related control variables were used in this study.

The main findings indicate that EI is related to overall cross‐cultural adjustment measured in its three dimensions. However, EI was most strongly related to interaction adjustment following overall cross‐cultural adjustment. Furthermore, by isolating some important variables, the predictive role of EI on cross‐cultural adjustment above and beyond these control variables was shown.

EI is still a new and debatable construct. Researchers are continuing to explore this construct from different angles. Moreover, there is keen interest in ascertaining whether the findings reported herein are sustainable. With the exception of one external source (culture distance), all data for the current study were collected via a self‐reported questionnaire and although additional effort was made to reduce some potential method‐variance problems, they cannot be entirely ruled out. The authors encourage future studies to improve the design by gathering data from multiple sources and from diverse settings.

The paper reviews the possible advantages of including EI assessment in international postings selection process.

This paper fills the need to study the predictive role of key soft skills in understanding cross‐cultural adjustment of international assignees. This study analysed the role of emotions in cross‐cultural settings by specifically examining a set of competences stemming from the EI construct. Although EI has been extensively used in the organisational behaviour literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is still a need to empirically explore the relationships of this construct within the context of overseas postings and cross cultural encounters.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how Instagram can be used as a communication channel in green marketing digital mix through content analysis of posts published on the official Instagram account of bio&bio, the first Croatian organic food store.

Method: Using a case study approach, qualitative content analysis was implemented in the period from January to May 2020. A total of 93 textual posts published on the official bio&bio Instagram account were analysed and then categorised using Carlson, Grove and Kangun's categorisation of the following five types of environmental claims – product orientation, process orientation, image orientation, environmental orientation and combination.

Findings: Instagram in the first line serves as the promotion channel. Although Instagram de-emphasises textual description in favour of image use, which makes it different from other social media platforms, this study showed how companies can send effective green messages using the appropriate environmental-oriented claims to their audience and in that way raise the awareness about their products and position themselves as good corporate citizens.

Research limitations: The results derived from this case study cannot be generalised since they are based on a single case in one country.

Originality/value of paper: The paper represents the first research on how Instagram can be used as a communication channel in the context of green marketing digital mix in the Republic of Croatia. The results derived from this case study can serve as a ground floor for future researches on how companies can use Instagram as a communication channel embedded in green marketing digital mix.