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The creation of positive social change (PSC) is considered the primary success criterion when evaluating social enterprise performance. However, despite a proliferation of PSC-measurements, their empirical validity and applicability in emerging economies remain largely unclear. The quantitative study examines the validity of the PSC-measurement approaches proposed by Bloom and Smith (2010; Bloom and Smith approach [BSA]) and Weaver (2020b; Weaver approach [WA]) in South Africa.

Investigating a representative sample of 347 social entrepreneurs from Gauteng and Limpopo provinces, the authors use questionnaire data to explore the factorial, convergent and discriminant validity of both PSC-measurement approaches. Statistically, this is done by applying factorial and correlation analyses.

The results yield acknowledgeable differences. BSA has a high factorial and convergent validity, while its discriminant validity remains doubtful. For WA, problems concerning factorial validity occur.

Despite limited generalizability, the authors provide a first guideline for scholars regarding the empirical validity of BSA and WA outside the context of developed economies.

The current study sheds light on the validity of two PSC-measurement approaches in an emerging economy context. This way, the authors contribute to the field by addressing the scarcity of empirical research and the restricted scope of developed economies regarding PSC-measurement.

This study aims to examine the influence of the derived attributes of embedded artificial intelligence-mobile smart speech recognition (AI-MSSR) technology, namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived enjoyment (PE) on consumer purchase intention (PI) through the chain relationships of attitudes to AI and consumer smart experience, with the moderating effect of consumer innovativeness and Generation (Gen) X and Gen Y in fashion retail.

The study employed a quantitative survey strategy, drawing a sample of 836 respondents from Sri Lanka and India representing Gen X and Gen Y. The data analysis was carried out using smart partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The findings show a positive relationship between the perceived attributes of MSSR and consumer PI via attitudes towards AI (AAI) and smart consumer experiences. In addition, consumer innovativeness and Generations X and Y have a moderating impact on the aforementioned relationship. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed with a note on the research limitations and further research directions.

To multiply the effects of embedded AI-MSSR and consumer PI in fashion retail marketing, managers can develop strategies that strengthen the links between awareness, knowledge of the derived attributes of embedded AI-MSSR and PI by encouraging innovative consumers, especially Gen Y consumers, to engage with embedded AI-MSSR.

This study advances the literature on embedded AI-MSSR and consumer PI in fashion retail marketing by providing an integrated view of the technology acceptance model (TAM), the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and the generational cohort perspective in predicting PI.

In a country that is marred by an excessively high unemployment rate, there is a need for policymakers to prioritise entrepreneurship in South Africa. The study aims to explore the determinants of self-employment among the youth in South Africa and in the process answer the following question: Who are the self-employed youths in South Africa?

Different potential predictors of self-employment empirically used in the literature were used in this study. A probit regression model was used with the binary self-employment variable as the dependent variable and a host of independent variables. A nationally representative survey consisting of youths was used in the analysis.

The findings show that financial literacy increases the odds of being self-employed. Secondly, the odds of being self-employed increase with age as mature people are expected to have gathered enough networks and wisdom over the years. Thirdly, being male decreases the odds of being self-employed. When it comes to education, the only category that statistically increases the odds of being self-employed compared with no schooling is the tertiary level of education. The other educational levels are all statistically insignificant. From a policy perspective, the government should promote self-employment by investing in financial literacy as well as increasing access to tertiary education among disadvantaged groups.

The study is one of the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine the characteristics of the self-employed using a nationally representative survey in South Africa.

In developing countries like Tanzania, gems and jewellery industry mainly consists of disintegrated and unstable micro and small workshops which operate in a way that misalign value addition processes. This study is aimed to bridge gap by focussing on exploitation of industrial clusters in social normalisation and economic resilience to developing countries. The world economic shocks has been not only individually experienced but also globally shared while disrupted lives across all countries and communities and negatively affected global socio-economic growth.

Furthermore, the explorative design was adopted in this study in order to explore needs of respondents, and with the aim to direct the study towards a descriptive design. The sample frame consists of participants in gems and jewellery activities in Tanzania whereby sample was drawn from Dar es Salaam and Arusha. Semi-structured interview was used to collect quantitative data to establish evidence of Tanzanians’ SSJs linked to global value chains (GVCs).

Results revealed the benefits of exploitation of artisanal industrial clusters to Tanzanians’ SSJs when linked to global value chains (GVCs). Findings of the study demonstrate the importance of artisanal industrial clusters in facilitating Tanzanians’ SSJs to access GVCs. Further, insufficient education, trust and social protection directly affects inclusive GVCs, inferring that the impact of artisanal industrial clusters on inclusive GVCs in social normalisation and economic resilience.

Study findings reveals shortcomings in existing regulatory framework of linking Tanzanians’ SSJs to artisanal industrial clusters, for improvements to better support the inclusiveness in GVCs. Findings of this research invite interventions on institutional capabilities and entrepreneurial competencies to enhance the capabilities of small-scale jewellers (SSJs). Like other studies, this study involved cross-sectional data, limit targeted study population as representative of SSJs in industrial clusters and GVCs in economic crises at limited time.

The study findings makes important practical contributions to the Tanzania’s SSJs by examining mediating role of artisanal industrial clusters hence informing policymakers of mining sector how to improve accessibility on GVCs by focus on offering great institutional capabilities and entrepreneurial competencies. These findings will help SSJs and policy makers to get better understanding of the relationships in exploitation of artisanal industrial clusters when accessing GVCs. Therefore, they can make better decisions on implementing artisanal industrial clusters as well as management accessing GVCs, so that SSJs will attain the best possible performance.

This emphasises the importance of community empowerment in the GVCs process through artisanal industrial clusters. Study findings indicate the influence of industrial relations to social dynamics which are previously inadequately addressed and scantly researched. In actual fact study propose initiatives that ensure local communities benefit socially from the integration of SSJs into GVCs through artisanal industrial clusters. Findings suggest local communities that take into account inter-sectionality of artisanal industrial clusters and inclusive GVCs, by considering how factors like education, trust and social protection status intersect to influence the social inclusiveness of SSJs.

There is limited evidence of linking Tanzanians’ SSJs to GVCs in social normalisation and economic resilience and few researchers have explored this topic. This article leverages exploitation of industrial clusters in normalisation and economic resilience to developing countries such as Tanzania as way of improving shared prosperity, sustainability, inclusive growth, cohesion, value chain upgrading and financial inclusion to SSJs.

Many students are found facing difficulties in learning English due to plenty of reasons: known and unknown ones. In order to overcome such an issue, the instructors have to explore for effective techniques of teaching English to motivate learners by any means. Technology in general and informatics in particular can be thought of as innovative tool of pedagogy in the current teaching-learning environment. The present proposal of research aims at creating innovative approaches, which attract learners' interest and catch their attention for better outputs.

Following subsections have been discussed keeping the significance in view. Setting of the study: The present study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah-Saudi Arabia, which is one of the Saudi Arabian universities; however, it has opened up new avenues for the pedagogues, teachers of English and researchers to conduct studies in various allied fields. In order to have a representative sample of students' population, the participants were chosen from the “preparatory year”. Material and tools: This study used a questionnaire (Appendix) and a test to evaluate performances of the two groups: controlled and experimental. In order to further strengthen the findings, semi structured interview was conducted for a few select students from the student-sample. Since the questionnaire was adapted, the statistical validity and reliability was not considered to be essential; however, content/face validity was ensured by consulting 10 experts in the field of education/methods of teaching.

Based on the analysis of data gathered from the test performances of the two groups of students, it was found that there existed a significant difference in the test scores. The questionnaire responses also proved that infographics can be proved to be an interesting tool of education in general and English language teaching in particular. However, it has been noticed from the gathered data that not many teachers are comfortable using multimedia or infographics for different reasons. The results of the present study are in line with the study by Rezaei and Sayadian (2015) that support the idea of infographics that would help English teachers to develop understanding and insights to design among the learners. They further contend that the infographic instruction offers choices for the utilization of collaborative activities. In addition, the infographics enhance students' performance as a whole as also supported by Alrwele (2017).

The study was conducted on a small sample which might affect the generalization of the outcomes. It was carried out with special reference to teaching of vocabulary and reading.

There can be many recommendations for different stakeholders. For teachers, it is recommended that they should know about the significance of infographs for catching the attention of students. They should know how to design interesting and colorful infographs. The administration/management should facilitate the teachers with the required software or platform to create infographics and integrate in an English language class. In addition, teachers should attend workshops and training courses organized for topics related to the infographs.

The author checked the study for plagiarism (excluding references) and found it to be 93% plagiarism free.

Framed by nostalgia marketing, this research draws upon lessons from ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit health promotion organization, to examine one of their most well-known campaigns, Body Break with ParticipACTION, in order to assess the potential role for nostalgia-based marketing campaigns in sport participation across generational cohorts.

Exploratory sequential mixed methods involving two studies were completed on behalf of ParticipACTION, with the authors developing the research instruments and the collection of the data undertaken by research agencies. Study 1 was the secondary analysis of qualitative data from five focus groups with different demographic compositions that followed a common question guide. Study 2 was a secondary data analysis of a pan-Canadian online survey with a sample (n = 1,475) representative of the overall adult population that assessed awareness of, and attitudes toward, ParticipACTION, Body Break, physical activity and sport participation. Path analysis tested a proposed model that was based on previous research on attitudes, brand and loyalty. Further, multi-group path analyses were conducted to compare younger generations with older ones.

The results provide direction and understanding of the importance of nostalgia in marketing sport participation programs across generational cohorts. For instance, in the four parent-adult focus groups, unaided references as well as frequent and detailed comments regarding Body Break were observed. Similarly, Millennials reported that Body Break was memorable, Canadian and nostalgic, with a mix of positive and negative comments. The importance of nostalgia was supported sequentially via results from the national survey. For example, while 54.1% of the 40–54 age-group associated ParticipACTION positively with Body Break, so did 49.8% of the 25–39-year age group, most of whom were not born when the promotion ran. Further, brand resonance was found to explain 4% more variance in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the proxy for sport participation, for younger people compared to older people.

Results provide direction to brands, properties and agencies around the use of nostalgia in sport marketing campaigns and sponsorship efforts. For brands seeking to sponsor sport properties to alter their image with potential consumers in a new market, associating with a sport property that many view as nostalgic could improve the impact of the campaign. On the sport property side, event managers and marketers should both identify existing assets that members or fans are nostalgic about, as well as consider building nostalgia into current and new properties they develop.

This research is valuable to the sport marketing and sponsorship literature through several contributions. First, the use of nostalgia marketing, and nostalgia in general, is novel in the sport marketing and sponsorship literature, with future research in nostalgia and sponsorship recommended. Second, the potential to adopt or adapt Body Break to other sport participation and physical activity properties is empirically supported. Finally, the finding that very effective promotions can have a long-lasting effect, both on those who experienced the campaigns as well as younger populations who only heard about it, is notable.

Many individuals start a new firm each year, mainly intending to become independent or improve their financial situation. For most of them, the first years of operations mean a substantial investment of time, effort and money with highly insecure outcomes. This study aims to explore how entrepreneurs running new firms perform financially compared with the established ones and how this situation influences their well-being.

A questionnaire survey was completed in 2021 and 2022 by a representative sample of N = 1136 solo self-employed and microentrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, with dependent self-employed excluded. This study used multiple regressions for data analysis.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are less satisfied with their financial situation, have lower disposable income and report more significant financial problems than their established counterparts. The situation is even worse for the subsample of startups. However, this study also finds they do not have lower well-being than established entrepreneurs. While a worse financial situation is generally negatively related to well-being, being a startup founder moderates this link. Startup founders can maintain a good level of well-being even in financial struggles.

The results suggest that policies should focus on reducing the costs related to start-up activities. Further, policy support should not be restricted to new technological firms. Startups from all fields should be eligible to receive support, provided that they meet the milestones of their development. For entrepreneurship education, this study‘s results support action-oriented approaches that help build entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy while making them aware of cognitive biases common in entrepreneurship. This study also underscores that effectuation or lean startup approaches help entrepreneurs develop their startups efficiently and not deprive themselves of resources because of their unjustified overconfidence.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the financial situation and well-being of founders of new firms and, specifically, startups. The personal financial situation of startup founders has been a largely underexplored issue. Compared with other entrepreneurs, this study finds that startup founders are, as individuals, in the worst financial situation. Their well-being remains, however, on a comparable level with that of other entrepreneurs.

This research aims to better understand the factors and determinants that shape the job satisfaction of European family business owners.

The study is based on a unique sample of 11,362 European family business owners surveyed within the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) framework, and the main findings were obtained by estimating ordered logistic regression models.

The authors show that only 26.8% of European family business owners are women, which underlines the gender imbalance in family business ownership, and the authors' results also report that their job satisfaction is significantly lower compared to males. The authors also find the highest job satisfaction amongst family business owners with master-level degrees and point out several interesting statistically significant differences across the industry focus of the family business.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge on the job satisfaction of family business owners by conducting a large-scale study based on a statistically representative sample of European respondents.

Confidence intervals play a crucial role in economics and finance, providing a credible range of values for an unknown parameter along with a corresponding level of certainty. Their applications encompass economic forecasting, market research, financial forecasting, econometric analysis, policy analysis, financial reporting, investment decision-making, credit risk assessment and consumer confidence surveys. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) finds applications in economics and finance across various domains such as economic forecasting, financial modeling, market analysis and risk assessment. A high SNR indicates a robust and dependable signal, simplifying the process of making well-informed decisions. On the other hand, a low SNR indicates a weak signal that could be obscured by noise, so decision-making procedures need to take this into serious consideration. This research focuses on the development of confidence intervals for functions derived from the SNR and explores their application in the fields of economics and finance.

The construction of the confidence intervals involved the application of various methodologies. For the SNR, confidence intervals were formed using the generalized confidence interval (GCI), large sample and Bayesian approaches. The difference between SNRs was estimated through the GCI, large sample, method of variance estimates recovery (MOVER), parametric bootstrap and Bayesian approaches. Additionally, confidence intervals for the common SNR were constructed using the GCI, adjusted MOVER, computational and Bayesian approaches. The performance of these confidence intervals was assessed using coverage probability and average length, evaluated through Monte Carlo simulation.

The GCI approach demonstrated superior performance over other approaches in terms of both coverage probability and average length for the SNR and the difference between SNRs. Hence, employing the GCI approach is advised for constructing confidence intervals for these parameters. As for the common SNR, the Bayesian approach exhibited the shortest average length. Consequently, the Bayesian approach is recommended for constructing confidence intervals for the common SNR.

This research presents confidence intervals for functions of the SNR to assess SNR estimation in the fields of economics and finance.

With the increasing awareness of sustainability and its importance around the world, corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Africa also requires attention. Based on the stakeholder theory, this study aims to determine the relationship between CSR information received by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and CSR's diffusion and the mediating role of environmental awareness in Angola as a country representative of the African context.

The empirical study analyzes managers' perceptions of 131 SMEs in Angola. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is the method to assess the relationship between CSR information and its diffusion and the mediating role of environmental awareness SMEs in Angola.

The authors found strong evidence that CSR diffusion, and disclosure as one of CSR's related actions, heavily depends on the information received and managed by the firm. The authors also confirmed that environmental awareness puts pressure on SMEs to increase the SMEs' diffusion efforts.

The study points out the role of managers in promoting a responsible orientation of businesses in Angola for preserving the environment and improving the competitive success of SMEs.

The social, economic and legal contexts of Angola are vulnerable. The findings raise concerns about whether governments and regulatory efforts improve the development of the strategies toward social responsibility of African firms and whether these firms also increase the role of SMEs in producing positive outcomes through CSR.

The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the features of the strategic orientation of SMEs in Angola, necessary to enhance CSR and protect the environment. The conclusions highlight the potential role of managers in promoting a culture of ethics, social innovation and successful competition change in businesses.