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The authors contribute to practice-driven institutionalism by examining how the introduction of new field-level evaluation practices may facilitate encroachment of highly institutionalized organizational fields by new institutional logics. The authors conducted an inductive study of a trial of social impact bonds in the field of social integration services in Finland. Our analysis elaborates how new field-level evaluation practices created an experimental space that induced organizational practice experimentation, reconfigured relationships among field members, and lowered the barriers to entry for new organizations. The authors theorize how evaluation practices may create experimental spaces by suspending the carriers of established logics and legitimizing institutional innovations. The authors further elaborate how such spaces can bring about a parallel “shadow field” by inducing bottom-up experimentation aligned with a new institutional logic.

Workers live two overlapping lives, at work and outside work. The spillover of favourable workplace experiences into non-work domains of life means that the workplace can be a means by which organisational members who experience network poverty arising from adverse social factors can overcome social exclusion. Social acceptance and interaction data from 105 adults with mild to moderate learning disabilities working in eight social enterprises in the UK and Ireland is examined to establish the link between organisation culture and workplace social integration. In this study organisation cultures in which user/worker-involvement in management and control decision-making is emphasised seem to engender a positive influence on the social interaction experiences of members with learning disabilities in work and non-work domains of life, having regard to difference in demographic factors, employment characteristics, country of residence, and level of disability. The study accentuates the importance of workplace democracy in enhancing the quality of life of working adults with learning disabilities, who might otherwise be disenfranchised in numerous areas of life.

Retention is one of the key performance indicators in university quality assurance processes. The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes leading to low retention rates for first-year undergraduate computing students in a UK higher education institution (HEI).

The study applies Tinto’s student integration theory, and connects it with the behavioural patterns of students. Data were collected from 901 students using Pascarella and Terenzini’s questionnaire (integration scales). This data were combined with student enrolment information and analysed using the structural equation modelling technique.

The study results indicate that Tinto’s student integration theory is useful in analysing student retention, but this accounts for only a modest amount of variance in retention. Nevertheless, important relationships amongst student’s initial and later academic goals and commitments have been identified through this new approach to analysing retention. The largest direct effect on retention was accounted for by initial goals and institutional commitments, followed by later goals and institutional commitments. In addition, the results show that academic and social integration constructs can have an influence on the student retention processes. When all, or some, of these relationships are operating towards students’ benefits, appropriate services or programmes, such as student support systems, can have their maximum benefits.

The authors mapped behavioural-related retention factors using a learning community lens. The study explored students’ social and learning experiences within the context of a UK HEI by employing Tinto’s model. This is the first time the model has been tested in this context.

This study aims to investigate the psychological mediating mechanisms through which omnichannel integration affects customer word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors in omnichannel retailing.

Guided by prior omnichannel retailing studies, the authors identify taxonomy of customer WOM behaviors with three archetypes, namely, face-to-face WOM, online store WOM, and social media WOM. Then, the authors draw on social exchange theory (SET) to explain how omnichannel integration influences customer WOM behaviors through the mediating roles of perceived personal preference fit and perceived social relatedness. The authors empirically tested the model using structural equation modeling and multiple mediation analysis with a field survey of 335 omnichannel customers.

Perceived personal preference fit positively influences face-to-face WOM and social media WOM, whereas perceived social relatedness is positively associated with face-to-face WOM, online store WOM, and social media WOM. Furthermore, transactional integration and relational integration positively affect perceived personal preference fit, whereas relational integration has a positive effect on perceived social relatedness. Finally, perceived personal preference fit mediates the effects of transactional integration and relational integration on face-to-face WOM and social media WOM. Perceived social relatedness mediates the effects of relational integration on face-to-face WOM, online store WOM, and social media WOM.

The authors' study advances the omnichannel retailing literature by proposing a taxonomy of customer WOM behaviors in omnichannel retailing and identifying the mediating mechanisms through which omnichannel integration influences customer WOM behaviors.

The social integration of students within a campus community is vital in enhancing their college experiences. Researchers have sought to determine how best to promote successful social integration for university students. Traditionally, on-campus orientations and residence hall activities have been used to foster student social integration. However, Facebook and other social networking sites (SNSs) can be used for social integration among students in ways that were never before possible. It is important that student-affairs professionals explore the supportive roles for this that SNSs like Facebook might play, since successful student adjustment within a campus is positively correlated with student retention rates.

College students are already using Facebook to bolster their social networks within the university, but it is worth considering the advantages and disadvantages of promoting the use of SNSs for social integration. Facebook is favored because it offers low levels of self-disclosure in social interactions, it increases the social capital of the university, and it offers students with a unique means of acquiring academic support from both their professors and their peers. Unfortunately, extensive Facebook use can also create a social skills deficit in students, lead students to experience information overload, and cause them to shirk their academic responsibilities.

Facebook is neither a panacea for student engagement nor a signal of the end of meaningful interpersonal connections on campus. Student-affairs professionals should become aware of the ways that students engage with SNSs to leverage opportunities for furthering student integration while remaining aware of the limitations for community building that SNSs present.

This chapter offers a conceptual and theoretic introduction to a contemporary view of the post-merger integration (PMI) challenge: it places the organizational-members’ internal social network at the focal point. An original viewpoint is presented in this chapter – the thinking is novel to integration literature and thought, and to social networks – that advances both research and practice of PMI. Since the network-view may be a new topic to many PMI researchers, the central discussion is preceded by a brief introduction to the concepts and techniques of social network analysis. The author offers that the organizational members’ pre-existing social network can become disrupted by integration processes, which creates pressures on the individuals’ previously stable social network. The individual members will therefore strive for a re-stabilization of their localized social network towards a specific pattern that is somewhat unique to each individual. During this social realignment there is an opportunity for integration managers to embrace this “social reconciliation.” By recognizing the individuals’ imminent stabilization point of this natural process, integration managers can proactively guide the social network toward an optimal, or productive, resting space that provides organizational benefit. This chapter puts forward the particulars of this phenomenon and offers exploratory suggestions for how a practitioner might influence the re-establishment of the organizational social network in a manner consistent with individuals’ preferences and simultaneously beneficial to the organization overall. Recommendations for follow-up research are provided.

EU social policy is perhaps the most controversial aspect of European integration yet, despite all the political clashes on the matter, concepts like “social Europe” or “social dimension” remain ill‐defined and imprecise terms. Intends to outline and clarify in detail the debate about whether or not the European Union should have competence with regard to labour market affairs. A key message is that social policy has been controversial because it has become embroiled in the debate about the future political direction of the EU. In particular, three contrasting political models –symbiotic integration, integrative federalism and neo‐liberalism – have been put forward as organizing principles for the EU and each has a coherent view of what form social policy should take at the European level. It is the clash between these three models that has caused EU social policy to be so contestable and intractable.

The purpose of this paper is to look at perspectives of new minority entrepreneurs towards entrepreneurship, either as a facilitator or as a barrier to the integration of minorities. The research objective is to explore the role of hospitality and tourism entrepreneurship in the integration process of new minorities. It is attempted to explore the perspectives of new minority entrepreneurs about the concept of integration, the possibility of integration through self‐employment in hospitality and the relationship between entrepreneurship and integration.

This research adopts a subjective perspective and a social constructionist approach to understand what the new minorities perceive as their reality. An in‐depth qualitative methodology is adopted for this research as it tries to understand inductively the phenomenon of hospitality entrepreneurship and ethnic minority integration.

The findings suggest hospitality entrepreneurship can act both as a facilitator and as a barrier to integration of the new minorities. Although it facilitates economic integration of the new minorities into the host society by providing wealth for them, at the same time it acts as a barrier to their social and cultural integration. It was revealed that ultimate integration is not possible because of high cultural differences between the host and their original cultures.

The paper proposes that integration is a continuum rather than a predefined point to achieve. Integration happens between two extreme points of complete isolation of migrants to their complete assimilation. The respondents of this research did not locate themselves in either ends of this continuum.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of the first stage of a project seeking to evaluate and overcome inter-professional barriers between health and social care staff within a single, co-located, integrated community team. The project seeks to answer the following questions: first, Do inter-professional barriers to integrated working exist between health and social care staff at the interface of care delivery? Second, If inter-professional barriers exist, can joint health and social care assessments help to overcome them? The paper develops the current evidence base through findings from a staff questionnaire and the initial findings of a pilot study of joint health and social care assessments aimed at overcoming inter-professional barriers to integration.

The first stage of the project involved running an anonymous, online questionnaire with health and social care staff within a single, co-located community adult health and social care team. The questionnaire aimed to explore staffs’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration when assessing the health and care needs of service users with a high degree of complexity of need. The second element of the study presents the initial findings of a small pilot of joint health and social care assessments. A second staff survey was used in order to provide a “before and after” comparative analysis and to demonstrate the effect of joint assessments on staffs’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration at the interface of care delivery.

Health and social care staff value joint working as a means of improving quality of care. However, they also felt that inter-professional collaboration did not occur routinely due to organisational limitations. Staff members who participated in the pilot of joint assessments believed that this collaborative approach improved their understanding of other professional roles, was an effective means of enabling others to understand their own roles and helped to better identify the health and care needs of the most complex service users on their caseloads. Initial findings suggest that joint assessments may be a practical means of overcoming inter-professional barriers related to a lack of communication and lack of understanding of job roles.

The questionnaires highlighted the need for integration strategies that are aimed at facilitating collaborative working between staff of different professions, in order to achieve the aims of integration, such as a reduction in duplication of work and hand-offs between services.

To date, few studies have explored either staff perceptions of collaborative working or the effectiveness of joint assessments as a means of overcoming inter-professional barriers. This paper adds new data to an important area of integration that legislators and researchers increasingly agree requires more focus. Although the findings are limited due to the small scale of the initial pilot, they provide interesting and original data that will provide insight into future workforce integration strategies.

Twelve years ago, the concept of social enterprise was rarely discussed in Europe, however it is now making significant breakthroughs in European Union (EU) countries. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize major evolutions experienced by social enterprises across Europe and the key challenges they are facing; and specific members of the EMES European Research Network provide a more in‐depth update as to current trends and debates in their respective countries

This paper is based on a comparative analysis of the different institutions (legal frameworks, public policies, supporting structures, public procurement policies …) which support the development of social enterprises in the different EU countries. To delimit the field, the paper relies on the “ideal‐type” social enterprise as defined by the EMES network: “Social enterprises are not‐for‐profit private organizations providing goods or services directly related to their explicit aim to benefit the community. They rely on a collective dynamics involving various types of stakeholders in their governing bodies, they place a high value on their autonomy and they bear economic risks linked to their activity”.

It was found that although the concept of social enterprise itself has not gained the same recognition in all EU countries (and is even still poorly understood in several of them), the reality is that growth and social enterprise are being experienced in most EU countries.

If the concept of social enterprise is on the public agenda of several EU countries, the understanding as well as the institutions to support their development vary from one country to the other. This paper provides a comparative analysis of this heterogeneous but rich landscape.