Search results

21 – 30 of over 75000
Book part
Publication date: 20 May 2011

Harry F. Dahms

Despite profound differences, both the German Historical School and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School have in common a theoretical and cultural heritage in Central…

Abstract

Despite profound differences, both the German Historical School and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School have in common a theoretical and cultural heritage in Central European traditions of social thought and philosophy. Although both schools often are perceived as quintessentially German traditions of economic and social research, their methodological presuppositions and critical intent diverge strongly. Since the objective of the Frankfurt School was to carry the theoretical critique initiated by Marx into the twentieth century, and since its members did so on a highly abstract level of theoretical criticism, the suggestion may be surprising that in terms of their respective research agendas, there was a common denominator between the German Historical School and the Frankfurt School critical theory. To be sure, as will become apparent, the common ground was rather tenuous and indirect. We must ask, then: in what respects did their theoretical and analytical foundations and orientations overlap? How did the German Historical School, as a nineteenth-century tradition of economic thinking, influence the development of the Frankfurt School?

Details

The Vitality Of Critical Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-798-8

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2014

Travis Gliedt and Paul Parker

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a second round of intensive green community entrepreneurship, a form of social entrepreneurship, by a set of environmental service…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a second round of intensive green community entrepreneurship, a form of social entrepreneurship, by a set of environmental service organizations (ESOs) facing the loss of their largest revenue source (the ecoENERGY program), to see if it differed from responses to a similar funding cut five years earlier. In particular, the study compared green community entrepreneurship rates and types to those of the previous program (EnerGuide for Houses) cancellation and examined the perceived importance of various factors, including a social entrepreneurship training program offered by the national association.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were held with executive directors who had led their organization through both periods of financial crisis. Information was collected on changes in revenue, staffing, residential energy evaluations conducted, service creation, and the perceived importance of organizational factors. The adaptation strategy undertaken by each ESO was classified as resilience, transition, or transformation focussed.

Findings

First, green community entrepreneurship is accelerated when needs are heightened, such as when ESOs face funding cuts. Second, only some of the new services or activities launched were financially successful and remained viable over a five-year period. Third, green community entrepreneurship is an important initiative for ESOs to implement their adaptation strategy (resilient, transition, or transformation strategy). Fourth, a higher perceived difficulty of adaptation to funding cuts is associated with the launch of more new services by the ESO.

Originality/value

The original contributions of the paper include the verification of repeated increases to the rate of entrepreneurship undertaken in response to sudden funding cuts, as compared to the rate of entrepreneurship during a stable funding period. This accelerated creation of new services can be directed to achieve various adaptation strategies from creating new services in the established area of energy expertise, to initiatives in new areas of sustainability services, such as water, food, or finance. The importance of collective innovation is highlighted with the use of both local and national networks.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 41 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 12 no. 4/5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2018

Martine Vézina, Majdi Ben Selma and Marie Claire Malo

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the organising of social innovation in a large market-based social enterprises from the perspective of dynamic capabilities and social

1949

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the organising of social innovation in a large market-based social enterprises from the perspective of dynamic capabilities and social transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analyses the process by which Desjardins Group launched the Desjardins Environment Fund as the first investment fund in North America to integrate environmental screening. It uses longitudinal single case analysis and a theoretical framework based on Teece’s three dynamic capabilities.

Findings

Results show that dynamic capabilities can be conceived as stages in the process of social innovation. Sensing refers to the capability to identify a societal demand for social transformation. Seizing capability is about shaping societal demand into a commercial offer. Reconfiguring concerns organisational innovation to integrate actual and new knowledge through innovative routines. Microprocesses of both path dependency and path building are in action at each of the three stages.

Practical implications

This paper shows that managing dynamic capabilities is central to social innovation in the context of a large social business and provides genuine managerial input via an analysis of the microprocesses at work in the social innovation process.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the operationalization of Teece’s dynamic capabilities model. In mobilising a framework in the field of management of innovation, it contributes to the understanding of the process of social innovation and develops the organisational mechanism for multiscalarity of social innovation as a condition for social transformation.

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2023

John W. Moravec and María Cristina Martínez-Bravo

The purpose of this study is to identify global trends in disruptive technological change and map the social and policy implications, particularly as they relate to the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify global trends in disruptive technological change and map the social and policy implications, particularly as they relate to the educational ecosystem and main stakeholders across all levels of education.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a two-stage meta-analysis of 1,155 scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. The investigation involves a systematized literature review for data identification and collation adhering to defined selection criteria, and a network analysis to scrutinize data, consolidate information and unveil correlations and patterns from the literature review to produce a set of recommendations.

Findings

The study unveiled educational trends related to disruptive technologies and delineated four principal clusters representing how these technologies are transforming the education ecosystem. Additionally, a series of transversal aspects that reveal a societal vulnerability toward future prospects in the realms of ethics, sustainability, resilience, security, and policy were identified.

Practical implications

The findings spotlight an enlarging chasm between industry (and society at large) and conventional education, where many transformations triggered by disruptive technologies remain absent from teaching and learning systems. The study further offers recommendations and envisions potential scenarios, urging stakeholders to respond based on their positions concerning disruptive technologies.

Originality/value

Expanding from the meta-analysis of pertinent literature, this paper offers four collections of curated resources, four mini case studies and four scenarios for policymakers and local communities to consider, enabling them to plot courses for their optimal futures.

Details

On the Horizon: The International Journal of Learning Futures, vol. 31 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 March 2022

Fiona Harris

This paper aims to explore ways through which social marketing could help to revolutionise marketing education and argues that this change is needed now. The world is confronting…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore ways through which social marketing could help to revolutionise marketing education and argues that this change is needed now. The world is confronting a variety of serious challenges, including a global pandemic, an urgent climate emergency and overdue social transformations. Social marketing, with its far-sightedness, holistic systems thinking and genuine concern for the well-being of society and the environment, is ideally positioned to step forward to help accelerate the transformation of marketing education for the next generation of marketers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual and is informed by the literature on social marketing over its 50 years history, supplemented by the wider marketing literature. A SWOT analysis is used to analyse the proposed transformation of marketing education.

Findings

Six strengths are proposed by which social marketing can help to revolutionise marketing education, identified under the acronym COHERE: collaboration with a diversity of disciplines and stakeholders; openness to sharing knowledge, experience and detailed case studies; a holistic approach with a longer time horizon; engaging authentically with the social good; research that breaks new ground in theory and practice; and ethics embedded at its core.

Practical implications

The opportunities to help revolutionise marketing education offered through these strengths are explored, the weaknesses and threats acknowledged and the implications for marketing and social marketing analysed.

Originality/value

This paper proposes how (through the six identified strengths) and when (now) social marketing can help revolutionise marketing education, by adopting a dual lens of social and commercial marketing.

Details

Journal of Social Marketing, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6763

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2022

Saeed Badghish, Imran Ali, Murad Ali, Muhammad Zafar Yaqub and Amandeep Dhir

The current research proposes a model that integrates certain psychological and demographic factors in developing and strengthening young Saudi women's perceptions of…

Abstract

Purpose

The current research proposes a model that integrates certain psychological and demographic factors in developing and strengthening young Saudi women's perceptions of entrepreneurial resourcefulness, which eventually may lead to the development and enhancement of their entrepreneurial intentions. The study also examines the ways in which changing socio-cultural norms and values may augment investments and/or efforts to enhance cognitive enablers, including entrepreneurial resourcefulness, and thereby build and strengthen entrepreneurial intentions among female entrepreneurs (i.e. human capital) in a transitioning society. Saudi Arabia is a relevant research context because the Saudi government has invested enormous resources to develop the country's human capital, particularly Saudi government intends to enhance Saudi women's participation in entrepreneurial spheres to be enhanced significantly. Saudi Arabia is undergoing a radical socio-cultural transition, and the kingdom seeks to capitalise on this ongoing transformation to further encourage women to tap into their under-utilised potential. This study seeks to corroborate such moderation effects.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilise the intellectual capital (IC) framework and theory of planned behaviour (TBP) to propose the conceptual model in this study. Using a sample of 628 young female respondents – potential entrepreneurs studying at various universities in Saudi Arabia, the authors test the hypothesised associations through partial least squares (PLS)-based path modelling.

Findings

The authors found a significant positive impact of psychological factors, such as perceived behavioural control, attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, on the development and enhancement of perceived entrepreneurial resourcefulness. In addition, demographic factors, including family income, family background, family business experience and entrepreneurship education, play a significant positive role in enhancing individuals' entrepreneurial resourcefulness perceptions. The authors further found that enhanced perceptions of perceived entrepreneurial resourcefulness develop and enhance entrepreneurial intentions among female entrepreneurs. However, the transformation in social and cultural norms significantly moderates this cause and effect relationship.

Originality/value

This study is among the first of its kind to investigate the moderating effects of social and cultural transformation on efforts and/or investments to enhance intellectual capital (more specifically, human capital) and thereby promote entrepreneurship. The study is also valuable for its focus on a unique context, i.e. female entrepreneurship in the Middle East and, more specifically, Saudi Arabia. The study offers useful insights and implications both for theory and practice, particularly for policymakers seeking to augment their intellectual capital formation efforts through an effective orchestration of socio-cultural transformation, which seeks to empower female entrepreneurs to succeed in the face of significant socio-cultural impediments.

Book part
Publication date: 8 December 2021

Alexander M. Stoner

This chapter explores the domestication of Marx's critique of political economy within Marxist-oriented environmental sociology, and treadmill of production (ToP) theory, in…

Abstract

This chapter explores the domestication of Marx's critique of political economy within Marxist-oriented environmental sociology, and treadmill of production (ToP) theory, in particular. The aim is to explicate the theoretical resources for a rigorous critique of capital-induced planetary degradation. Shortcomings of ToP theory pertaining to the conceptualization of capital and value are identified. The reasons for these shortcomings, including how they might be addressed, are elaborated by reconsidering key aspects of Marx's critical theory of modern capitalist society. The chapter contributes to current discussions in both critical theory and environmental sociology by demonstrating the continued relevance of Marx's critical theory for understanding the political-economic, social, and ideational dimensions of planetary degradation. In contrast to ToP theory, which critically examines the production of wealth by counterposing finitude and limits against the expansionary tendencies of economic growth, the critical theory approach advanced in this chapter conceptualizes the acceleration of environmental degradation following World War II in terms of a ToP of value, whereby the necessity of the value form is continuously established in the present. The chapter discusses how Marxian critical theory facilitates a critical examination of the widespread growth of environmentalism as concomitant with the spread of neoliberal capitalism.

Book part
Publication date: 9 June 2022

L.G.D.S. Yapa, Anisah Lee Abdullah, Ruslan Rainis and G.P.T.S. Hemakumara

An understanding of the social entrepreneurial behavior of key stakeholders in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) is of vital importance to the socioeconomic growth of a…

Abstract

An understanding of the social entrepreneurial behavior of key stakeholders in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) is of vital importance to the socioeconomic growth of a country. The term social entrepreneurship or social enterprise is relatively new to Sri Lanka just as it is with many other developing countries. Social entrepreneurs are those who solve social and environmental problems that hinder social inclusion, economic integration, and sustainable development. Though many entrepreneurs are operating across the different agricultural sectors for many years, the exact nature of social entrepreneurial behavior among them is still unknown. As an agricultural economy-based country, PIM policy encompassing many strategies has been implemented in Sri Lanka to eradicate poverty and hunger in society. Therefore, this chapter aims to focus on the socioentrepreneurship of five key stakeholders in PIM and to provide empirical evidence of their activities in the area of the Bata-atha branch canal in the Walawe irrigation scheme, Sri Lanka, where PIM has been implemented. This chapter finds that the establishment of the Bata-atha farm by the Ministry of Agricultural Development and the irrigation management of Bata-atha tail-end branch canal under the organizational efforts of the Agunukolapelessa block office of Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka presents a good example of an innovative and supportive farm management system that contributes to significant improvements in the socioeconomic situation of the vulnerable farming community. Moreover, this chapter shows that the collective action of active farmer organizations and successful sole proprietors in the area constitute social entrepreneurial behavior that contributes to the social transformation. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications this has for the irrigated agricultural sector and the need for further research to identify the potential for continued development by fostering the practices of socioentrepreneurship in the country.

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2016

Bethuel Sibongiseni Ngcamu

– The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided by a structured survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the university leaders. The questionnaires generated the reliability coefficient α of 0.947, indicating a high degree of acceptance and consistency of the results.

Findings

The study findings reveal the highest percentage of 70 per cent regarding the belief that transformation refers to restructuring the institution more than commonly anticipated variables such as race (56 per cent) and redressing the past injustices (59 per cent).

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of the study was the scarcity of published material on the sub-dimensions of the study of transformation (transformation as referring to attracting qualified employees). Another limitation which was observed included the paucity of data regarding discipline and knowledge of transformation variables.

Practical implications

This study suggests transformation in higher education institutions is defined through internal (operational and core) and external factors with a direct influence.

Originality/value

This paper could potentially enrich the meaning of transformation, derived from the context and experience of South Africa.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 36 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 75000