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This paper aims to adopt a moderated mediation model to examine the mediation roles of employee engagement and hindrance time pressure; the moderation roles of personality in the relationship between strengths-based psychological climate and employee innovation performance.

Applying snowball sampling and a self-administered survey, the data were collected from employees and immediate supervisors working in Chinese small-medium-sized enterprises. The PROCESS macro for SPSS was applied to examine the moderated mediation model.

The results show that a strengths-based psychological climate significantly influences employee engagement and hindrance time pressure, which, in turn, affects employee innovation performance. Both extroversion and emotional stability moderate the relationship between strengths-based psychological climate, employee engagement and hindrance time pressure but also the indirect effect of strengths-based psychological climate on employee innovation performance through employee engagement and hindrance time pressure.

Drawing on job demands and resources models, this research focusses on maximizing employee strengths instead of weaknesses and includes both two intermediating mechanisms in-between strengths-based psychological climate and innovation performance. Personality variables are applied as moderators, as the study assumes the effectiveness of the strengths-based interventions may vary depends on individual differences.

This study proposes that a strengths-based psychological climate may shift focusses from employee weakness to strengths to maximise their talents. Also, personality variables are suggested to be considered in the related human resource practices (e.g. hiring and performance appraisal) to increase the fit between employees, their jobs and the organisations.

This study develops a moderated mediation model to investigate the possible mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions in relation to the impact of strengths-based psychological climate on employee innovation performance.

The purpose of this study was to examine how well a strength-based program grounded in positive psychology principles can advance the practical critical thinking skills of those pursuing the teacher training course.

This study used a single-group pre-test post-test design with 35 teacher-trainees from the Bachelor of Education course. The two-and-a-half-week strength-based program used the values in action survey to identify strengths. Pre- and post-test scores, measured with the Cornell Critical Thinking Test – Level Z, underwent Statistical Package for Social Sciences analysis including paired samples t-test for subcomponent and overall composite analysis.

Analysis of the pre- and post-test scores demonstrated a statistical significance in the critical thinking scores obtained by the teacher-trainees. Post-test scores were consistently significant. Out of the elements of critical thinking, induction, meaning, observation and credibility were more prominent. Deduction and assumption identification were also having a significant effect.

Most critical thinking programs focus on evaluating specific teaching methods for improving critical thinking skills. In education, positive psychology studies often center on students’ well-being, attention spans and academic success, aligning with wellness programs. Despite the importance of strengths in positive psychology, there is a lack of research on using a strength-based approach to boost critical thinking skills. This study aims to enhance teacher-trainees’ critical thinking by leveraging their individual strengths, moving away from traditional instructional strategies.

Domestic abuse (DA) is a major issue with serious psychological, social, societal and economic impacts. Consequently, there has been an increased focus by policymakers and multiple statutory and third-sector agencies on addressing harms associated with DA and fostering healthy intimate and domestic relationships. This paper details the development and implementation of a whole family approach to DA set within a community social services setting.

A detailed description of the development and implementation of a new whole family approach is provided. This includes a focus on the equilibrium programme, an accredited strengths-based, solution-focused group element that has been devised and established for those engaging in harmful behaviours.

The importance of governance, programme support and practitioner supervision are discussed along with the ways these are used by the service. The evaluation framework presented will enable the impact of the programme to be determined over the coming years.

There is clear need to address the significant problem of DA/intimate partner violence. This paper provides a model and accredited treatment approach to implementing a whole family approach to DA set within a community social services setting. This provides an opportunity for early intervention based on a strengths-based, solution focussed approach to addressing harmful behaviours and building skills and resilience.

This paper details a whole system approach to early intervention with families in which there is DA. Providing input via social care child and family support services prior to legal involvement provides an opportunity to avoid an escalation of harms. It also enables solutions to conflict to be found which take account of the relationship between parents and children.

While there is burgeoning service literature identifying consumer vulnerabilities and questioning the assumption that all consumers have the resources to co-create, limited research addresses solutions for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. Service systems can provide support for consumers but can also create inequities and experienced vulnerabilities. This paper aims to identify current and further research needed to explore this issue and addresses marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities.

This viewpoint discusses key issues relating to solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. A call for papers focused on solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities resulted in a large number of submissions. Nine papers are included in this special issue, and each one is discussed in this editorial according to five emergent themes.

Vulnerabilities can be temporary, or permanent, and anyone can suddenly experience vulnerabilities. Inequities and vulnerabilities can be due to individual characteristics, environmental forces, or due to the structure of the marketplace itself. Solutions include taking a strengths-based approach to addressing inequities and using a multiple-actor network to provide support.

The recommendations addressed in this paper enable more positive approaches to solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities.

Taking a solutions-focused lens to research relating to vulnerabilities will contribute toward addressing inequities within the marketplace.

Increasingly, service literature is identifying inequities; however, very limited research addresses solutions for solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. This paper suggests taking an approach focusing on strengths, rather than weaknesses, to determine strategies, and using the support of other actors (Transformative Service Mediators) where required.

This practitioner-focused article highlights a collaborative, school-wide project at a PDS that showcased elementary students’ strengths and talents. Based on the children’s book, The Smart Cookie (John, 2021), teachers and the university professor-in-residence developed professional learning communities, which inspired the creation of a space for all students to demonstrate ways in which they were “smart cookies” that aligned with our comprehensive mission of promoting inclusive practices.

Rooted in professional learning communities, teachers at our PDS spent the first half of the school year learning about chosen topics of social–emotional learning, stamina and neurodiversity. The Smart Cookie Project was created to demonstrate the connections between these topics. Students at the PDS were given the opportunity to create an original project that showcased their creativity, interests and talents. Projects were then displayed during a schoolwide showcase.

The impact of the project and the showcase demonstrated the importance of creating opportunities for both teacher and student innovation. The project brought the community together, allowed students to be viewed through strengths-based perspectives, helped teachers see how their own learning can positively impact their practice and emphasized the need for honoring student choice in the classroom.

The project discussed here can lend itself to fellow PDSs looking to adopt innovative instructional approaches, honor inclusive practices and situate students in places of strength.

This paper aims to highlight differences between business and non-business literature regarding base of the pyramid (BoP) and subsistence contexts and reveal discourse’s powerful role in influencing goals, solutions and outcomes.

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to review a convenience sample of business versus non-business literature on the BoP and subsistence contexts.

Discourse used in business literature on the BoP is oriented toward hegemonic Western capitalist approaches that result in the depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation and, therefore, cannot alleviate poverty.

There are two primary limitations: the study relied on a convenience sample that was not random and comparatively, the business BoP literature is not as mature as the non-business subsistence literature and, therefore, the BoP field of study is not yet fully developed.

Discourse has a powerful role in revealing assumptions and guiding actions. A change in BoP discourse toward a strength-based approach can serve as a model of sustainability and can help powerful entities enact structural and systemic change.

This paper reveals the role of discourse in business BoP literature and how it perpetuates and even exacerbates the problems they were designed to alleviate: depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation. The paper challenges researchers, economists and powerful guiding entities to reorient their discourse of the BoP to be more aligned with those of non-business researchers of subsistence markets.