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This paper aims to explore the potential agency of university-based social entrepreneurship ecosystems (U-BSEEs) from a political ecology perspective. It addresses how higher education institutions can leverage their embedded role within a community to foster social entrepreneurship, by leveraging adult learning theories of andragogy and heutagogy in (social) entrepreneurship education.

This empirical study interviewed ten senior-level academics in the USA, the UK, Ireland and Australia with practical experience in the (social) entrepreneurship and social innovation space. Qualitative methods of structured interviews, coding and analysis were used as an appropriate procedure to examine the political ecology of U-BSEEs and the interconnectedness of its actors.

Key findings included criticisms of higher educations’ role in society; financial resources and university impact on stakeholders; the potential of student-based initiatives and programs leveraging andragogy and ideally heutagogy adult learning theories; and changes universities could implement to become key actors of U-BSEEs. Student engagement and cross-disciplinary work is apparently the modus operandi to successful university based ecosystem development.

Research limitations included sample size and lack of junior and mid-level academic perspectives; surveys could be conducted in future research on the topic to generate quantitative data to strengthen findings. Implications of the research suggest that universities possess the necessary resources and personnel to serve as keystone actors of an ecosystem, but currently do not leverage the expertise available to them.

All respondents concurred that focusing on students as change agents, and building social entrepreneurship education programs could foster a trophic cascade of increased collaboration, economic growth, political capital and social good in the local and regional ecosystem.

This study is original in its attempt to build on the entrepreneurship ecosystem literature by considering the agency of U-BSEEs from a political ecology lens.

The purpose of this paper twofold: first, to review the current state of knowledge regarding local value chain (LVC) interventions in the context of international agricultural research and development; and, secondly, by synthesising the empirical findings from LVC projects, to provide guidance for future research and intervention design.

This paper utilises systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis guidelines to review and synthesise recent research papers and case studies dealing specifically with the development of LVCs, authored by professionals affiliated with development agencies and international research consortiums.

The paper identifies a novel two-phase characterisation of LVC interventions. Phase 1 identifies opportunities for interventions, which are characterised as typologies and presented upon a spectrum of value chain functionality from underdeveloped to mature. Phase 2 is the selection and implementation of strategies to achieve the identified opportunities from Phase 1, and the paper characterises these strategies per the domain of value chain functionality which they target.

The interaction between context, socio-economic constraints and intervention strategies is still a poorly understood feature of value chain interventions, and the paper posits that a greater understanding of these interactions is crucial to the success of value chain interventions.

The paper provides the first synthesis of LVC interventions, while outlining research priorities and knowledge gaps required to design interventions which are consummate to the context and functionality of a prioritised chain.

There is growing awareness internationally of the need to reduce intake of added sugars. The purpose of this study was to examine consumer sugar knowledge and food label use.

This cross-sectional online survey included 229 adult participants (85% female and 15% male). Participants completed measures of demographics, sugar knowledge, interest in food and nutrition, food choice motivations and beliefs and food label use. The sample of convenience showed that participants were from Australasia (n = 90), the USA (n = 90) and other Western (Europe and Canada, n = 49) countries.

Overall, participant sugar knowledge predicted nutrition label use over and above individual demographic and psychological characteristics (interest in food and nutrition, health beliefs and food choice motivations) (p < 0.001). Country comparisons revealed that those in Australasia reported lower sugar knowledge compared to the USA (p =< 0.001) and other Western countries (p = 0.028).

Overall, participant sugar knowledge predicted nutrition label use over and above individual demographic and psychological characteristics (interest in food and nutrition, health beliefs and food choice motivations) (p < 001). Country comparisons revealed that those in Australasia reported lower sugar knowledge compared to the USA (p =< 0.001) and other Western countries (p = 0.028).

This study explored sugar knowledge as a unique predictor of food label use, taking into account individual characteristics in demographics, food choice motivations and health beliefs.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between food consumption classified by the degree of processing and cardiometabolic risk factors in a population at risk of cardiovascular disease.

A cross-sectional study conducted with 325 adults and elderlies who present a cardiovascular risk factor. The food consumption was evaluated by a 24 h dietary recall, and it was classified according to the NOVA classification.

Individuals who presented a higher consumption of processed and ultra-processed food had a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity, waist/hip ratio (PR = 1.005; p-value = 0.049), waist circumference (PR = 1.003; p-value = 0.02) and high total cholesterol (PR = 1.008; p-value = 0.047), while ultra-processed had a higher prevalence of excess weight (PR = 1.004; p-value = 0.04), and abdominal obesity, waist/hip ratio (PR = 1.005; p-value = 0.04), waist circumference (PR = 1.004; p-value = 0.004) and waist/height ratio (PR = 1.003; p-value = 0.03).

An association was found between the degree of food processing and cardiometabolic risk factors, even in a population that already has a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, reinforcing the importance of personalized nutrition orientation that considers the profile of the target population as well as types of meals.

Food processing in itself can influence cardiometabolic risk and, as far as is known, no study has evaluated food processing in individuals who already have some type of cardiovascular risk. Also, consumption was assessed by the degree of processing between meals.

In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.

This teaching case covers aspects of leadership development, strategy, change management, organisational behaviour, and people management. The case explores the following themes:

• Workplace transformation and culture: the challenges and opportunities of remote/hybrid work in large government enterprises and maintaining the culture when moving remote

• Leadership and change: the different perspectives that a leader can take into consideration when leading the business during turbulent and uncertain times and managing the change process in large organisations

• Strategic decision-making: the application of analytical skills by senior management when making strategic decisions in a business

Workplace transformation and culture: the challenges and opportunities of remote/hybrid work in large government enterprises and maintaining the culture when moving remote

Leadership and change: the different perspectives that a leader can take into consideration when leading the business during turbulent and uncertain times and managing the change process in large organisations

Strategic decision-making: the application of analytical skills by senior management when making strategic decisions in a business

The primary audience for this teaching case is management education programmes including: Master of Business Administration (MBA), Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip), specialist Masters in Management, and certain Executive Education programmes.

This case deals with a public-sector entity that collects taxation revenue for the South African government. In 2020, the operations of this public entity are severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The mandatory shift of the workforce from in-office to a remote work-from-home set-up, results in the entity switching to a hybrid work model in order to achieve its goals as an essential service. Protagonist Dr Zanele Twazi, executive head of the public entity's research department, is tasked by the commissioner to conduct a review on the hybrid work model. As the commissioner is also in the process of reviving the organisational culture to regain public trust following multiple corruption scandals, the pandemic adds to this pressure. Dr Twazi must share employee feedback on the remote work option. Meanwhile, the leadership team has to decide if the work model will serve this public entity in achieving its strategy, and from an organisational culture viewpoint, if it is the best fit for the future.

The key learnings from this case include the following:

• Organisational work model: A suitable work model is dependent on the organisational mandate as well as its culture.

• Culture and organisational goals: An organisational work model additionally impacts the future sustainability of the organisation and its ability to achieve its short- and long-term goals.

• Change management framework: For teams to effectively adapt to a hybrid work model, managers have to be empowered to lead and be able to facilitate the change.

Organisational work model: A suitable work model is dependent on the organisational mandate as well as its culture.

Culture and organisational goals: An organisational work model additionally impacts the future sustainability of the organisation and its ability to achieve its short- and long-term goals.

Change management framework: For teams to effectively adapt to a hybrid work model, managers have to be empowered to lead and be able to facilitate the change.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a microeconomic-based approach to support fund-allocation decisions for a large number of assets. Under the prevailing financial constraints and rapid deterioration of facilities, arriving at optimum fund allocation for capital renewal projects has become very challenging. Due to the complexity of modeling multi-year life cycle cost analysis, existing fund-allocation methods have serious drawbacks when handling a large portfolio of assets, and their results are difficult to justify.

This paper adopts well-established theories from microeconomics and proposes a new microeconomic-based decision support framework that has two novel components: a heuristic procedure to optimize and justify fund-allocation decisions by balancing the funding among the different asset categories; and a visual what-if analysis approach inspired by the economic indifference maps.

Applying the proposed framework on a real case study of 800 building components proved that optimum decisions can be achieved through an equilibrium state at which fair and equitable allocations are made such that the utility per dollar is balanced for all asset categories. The visual what-if analysis approach presented a powerful graphical tool to visualize decisions, along with their costs and benefits, and facilitate sensitivity analysis under changes in budget levels.

This paper, using the proposed microeconomic framework, sheds a new light on how fund-allocation optimization problems can be simplified, from an economic perspective, to arrive at accurate and justifiable decisions for a large portfolio of facilities.