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This research explores the drivers that determine the ability of spontaneous volunteer groups (SVGs) to sustain their operations. That sustainability aims to support those affected in the community beyond the response phases of a disaster and into the recovery and mitigation phases to build resilience to the next disaster.

To investigate the sustainability of spontaneous volunteering that takes place in the aftermath of a disaster, we conducted qualitative interviews in three English locations where groups of spontaneous volunteers emerged following major floods. We analysed our qualitative data using thematic analysis.

Our findings theorise the drivers of SVG sustainability and present these in four themes: (1) assessment of ongoing needs; (2) organisation of resources to address that need; (3) leadership and followership creating a weight of operational capability and (4) influence of political will. Through exploring these drivers, we uncover key factors to developing a sustainable SVG system including trusted leadership and social capital.

We show how the four drivers interact to support the continuity of SVGs and sustain their operations. This has implications for how leaders of SVGs create a volunteering environment that encourages ongoing involvement and has implications for officials to view SVGs as a support rather than a risk.

The novelty of our paper is in rejecting the argument of the temporal limit of SVGs to the response phase by theorising the drivers that make their operations sustainable for recovery and resilience building to mitigate the next disaster. This includes our examination of the interplay between those drivers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine patient engagement in remote consultation services, an increasingly important issue facing Healthcare Operations Management (HOM) given the significant expansion in this and other forms of telehealth worldwide over the last decade. We use our analysis of the literature to develop a comprehensive framework that incorporates the patient journey, multidimensionality, antecedents and consequences, interventions and improvement options, as well as the cyclic nature of patient engagement. We also propose measures suitable for empirical assessment of different aspects of our framework.

We undertook a comprehensive review of the extant literature using a systematic review approach. We identified and analysed 63 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 2003 and 2022.

We conceptualise patient engagement with remote consultation across three key aspects: dimensions, process, and the antecedents and consequences of engagement. We identify nine contextual categories that influence such engagement. We propose several possible metrics for measuring patient engagement during three stages (before service, at/during service and after service) of remote consultation, as well as interventions and possible options for improving patient engagement therein.

The primary contribution of our research is the development of a comprehensive framework for patient engagement in remote consultation that draws on insights from literature in several disciplines. In addition, we have linked the three dimensions of engagement with the clinical process to create a structure for future engagement assessment. Furthermore, we have identified impact factors and outcomes of engagement in remote consultation by understanding which can help to improve levels of adoption, application and satisfaction, and reduce healthcare inequality. Finally, we have adopted a “cyclic” perspective and identified potential interventions that can be combined to further improve patient engagement in remote consultation.

This paper aims to document a novel course titled Harm Reduction Design Studio. The course introduced the harm reduction problem space to design students for designing objects, social worlds, infrastructures and ecologies that shape human and nonhuman social interactions within them.

Extending tenets drawn from social movements for harm reduction from the focus on drugs and habits begins the reparative work of undoing past harms, living well in the present and reducing future harms. This course introduces history, theory and practice of harm reduction in relation to health, well-being, social connection and safety.

The course was piloted from August to December 2024 in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, USA.

Society-wide implications for mainstreaming harm reduction are far-reaching. For instance, the U.S. National Science Foundation has recently called for ways to “incorporate ethical, social, safety, and security considerations” into research design to mitigate potential harms of scientific research and amplify societal benefits. This course prepares students to think upfront about incorporating harm reduction into the design of technological artifacts.

This course presents a replicable model for bringing harm reduction and design pedagogy together in the shared spirit of encouraging the readership of Drugs, Habits and Social Policy to widen participation in design practice.

The link between entrepreneurial intention and positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship for established and nascent entrepreneurs has been well documented in the extant literature, with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) viewing entrepreneurial intention as a pre-requisite for entrepreneurial pursuit. Whilst scholars generally agree on these insights, little empirical evidence exists on how marginalised social groups can convert their intentions into action. This study aims to understand to what extent the elements of TPB, the attitudes towards entrepreneurship, self-efficacy and subjective norms, help explain the emergence of entrepreneurial activity amongst marginalised demographic groups.

This research focuses on unemployed women residing in social housing located in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom to empirically examine how multiple layers of disadvantage faced by this group shape their motivations and intentions for entrepreneurial pursuit. A multi-source qualitative methodology was adopted, drawing upon inductive storytelling narratives and extensive fieldwork on a sample of unemployed ethnic minority women residing in social housing in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom. Community organisation representatives and housing association employees within the social housing system were included to assess the interpretive capacity of TPB.

The findings display that TPB illuminates why and how marginalised groups engage in entrepreneurship. Critically, women’s entrepreneurial intentions emerge as a result of their experiences of multiple layers of disadvantage, their positionality and the specificity of few resources they can activate from their disadvantageous position for entrepreneurial activity.

By illuminating the linkages between marginalised women’s positionality and their associated access to the limited pool of resources using the TPB lens, this study contributes to emerging works on disadvantaged populations and entrepreneurial intention-action debate. This work posits that despite facing significant additional challenges through their positionality and reduced ability to mobilise resources, women in social housing can defy the odds and develop ways to overcome limited capacity and structural disadvantage.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of “Connect the circle” systems thinking tools for improving contextualised systems thinking from sustainability perspectives. The guiding question is could “Connect the circle” improve sustainability education?

The effect of the “Connect the circle” tool on the development of learning dimensions, especially improved problem understanding, shared vision and quality of communication in STEM modules, was analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods.

Authors find that “Connect the circle” is an effective tool for thinking skills development. However, scaffolding in education is required to achieve higher-order thinking skills by empowering students to become active agents of change, capable of envisioning and implementing sustainable solutions at multiple levels.

Educators must bridge gaps between systems theory and understanding how systems thinking skills should be developed in sustainability contexts. Insights from this research will support the development of knowledge and skills required for higher education institutions graduates to address complex sustainability issues.

Applying this tool to STEM curricula represents an original way to explain student holistic vision to connect systems theory to the application of systems thinking skills for sustainability change.

Ambient-assisted living (AAL) is one solution to the challenges of healthcare systems in an aging population. Using the “ecosystem adoption of practices over time” (EAPT) as a theoretical lens, this study explores and describes three elements of AAL adoption: (1) the AAL practices in which the technology is embedded (i.e. object of adoption), (2) the older adult's adoption ecosystem (i.e. subject of adoption) and (3) the change of adoption practices over time (i.e. temporality of adoption).

Qualitative interviews with three actor groups in the ecosystem: clients, relatives and home nurses.

The study identifies six categories of AAL practices. Clients, relatives and nurses interact and integrate their resources in carrying out these practices. Some of the practices have developed, or are expected to develop, over time.

The study applies a novel theoretical perspective on how AAL technology is embedded in practices performed by different actors in the adoption ecosystem. This broadens the conceptualization of what is being adopted compared to traditional adoption research.

The purpose of this research is to develop theory, thereby attending to the existing knowledge gap regarding the impact of family firms on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). Reducing such a gap is both timely and relevant given the ubiquity of family firms across the globe and the lack of theoretical development at the intersection of EE and family firm literatures. By employing social capital theory in a propositional theorizing approach, this article presents unique propositions that enrich current understanding of the EE phenomenon.

Our method adopts a three-step propositional theorizing approach. The first step outlines our conceptualization, drawing on social capital theory and identifying multiple levels of analysis pertaining to EEs and family firms. The second step precisely identifies the constructs used for the theorization process, drawing upon relevant literature. The third step involves proposition building, which produces our findings.

As a result of our propositional theorizing method, we developed 10 theoretical propositions to explain interactions between family members, nonfamily entrepreneurs, family firms and new ventures in the EE, thereby focusing on the social elements of the EE and reducing its conceptual complexity while extending the explanatory power of family social capital in the EE.

Despite being increasingly relevant in research, policy and practice discourse, EEs remain under theorized. By theorizing in this context, we provide explanations of the mechanisms to explain social interactions between family members, nonfamily entrepreneurs, family firms and new ventures and how such interactions are likely to provide better access to the untapped resources in the EE. Furthermore, our theorization also identifies underexplored research areas paving the way for future scholars.

This article is relevant to practitioners and policymakers interested in creating balanced, inclusive and effective EE policies and interventions. Our theorization generates insights that complement a bottom-up approach where the state assumes a facilitating role for actors such as family firms to positively impact their EE. This research is both timely and necessary because, if unaddressed, it will lead to ineffective and potentially exclusionary policies and EE interventions.

We contribute to the literature by synthesizing the two domains and thereby advancing knowledge at the intersection of EE and family firm literatures. We strengthen the link between two burgeoning research areas through a propositional theorizing mode of theory development. Under the assumptions of a grand theory, social capital theory, we highlight the benefits that derive from social interactions in the EE between family firms and other EE actors.

The study investigated which variables and family dynamics influence the entrepreneurship and succession process in the Italian ice cream sector. In light of the consequences of Covid-19, the research has identified the elements on which female leadership is based.

Data were collected using the qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews at a homemade ice cream production organization.

Findings highlight that to pursue business longevity, one must maintain one’s family identity and values and, therefore, offer quality products. However, the company must know how to innovate to remain competitive and optimize its processes. All this is possible by creating a dialogue and transferring knowledge within the family business to strengthen and prepare future successors. The analysis of the family structure highlights how cultural family identity has privileged gender identity as a factor that has guided the development process since the first generation, in this case, allowing for expansion in terms of size and family. In addition, the results of the analysis highlighted two distinct scenarios within the same case study: the first emphasises the limits of the lack of management of a succession process; the second shows the openness of the organization to the introduction of innovations, expansion strategies and the entry of new partners outside the family.

This study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of how, in light of the pandemic, the resilience of these family businesses contributes to redesigning their internal governance system in favour of the second generation and effectively accelerating the succession process.

Current political, economic and societal developments have led to high uncertainty in organisations, which may negatively impact employee well-being. Leaders play a crucial role in this context. This study explores how interventions support leaders and their followers in times of uncertainty.

We conducted 22 interviews to evaluate the experiences of two interventions, coaching and mental health awareness training, both implemented in two corporate organisations in Czechia during a merger and acquisition and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our findings show that both interventions equipped participants with resources to manage change, such as increased self-awareness and self-efficacy, and improved coping strategies for stressful situations. Participants gained better leadership skills and knowledge to support employees and themselves when facing mental health issues. Our findings reveal that the contextual factors in the two organisations led to different mechanisms and content for coaching but similar mechanisms in mental health awareness training.

This research contributes to the understanding of targeted interventions to support leaders during times of uncertainty. Implications for practitioners and Human Resources when developing context-specific support strategies are discussed.

The study aims to investigate the influence of critical socio-cultural factors common in developing countries on the ethical behaviour of professional accountants and the extent to which their self-control strengthens or weakens the relationships.

This paper relied on the quantitative approach to collect data from 366 professional accountants and used the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique to test hypotheses in the study.

This paper established that susceptibility to positive peer influence, materialism and political trust influence the ethical behaviour of professional accountants. Also, self-control moderates the relationship between susceptibility to positive peer influence and ethical behaviour of professional accountants. However, self-control does not moderate the relationships between materialism and ethical behaviour as well as political trust and ethical behaviour of professional accountants.

The regulatory institutions should review the existing ethical codes and standards to clarify the guidelines on conflicts of interest, financial temptations, materialistic influence and other related matters. Further, training programs must integrate self-control lessons. These programs should focus on enhancing self-control skills, particularly in situations where peer influence and political mistrust are entrenched.

This paper demonstrates the novelty in how critical socio-cultural factors could be contingent on individual circumstances and personal idiosyncrasies in influencing ethical behaviour.