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Criminological research, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon academic realm, has extensively examined the sharp increase in incarceration rates since the mid-1970s. Referred to as the “sociologies of the punitive turn” (Carrier, 2010), these studies argue that this surge reflects a sudden and harsh transformation in the logic governing penal practices and discourse. Some findings even suggest that this punitive shift has a global reach, impacting regions like Latin America. This broader narrative prompts an inquiry into whether a similar punitive turn occurred in Ecuador, a South American nation. Examination of prison demographics and legal frameworks in this country reveals a notable increase in incarceration rates during the 1990s, closely linked to drug trafficking control policies led by the United States. Consequently, I suggest that while the influence of neoliberal rationality, characteristic of the punitive turn, is evident, it’s more aptly described as a manifestation of punitive imperialism. Thus, it is imperative to analyze shifts in punishment trends within the framework of imperial dynamics, particularly considering the economic dependency of peripheral countries.

This study aims to examine the impact of an organization’s digital transformation capability (DTC) on its dynamic capabilities and strategic depth, which, in turn, could impact the organization’s international market growth (IMG). This study also investigates the moderating role of leadership support (LES) in using the DTC.

The study reviews various kinds of literature related to international marketing, dynamic capabilities, digital transformation, strategic marketing and LES. Following this, a dynamic capability view is adopted to develop a research model. This research model is later tested using partial least squares structure equation modeling with data from 385 respondents from different types of organizations.

The study demonstrates that an organization’s DTC significantly enhances its dynamic capabilities and strategic depth. LES is vital for effectively applying and leveraging DTCs since it influences the association between DTCs, competitive advantage and global marketing intelligence. The study also recognizes that strategic depth and dynamic capabilities contribute to IMG.

The study uncovers the impacts of DTCs, influencing IMG. The study also provides valuable insights regarding the role of leadership in effectively leveraging the organization’s DTCs. It suggests the organization’s management should invest in improving DTC.

This study contributes to the prevailing literature on DTC, leadership and IMG. The study highlights the importance of DTC and how it impacts more established capabilities and leads to IMG of the organization. Further, this study is also unique as it establishes the importance of LES in leveraging the maximum benefits of the DTC.

This paper aims to better understand auditing practices as a social phenomenon and management practice through a comparative historical analysis of the emergence of statutory auditing in three European countries, namely, France, Great Britain and Germany between 1844 and 1935.

The authors’ approach is a comparative history relying on a literature review, books pertaining to the period of interest and relevant archives.

The three countries’ trajectories were similar. All featured the promulgation of acts at the second half of the 19th century, the development of the accounting profession and the introduction of new acts to further strengthen statutory auditing around the Great Depression. However, each country took a different path because of the degree of regulation. For instance, the regulation strength and the degree of professionalism differed considerably by country. Business secrecy was also a departure point; it ranged from the rejection of auditors as intruders in France to Germany’s exclusively internal auditing and the UK’s peer auditing. The countries also differed on perceptions of the auditor’s role. Auditors were seen through the lens of a general interest mission in France, as advisors to internal governance bodies in Germany and as shareholders’ agents in Great Britain.

This paper compares three main European countries in the specific context of the introduction of statutory auditing. The findings of this paper are helpful for the international harmonization of auditing standards, as the derived insights provide a better understanding of the differences in the standards’ implementation.

The issues raised in this chapter are primarily those of obfuscation regarding social and economic inequality in the UK. The chapter is about the way discourse in various forms serves to disguise and justify the huge inequalities in this society; legitimising and ‘naturalising’ them, or in Arendt's words ‘lying’ about them so that they are seen as ‘natural and self-evident’ (Alvesson & Deetz, 2006, p. 261). Issues looked at are the institutional arrangements by which government ministers give or withhold resources to and from certain categories of its citizens. This includes the UK Treasury in relation to which economic groups the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides how much to tax or not to tax. In particular what are examined are the discourses justifying these measures and establishing certain ‘truths’ about how things are economically and socially; which categories are entitled to or deserving of certain kinds of resources and which are not – argued here as constituting obfuscations of the ‘actual’ situation. Obfuscation has been defined as the action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. This, arguably, is not far removed, from the action of being deliberately untruthful or lying. The question then arises as to how close these discourses come to lying and how serious the inequalities are.

This chapter reviews literature on hazing and hazing prevention specific to university athletics, with an emphasis on US and Canadian contexts. A synthesis of studies related to the nature and extent of student-athlete hazing and gender, sexuality and hazing is shared followed by a summary of public health-based approaches to hazing prevention and athlete-specific hazing prevention strategies.

The modern fairy tale hero identity falls into a general spectrum of tropes that spans from the charming prince who seals the fate of the beautiful princess with a kiss to borderline villains with little break in this spectrum. The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia brings to light an often overlooked hero's identity by representing neither ends of this heroic spectrum but rather a different breed of hero entirely. We argue that Geralt of Rivia differs from the typical representation of the fairy tale hero by embodying the spirit of the Huntsman archetype as depicted in stories such as Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood.

This creates a new means of exploring fairy tales as genres by giving perspective to the bloodier, messier sides of these tales which have since deviated from their darker origins. Geralt exists as neither hero nor antihero, but rather a sword-for-hire who cleans up messes that ‘heroes’ otherwise cannot or will not handle themselves. Across his depictions in the books, games, and show, Geralt involves himself as a witcher; hunter of monsters. Geralt's method in overcoming this style of quest is unlike the usual hero. Standing in for the Huntsman, Geralt understands the nature and balance of man and beast and carries this responsibility while looking to accomplish his goals. In this chapter, we seek to document and bring to light this underrepresented style of hero that the witcher has to offer to show that such a hero needs not be black nor white.

This chapter focusses on how early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been extended and configured in recent decades in advanced capitalistic countries. We will first set out the main societal benefits associated with public investment in ECEC and then discuss how neoliberalism and cutbacks in social services have coexisted with the expansion of ECEC as a social policy in recent years.

In particular, we will delve into the role of Social Investment as a policy framework that supports the expansion of ECEC in advanced capitalistic countries, and then we will highlight the challenges that ECEC faces in terms of universalisation and diversity of needs, areas in which social innovation (both citizen and institution-led) is playing an emergent and growing role.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether business growth intention (BGI) and entrepreneurial motivations enhance the explanatory power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict environmental intention (EI) among nascent entrepreneurs.

In the context of nascent entrepreneurship, the authors collected data from 193 nascent entrepreneurs in France. To test the hypotheses, stepwise multiple regression was performed.

The results show that BGI has a positive influence on EI. This indicates that it is possible for French nascent entrepreneurs to plan the simultaneous pursuit of business growth and environmental goals. However, entrepreneurial motivations have a mixed effect on EI. If necessity motivations negatively influence EI, opportunity motivations have no significant effect on the latter.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to extend the TBP model with additional factors, namely, BGI and necessity/opportunity motivations, to study EI. Moreover, the extended TBP model is validated in the under-research context of nascent entrepreneurship.

The study explores the connection between foresight and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in a community within an environment of social instability in Colombia. It aims to contribute to research on aligning these methods for future-shaping, with the goal of enhancing shared governance, peer learning and collective learning among traditional decision-makers and local communities in emerging countries. The study seeks to foster a community of social actors who are likely to engage constructively in strategic dialogues. To enhancing shared governance and learning a hybrid model is synthesized, combining foresight and computational intelligence.

The case study explores the integration of computational intelligence and foresight through Gaston Bachelard's (Bachelard, 1936) phenomenology concept of ante-perception. The mathematical representation of the cone of scenarios provides a structured way to explore multiple future pathways, allowing communities to visualize and compare different trajectories and make informed decisions amid uncertainty. The model facilitates critical reflections on present assumptions, deepening insights into future scenarios. Ante-perception challenges traditional approaches to foresight by encouraging a break from established experiences, allowing for novel insights into possible futures. When enriched by computational intelligence, this reflective process is further strengthened by quantitative approach scenario modeling.

This research develops and tests a proposal that includes the logic and methods for constructing a mathematical representation of the cone of scenarios. This process, which is interactive and deliberative, is driven by anticipation and combines qualitative and quantitative approaches within a context of high uncertainty. By combining the critical reflection facilitated by ante-perception with the predictive power of computational intelligence, the model allows communities to transcend established thought patterns and explore innovative future possibilities. This integrative approach helps them envision and work toward social self-transformation.

The article aims to identify the creation of scenarios in contexts of high uncertainty, to respond to the needs of communities in emerging countries to manage change.

This article explores a novel approach to using foresight for address collective intelligence by developing a shared future vision in high-uncertainty contexts within local communities in emerging countries. The application of the hybrid model demonstrates that foresight is a key innovative social tool for developing long-term strategic reflection and planning for territories.

In developing long-term reflective processes, explaining phenomena, mechanisms and correlations requires the use of value judgments. This set of value judgments requires a representation that facilitates their treatment, helps to account for their behavior during the inference process to form a shared future vision. Consequently, ensuring the recognition of the opinions of local communities through participatory discussion spaces and their subsequent refinement, from a technical perspective, aims to illustrate the development of this social construction process. While similarities exist, differences add value through a transfer process, often subconscious. This process stimulates collective learning and builds capacities as knowledge is developed through inquiry, evaluation, interpretation and generalization.

This research provides a unique hybrid model that fosters collective learning and engagement by integrating local community perspectives with advanced computational intelligence methods. By facilitating both reflective and quantitative approach future-shaping, it offers a practical framework for addressing uncertainty while empowering communities to shape their own futures. It underscores the importance of recognizing local community views through bottom-up participatory discussions, thereby widening the stakeholder community to active engagement in addressing broader societal issues. The case study focuses on community collaboration in Puerto Gaitán, a Colombian municipality.

This paper examines the difficulties faced by microfinance loan officers in their daily work and highlights that these difficulties may be grouped into six categories: variable remuneration; fieldwork; trade-off between the social mission and financial objectives; leadership problems; exhausting work both morally and physically and microfinance organization (MFO) not showing enough consideration for its employees.

This paper analyses the root causes of employee turnover in social enterprises by examining a well-known microfinance organization that was created in 2008 as a non-bank financial institution and which is active in a Latin American country. Its mission is to “accompany with adequate and responsible financial services the development of entrepreneurial families, mainly from the rural sector”. Among its clients, 65% are rural and half are women. This major MFO is experiencing high growth (57.8% in 2016) and had 63 branches across the country in 2016. At the time of data collection (in 2016), it employed more than 1,100 staff members, including approximately 600 loan officers (55% of them being women), had a loan portfolio of more than 85 million USD and served approximately 105,000 active borrowers.

One can be highly tempted to say that microfinance institutions and other social enterprises should dedicate the same attention to their employees as to their clients by deploying ethical and socially responsible human resource management (HRM) practices, but it is not that simple. Implementing socially responsible HRM practices may be particularly costly, though some practices may be less expensive than others. Moreover, as most microfinance institutions operate in developing countries, the resources or infrastructure needed to implement some of these practices may be limited, and corporate social responsibility is less formalized or institutionalized in such countries than in developed ones (Visser, 2008). Moreover, one may also argue that the financial resources required to implement such practices could instead be dedicated to the development of better services for clients or to practices favouring a better respect of those clients. The implementation of socially responsible HRM practices may thus, in some cases, limit the pursuit of MFOs’ social mission, even if some authors argue that, on the contrary, implementing ethical HRM practices contributes to the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for external stakeholders. It should also be noted that the funders of MFOs may not make the implementation of such practices a priority and can even be against it. Therefore, as mentioned by Foote (2001, p. 35) in his study on charities, “a difficult balance must be achieved between the ethical interests of charity sector employees and the demands of the bottom line in a market of increasing competition for donations”.

Based on our study, one can be highly tempted to say that microfinance institutions and other social enterprises should dedicate the same attention to their employees as to their clients by deploying ethical and socially responsible HRM practices, but it is not that simple. Implementing socially responsible HRM practices may be particularly costly, though some practices may be less expensive than others. Moreover, as most microfinance institutions operate in developing countries, the resources or infrastructures needed to implement some of these practices may be limited, and corporate social responsibility is less formalized or institutionalized in such countries than in developed ones (Visser, 2008). Moreover, one may also argue that the financial resources required to implement such practices could instead be dedicated to the development of better services for clients or to practices favouring a better respect of those clients. The implementation of socially responsible HRM practices may thus, in some cases, limit the pursuit of MFOs’ social mission, even if some authors argue that, on the contrary, implementing ethical HRM practices contributes to the development of CSR for external stakeholders. It should also be noted that the funders of MFOs may not make the implementation of such practices a priority and can even be against it.

Our study contributes to the literature on ethics and HRM since it discusses the pertinence of implementing ethical and socially responsible HRM in non-conventional organizations. It also contributes to the literature on microfinance and social enterprises by offering a comprehensive overview of the difficulties faced by employees of such organizations.