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This paper reports the collaborative achievements of transformative service researchers and nonprofit practitioners and their learning processes for refugee integration and social impact measurement. The purpose of the paper is to present the process of a cocreating a toolkit designed to help non-profit organizations (NPOs) measure and communicate the social impact of their initiatives. Collaboration with a UK-based NPO resulted in the development of a practical toolkit designed to identify and report social impacts that are typically challenging or difficult to measure.

Following a three-phase co-creative process model over two years, the project team began by co-defining impact metrics in partnership with an NPO specializing in personalized employment support, language and digital skills training and job search assistance for refugees. This led to the codesign of a social impact measurement strategy. The final phase involved coproducing a social impact reporting toolkit that offers comprehensive guidance to bridge existing gaps in measurement practices and empowers NPO employees to effectively measure and communicate social impact.

The study found that, although the NPO collected extensive data, its focus was primarily on individual-level economic outcomes, often overlooking broader social impact measurements. The cocreated toolkit addresses this oversight by providing resources for a holistic assessment.

The toolkit equips NPOs with a user-friendly resource for effectively measuring and communicating the social impact of their initiatives, supporting their operational and funding requirements.

By improving how social impact is measured and communicated, the toolkit can positively influence funding decisions and enhance the support available to refugees, thereby facilitating their integration into host societies.

This paper highlights two key contributions: (1) the development of a co-produced social impact reporting toolkit consisting of five modules and (2) the co-creation process itself. Through collaboration between the academic team and the NPO, the toolkit was designed to meet both theoretical standards and practical needs, tailored specifically for small to medium-sized NPOs, particularly those working in refugee integration.

This study aims to examine the role of price discounts and how to communite such discounts for masstige brands. While a price discount might encourage potential (first time) customers seeking higher status to buy a masstige brand, it might deter existing (repeat) customers from purchasing the brand due to a decline in perceived status. Such paradoxical effect of price discounts on masstige brand’s purchase requires a detail investigation into whether masstige brands should offer price discounts and if so, how to communicate such discounts. Current research investigates this phenomenon.

Four experimental studies were executed. Study 1 investigated the impact of monetary discount (absent vs. present) on the purchase intention of masstige brands for different customer types (potential vs. existing). Study 2 investigated the mediating role of perceived status. Study 3 examined the effectiveness of metaphoric communication of monetary discounts (absent vs present) on masstige brand’s purchase. Study 4 tested the moderating effect of customers’ need for cognition.

Overall, monetary discounts positively affect purchase intention of masstige brand; however, the effect is negative for existing customers and positive for potential customers owing to differences in perceived status these customer groups experience (positive for potential and negative for existing customers). Metaphoric communications of monetary discounts restrict the declining purchase intention and status perception of existing customers besides keeping the potential customers’ purchase intention intact.

This research is confined to a particular country limiting the gneralisability of the study’s findings. Furthermore, this research is cross-sectional in nature.

The findings of this research provide valuable insights and actionable recommendations for masstige brands to effectively leverage price discounts, especially in the emerging markets.

To date, a question of whether or not masstige brands should offer price discounts and if so, how to communicate such discounts remain opaque. This is the pioneering study exploring this phenomenon.

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of laser shock peening (LSP) on mechanical behaviour of the laser-directed energy deposition (LDED)-based printed 15-5 PH stainless steel with U and V notches. The study specifically concentrates on the evaluation of effect of scan strategy, machining and LSP processing on microstructural, texture evolution and fatigue behaviour of LDED-printed 15-5 PH steel.

For LSP treatment, 15-5 PH steel was printed using LDED process with bidirectional scanning strategy (XX [θ = 0°) and XY [θ = 90°]) at optimised laser power of 600 W with a scanning speed of 300 mm/min and a powder feed rate of 3 g/min. Furthermore, LSP treatment was conducted on the V- and U-notched fatigue specimens extracted from LDED-built samples at laser energy of 3.5 J with a pulse width of 10 ns using laser spot diameter of 3 mm. Post to the LSP treatment, the surface roughness, fatigue life assessment and microstructural evolution analysis is performed. For this, different advanced characterisation techniques are used, such as scanning electron microscopy attached with electron backscatter diffraction for microstructure and texture, X-ray diffraction for residual stress (RS) and structure information, Vicker’s hardness tester for microhardness and universal testing machine for low-cycle fatigue.

It is observed that both scanning strategies during the LDED printing of 15-5 PH steel and laser peening have played significant role in fatigue life. Specimens with the XY printing strategy shows higher fatigue life as compared to XX with both U- and V-notched conditions. Furthermore, machining and LSP treatment led to a significant improvement of fatigue life for both scanning strategies with U and V notches. The extent of increase in fatigue life for both XX and XY scanning strategy with V notch is found to be higher than U notch after LSP treatment, though without LSP samples with U notch have a higher fatigue life. As fabricated sample is found to have the lowest fatigue life as compared to machines and laser peened with both scan strategies.

This study presents an innovative method to improve the fatigue life of 15-5 PH stainless steel by changing the microstructure, texture and RS with the adoption of a suitable scanning strategy, machining and LSP treatment as post-processing. The combination of preferred microstructure and compressive RS in LDED-printed 15-5 PH stainless steel achieved with a synergy between microstructure and RS, which is responsible to improve the fatigue life. This can be adopted for the futuristic application of LDED-printed 15-5 PH stainless steel for different applications in aerospace and other industries.

This chapter introduces the book’s purpose: to explore the niche technology space of Web3 and use it as a lens to reflect on the internet’s future. I’ll discuss the internet’s current state and key issues and then move into a definitional tour of Web3 and its underlying technology. The book’s core argument is presented: Web3 provides tangible social proof of what people want for the internet’s future. I’ll examine current challenges such as privacy concerns, unclear data ownership, and lack of transparency in online systems, which create power imbalances between technology controllers and users. The book argues for striving towards a more equitable and transparent digital future. This chapter serves as a starting point, offering insight into my decade-long research. It aims to familiarise readers with the case study approach and Web3 terminology used throughout the book. A chapter-by-chapter roadmap is provided to guide readers through the exploration of Web3 and its implications. Additionally, this chapter introduces my writing style and voice, preparing readers for the deeper analysis to come. While grounded in sociological knowledge, the chapter aims to make Web3 accessible and spark readers’ curiosity, encouraging them to pursue their own inquiries into this emerging field.

This paper aims to understand consumption values buying from informal retail markets (i.e., street vendor retailing). It also explores why consumers prefer daily necessary goods from the informal compared to the formal retail market (such as supermarkets, retail chain outlets and e-commerce).

Employing the qualitative research approach, this study collected data from nine respondents in two areas in Malaysia. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using the thematic analysis technique. Only representative verbatim codes were presented under five themes of consumption value theory.

Consumers are triggered by the convenience, ease, and exclusive products (conditional value), friendly and known relationship with informal sellers, as well as the availability of some particular food items (emotional value) and lower price and freshness of groceries (functional value) while buying from informal compared to formal retail vendor.

This study provides knowledge implications to the consumption value theory. Functional, emotional, and conditional values are the dominant components of purchase behaviour in informal compared to formal retail channels. Social values are common, whereas epistemic value is more substantial in formal retailing.

Findings are helpful for informal retail businesses to understand consumers' buying behaviour. Informal retail owners should ensure that commodities are fresh, highly affordable and available in the local communities. Building a friendly relationship with consumers would be a key to the success of this retail sector.

Authorities should support informal sellers to set up mobile retail stores in residential areas. This effort would offer greater convenience to both parties in informal businesses and ensure informal sellers' financial and social well-being.

Despite the widespread acceptance of buying goods from informal retail vendors, research on consumption value in informal retailing is largely overlooked. Previous research primarily deals with formal market phenomena due to their size and economic contribution. Consequently, current literature lacks an understanding of why consumers prefer to buy from informal retail vendors for their daily groceries when the formal retail channel could fulfil similar needs. Using a qualitative research design, this research uncovers consumers' buying motives from informal compared to formal vendors.

This study aims to present a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on gig work and the social responsibility towards them; the study highlights the evolving nature of work, career and organisation, focussing on their social responsibility towards gig work.

A systematic review of 186 selected articles published since the beginning of the gig economy research. Quantitative bibliometric and framework-based review techniques were used to analyse theoretical nuances, themes, antecedents and contextual factors.

Factors responsible for the social responsibility towards gig work were identified. The factors were categorised into individual, organisational and social-related attributes. Overall, the contextual factors, top articles, authors and journals suggested that gig work research is increasing exponentially across the globe.

The understanding of the factors influencing the gig work explored, the long-term implications of disruptions or gig workers’ well-being and exploring the impact of social and cultural aspects of the gig work research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to analyse the factors influencing social responsibility towards gig work in the changing nature of work, career and organisation. The study provides future directions for expanding the scholarship, resulting in the sustainability of this form of employment.

Organizations often utilize external sources to acquire knowledge, and one such area of interest has been the transfer of knowledge between universities and industry (U-I). This topic has gained significant attention in recent years because U-I cooperation brings companies innovation to remain in the market and be competitive. This paper aims to develop and deepens the topic, providing a Bibliometric-Systematic Literature Review (B-SLR) on knowledge transfer (KT), cooperation and U-I, interactions, links and interdependencies of new research streams. This research pretends to summarize the state of the art of the past literature using a rigorous methodological approach.

A bibliometric analysis was performed using the Web of Science database, specifically employing Bibliographic Coupling analysis.

The literature systematization enabled the identification of four distinct clusters: (1) Drivers and Motivational Factors, (2) Specificities in the Selection of Knowledge Transfer Channels, (3) Strategic Challenges and (4) Mechanisms and Contexts.

The analysis highlights significant trends and gaps in current research, providing a comprehensive understanding of the field. Based on the literature analyzed, it was possible to outline lines for future investigation, offering valuable insights for academia and industry practitioners to enhance U-I knowledge transfer.

Global value chains (GVCs) are facing unprecedented pressures arising from structural changes in the global economy and exogenous shocks including military conflicts and the aftermath of COVID-19. Considering the importance of value chain analysis in the current environment, the purpose of the study is to provide an up-to-date overarching global value chain literature review study that offers suggestions for research and practice to ensure resilient value and supply chains.

The authors provide a comprehensive review of literature of the value chain, commodity chain and production network research based on a systems overview of 5,628 publications to identify the extent of research on vulnerabilities and resilience of value chains globally and gaps therein. To provide the systems overview, the authors use scientometric content co-occurrence analysis methods to analyze and identify gaps within the existing literature.

Based on this overarching review of the literature, the authors identify gaps in the literature primarily related to the issue of unpreparedness of value chains to exogenous shocks. The authors suggest future research directions and propose an integrative model along with recommendations for restructuring value chains for resilience amidst exogenous shocks.

This study carries out an overarching study of interdisciplinary GVC literature in the age of geopolitical and societal challenges and is thus able to offer holistic insights and propositions for future research.

As different countries are witnessing a surge in online course enrollments, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of different stressors and strains on the continuity of online classes for understanding learner behavior. While extroverts are more talkative, sociable and open than introverts, it is necessary to understand the impact of extraversion personality traits on leaners’ distraction, depression and knowledge absorption capacity (KAC) in online learning scenarios. This will help to curate the content to cater to such students. Additionally, it will be interesting to examine how these effects change when the frequency and duration of classes are increased or decreased. Research on such aspects is scarce, highlighting a critical gap in the literature, which this study tries to address.

A quantitative-based survey was adopted for collecting data from Indian students. About 482 responses received in the survey were analyzed through the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

Findings suggest a significant positive effect of extraversion on both distraction and depression. Depression had a significant negative impact on KAC. The frequency of classes had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between extraversion and distraction. Additionally, the duration of classes had a significant moderating effect on the association between distraction and KAC.

Limited studies have attempted to examine the impact of personality (extraversion) on depression, distraction and finally KAC in the online education context. This study aims to add value to existing literature by addressing this gap.