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This paper aims to explore the role of multi-national enterprises in addressing grand societal challenges, emphasising the need for integrating environmental and social aspects into business models. Drawing on the books of Geoffrey Jones (2023) “Deeply Responsible Business” and Rob van Tulder and Eveline van Mil (2023) “Principles of Sustainable Business”, the paper provides comments and analysis of how principles and values can guide engaged international business (IB) scholarship and responsible leadership to effectuate meaningful change.

The paper adopts a dialogical review, as a curated discussion of the books whereby the authors attempt to co-construct a research and teaching agenda for responsible and engaged IB scholarship.

The paper highlights the critical importance of aligning business strategies with societal needs. Companies that adopt ethical principles, or adopt the sustainable development goals (SDGs) via principles-based frameworks, can achieve significant positive impacts.

The paper follows a viewpoint/perspective format. It relies on underpinning historical case studies and selected theoretical frameworks, which may not capture the full complexity of contemporary business environments. Scholars should conduct future research to study the underpinning principles and frameworks deployed in various industries and regions.

The paper suggests that business leaders should learn from the past to adopt a values and principles-based approach to integrate sustainability into their core strategies. It also highlights the importance of transforming the higher education teaching experience towards a value and principles-based one.

This paper underscores the potential of businesses to drive positive societal change by addressing environmental and social challenges. By adopting ethics-based value systems and aligning organisations with the SDGs, companies can help mitigate pressing issues, such as poverty, inequality and climate change. The authors suggest reading “Deeply responsible business” and “Principles of Sustainable Business” to influence public attitudes towards corporate social responsibility and foster a more sustainable and equitable global economy.

The paper offers a curated discussion and synthesis of historical and contemporary perspectives on sustainable business practices. It bridges the gap between theory and practice by providing actionable frameworks and tools for business leaders and scholars.

This paper evaluates intellectual capital (IC) within entrepreneurial environments, towards conceptualising the sequential role of education, its institutions in practice, and wider ecosystems. Well-established attributes of entrepreneurialism, such as idea generation, problem-solving, market expertise and risk awareness are commensurate to that of expected IC practices within enterprising organisations. However, scarce research has been undertaken concerning the confronting of IC practices and activities across collaborative, and sequential, multistakeholder partnerships and activities. This includes alignment to distinct stages of developmental entrepreneurialism inclusive of education and ecosystem support: knowledge exchange and training; mentoring the emergence of the start-up; strategically timing scale-ups; and continued navigation within networks while enduring change.

An integrative review of the relationship between IC, entrepreneurs and new ventures is undertaken to evaluate developmental IC practices as per this paper’s highlighted sequential stages, within entrepreneurial environments and organisational contexts.

Significant roles and responsibilities are evident among collaborative sectors, benefitting the entrepreneurial process and heightening the importance and emergence of IC within entrepreneurial environments. Exposure to enterprise-specific education and support emphasises the developmental human capital process of progressing and protecting ideas and ventures. Latterly, ecosystem engagement leads to consistent intrapreneurialism amongst employees and new venture partners, influencing structured IC systems and enterprising cultures and relational aspects of responsive branding of commercial activity and increased market agility.

Through presenting an attribute-based framework, this paper conceptualises sequential multistakeholder intervention of IC practices and organisational considerations within institutions, as well as guiding the developmental role of education in emboldening individuals and organisations through building IC and evidencing entrepreneurial thinking.

Researchers have examined the influence of the factors on reducing return rates in retailing over the years. However, the returns experience is often an overlooked way to drive customer engagement and repeat sales in the now ubiquitous omnichannel setting. The focus on returns prevention in existing research overshadows management’s need to understand better the comprehensive mechanics linking the customer in-store return experience with their repurchase actions. Recognizing the need to bridge different stages of the returns management process, this research aims to explore the facilitators and barriers of in-store return activities.

Analysis of customer corporate data from 5,339 returns at the retail level provides insights from the customer return experience. Expanding our theoretical understanding, a deductive research approach then examines how those factors impact customer repurchase intentions both online and at brick-and-mortar stores. Stage two of the study employs a scenario-based role-playing experiment with consumer respondents to test hypotheses derived from signaling theory and justice theory.

Results find that returns policy and loyalty program capabilities are essential in creating a positive customer in-store experience. Moreover, a return experience enhanced by frontline employee service can retain existing shoppers and drive additional store traffic, further stimulating retailer sales.

These findings refine our understanding of returns management in evolving omnichannel retailing and offer practical insights for retailers to manage customer relationships through in-store returns.

Diversity, equity and inclusion ideology is the latest appeal of individual compassion, institutional legitimacy and enlightened society. Specific to higher education, diversity, equity and inclusion is an honorable ideology, value and mission. This paper aims to (1) empirically recognize the differences in the level of importance between the university’s and faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, (2) identify the diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes, such as university brand image and student intention to engage postgraduation, (3) uncover the moderating role of university brand preference attainment and (4) validate the mediating role of student identification in diversity, equity and inclusion literature.

A survey of 1,027 usable responses was employed to perform two moderations, four mediations and two confidence interval analyses.

The university’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are significantly more rewarding than the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for the university brand image and students’ intention to engage postgraduation. Findings uncover the mediating role of student identification and the moderating role of brand preference attainment.

Focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion at the institutional level is more impactful than at the faculty level. In industries where frontline employees have significant autonomy, such as higher education, the positive brand performance outcomes are related to the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion awareness, not the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives should align with the student’s shared values.

The study relies on institutional theory to underscore the asymmetric importance of the university’s and faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in achieving perceived brand image and engagement.

The world is reeling from the effects of climate change with increased extreme precipitation. Flooding is amongst the most recurring and devastating natural hazards, impacting human lives and causing severe economic damage. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review to critically analyse the most reported and emerging flood disaster resilience indicators.

A total of 35 papers were selected through a systematic process using both Web of Science and Scopus databases. The selected literature was subjected to a thorough thematic content analysis.

From the review, 77 emerging flood disaster resilience assessment indicators were identified. Furthermore, based on the individual meanings and relationships of the derived indicators, they were further categorized into six groups, namely, physical, institutional, social, psychological, ecology and economic. More also, it was identified that most of the selected publications have used objective resilience measurement approaches as opposed to subjective resilience measurement approaches.

The generated list of flood disaster resilience indicators will provide insights into the capacities which can be improved to enhance the overall resilience to flood disasters in communities.

Fashion brands, including fast and luxury segments, receive harsh criticism for engaging in unethical practices such as poor working conditions and environmental damage. As a result, fashion supply chains are pressured by stakeholders to publicly disclose internal supply chain performance information and to show a high level of supply chain transparency. This paper compares supply chain transparency in fast and luxury fashion in Europe.

By applying the maturity curve of fashion supply chain transparency, developed by Muratore and Marques (2022), the websites of 20 fast and 20 luxury fashion brands were analysed and classified as Opaque, Translucent or Transparent.

Despite its reputation, fast fashion demonstrated higher levels of transparency than luxury fashion. Luxury fashion only performed better in terms of the accessibility of sustainability information. Luxury brands avoided disclosing key transparency information, suggesting that they may be operating in contradiction to that which is inferred on their websites.

The findings of the study shed light on the sustainability credentials of the fashion industry, which has the potential to influence the purchase intentions of consumers, particularly millennials and Generation Z. Implications for practice are developed to highlight how fashion can improve its supply chain transparency.

This case study was developed using publicly available published sources like the company’s website, articles, blogs, videos, filings, etc. Multiple sources were used to put together the chronology, quotes and details. This case is not disguised. All the key figures in the case study are identified by their real names.

Black Girls Code (BGC) was founded by Kimberly Bryant (Bryant, she) as a nonprofit organization in 2011. BGC conducted workshops and programs to teach young girls of color technology, science, engineering and math and train them in Web design, developing apps and robotics. It aimed to address the lack of diversity in science and technology. The organization has received support from tech giants like Google, Facebook and IBM. In one decade, the organization trained more than 30,000 girls and aimed to teach one million girls by 2040.

In 2021, the BGC board ousted Bryant, citing allegations of workplace impropriety. She was put on paid administrative leave by the board. This ousting was done in the aftermath of complaints by several employees who raised concerns about Bryant’s conduct. The former and current employees said that high turnover in the organization was due to Bryant’s leadership, which was rooted in fear, and that she would publicly insult managers. The board formed a special committee to evaluate the concerns and sent Bryant on administrative leave.

Cristina Jones, who succeeded Bryant as CEO, brought about several changes in the organization and expanded the scope of science, technology, engineering and math to include arts. She expanded the courses to include design, gaming and others. She was looking forward to launching one million black girls in tech by 2040. But before she could go on, she needed to ensure that the ouster of the founder did not hinder the activities at BGC in any manner and also needed to address the concerns of employees, students and funders.

This case can be used to learn about nonprofits, the role of nonprofits in building an equitable society and nonprofit entrepreneurs. The objective is to understand how passionate entrepreneurs can create organizations that can make a high impact with limited resources but with ambition and vision for radical change.

This case also helps in learning the challenges encountered due to the rapid growth of startups and the role of the leader in handling such growth.

This case can be integrated into any of the existing courses or taken as a special case study to illustrate the gender and racial disparities that exist even in highly developed countries like the USA.

This paper critically evaluates regional development through the lens of well-being and purpose. The paper provides insight into the key roles that well-being and purpose play in regional development and the way in which various actors are engaged in this process. This paper focuses on the Swansea Bay City Region within Wales, a country at the forefront of well-being legislation.

This paper analyses a case study of 4theRegion, a membership organisation that undertakes regional development activities underpinned by a social purpose and well-being across the Swansea Bay city region. 4theRegion has been selected due to (1) its unique business model; (2) its clear focus on well-being and purpose; and (3) the influence of its regional development actions bringing together various stakeholder groups under a common aim.

This paper extends existing debates on collaborative development approaches and underlines the unique emphasis on asset-based local development influenced by well-being, which seeks to engage with a variety of community stakeholders to derive “holistic flourishing”. This emphasises inclusive development activities across the region, through people, place, process and purpose, underpinned by well-being. The research also underlines debates about the subjectivity of well-being and how the impact of well-being legislation can be evaluated.

This research provides a new way of looking at regional development, through the lens of well-being and purpose and provides insight into the way in which various actors are engaged in this process. Implications of this research could influence policymaking in supporting regional development activities, as well as practical lessons for those involved in place-based development.

This chapter delves into the intricate evolution and challenges of regulatory frameworks within the global financial sector, spotlighting the dynamic interplay between technological advancements, globalization and the imperative for stringent regulatory compliance. Initially, it traces the historical lineage of financial regulation from its nascent stages, through pivotal transformations aimed at enhancing market stability and integrity, to contemporary paradigms that balance efficiency with systemic safety. The discourse navigates through various regulatory models – ranging from institutional and functional frameworks to the innovative “Twin Peaks” model – and their respective merits and challenges in aligning with the evolving financial landscape. Furthermore, the paper scrutinizes the multifaceted role of managerial accountability in fostering a culture of compliance, emphasizing proactive risk assessment, regulatory reporting and the integration of ethical considerations into corporate governance. Through an analytical lens, it explores how financial institutions can navigate the complexities of adherence to diverse regulatory mandates, thereby safeguarding financial stability while promoting growth and innovation. The narrative concludes by projecting future trajectories of regulatory frameworks, advocating for a harmonious blend of regulatory rigor and flexibility to accommodate the rapid pace of financial innovation and global interconnectedness.