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This study aims to determine how sustainable development (SD) demands (according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) SD themes from 2005) are connected to the contents of education, research, development and innovation (RDI) in higher education institutions (HEI). Education and the RDI nexus may affect HEI’s capability to handle SD-related wicked problems and enhance their societal impact.

This paper examined SD-oriented curricula contents of two universities (Brazil and Finland) and counted the number of SD-related research outcomes. In addition, conceptual modelling was used to analyse the mechanisms that may be directing HEIs’ SD work in local innovation.

The data showed a convergence deviation in the RDI of SD-related subjects between the two HEIs. There was no correlation between SD-oriented education and RDI-work in either HEI. Education and RDI processes have different UNECE SD themes at the focal point, and the education-research nexus is lacking. This difference indicates that new SD-related knowledge produced through RDI was not effectively used in education. Modelling revealed that the convergence in RDI outcomes arose from the same kind of local business, industry and societal challenges, implementing effective stakeholder pressures into HEIs. The results may indicate that stakeholder SD needs were not directly transferred into the competence qualification of the curriculum.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study to reveal the independence of universities’ SD-related RDI subjects on educational curricula.

This study aims to fill data gaps concerning solutions and practices used in sustainable food systems (SFS) in higher education (HE). The development of SFS is a vital global challenge in which HE may play a significant role.

Literature search and content analysis of found papers were performed. Additionally, the quantitative time trend of the emergence of research connected to SFS HE and the connectivity of content within the research papers about research questions were determined by regression analysis and data visualization, respectively.

It is evident that SFS education in universities (higher education institutes) is emerging, and the number of research papers is rapidly increasing. In the reviewed papers, universities recognized their significant role in managing wicked problems. The motivation for developing SFS education was high, with strong ambitions. SFS in HE includes developing education in-house through trans- and multidisciplinary solutions, developing education with stakeholders and supporting student growth to become responsible professionals and citizens.

When developing SFS education in HE both practical and theoretical research is needed. Ethical dimensions should be included in both research orientations because of the moral complexity that exists in SFS issues.

This study shows that competence in trans- and multidisciplinary working is needed. Concomitantly, the ability of cooperation between HE, business and society is vital when solving global food challenges. Also, the local tradition of food cultivation should be respected and maintained.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review on the development of SFS education in HEIs. A qualitative content analysis and data visualization were used to enrich the review.

Entrepreneurship and small businesses in Russia have been of academic interest for over 15 years. This paper seeks to bring together current knowledge concerning the phenomenon, and to suggest further directions for research.

The study consists of a systematic review of 48 refereed empirical articles on entrepreneurship and small businesses in Russia.

From the articles reviewed it appears that entrepreneurs in Russia use non‐material resources to overcome the financial and institutional obstacles, which still seem to afflict the market. However, theoretical and methodological issues are, in many cases, poorly reported and this undermines the scientific rigour of the studies they report.

Because of the wide scope of the studies reviewed the results included here provide somewhat broad‐brush descriptions of the phenomenon. However, it is believed that the findings are valuable for an understanding of the current situation for entrepreneurship and small businesses in Russia. The findings may also stimulate more in‐depth research in this increasingly important topic.

To the best of one's knowledge, no literature review on this topic has previously been published in academic journals.