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Community economic development (CED) focuses on the creation of sustainable communities. To that end, a reciprocal relationship that sustains the community and business alike can be created. However, little is known about the nature of informal interactions between residents and businesses that achieves that end. This study aims to explore the nature of these interactions and their contribution to CED within a rural context.

A case study approach was used with interviews with five rural entrepreneurs. Questions explored the nature of the support that they receive from their home community and their contributions back to it.

The results show that communities and businesses do not operate independently of each other, but rather are mutually supportive and contribute directly to the other’s objectives. These relationships are reinforced over time by a business owner’s direct involvement in the community, though this process takes time and effort.

This study focuses on a limited geographical area in British Columbia with a small group of rural entrepreneurs. The results may not be generalizable to other contexts.

The results suggest concrete actions that both the rural entrepreneurs and their associated communities can take to be mutually supportive of each other to the benefit of each party alike.

This paper enlarges the understanding of the types of interactions, especially informal ones, that can support both businesses and the larger community in their efforts to sustain themselves and contribute to CED efforts.

The ultimate objective of any learning platform is student engagement with the material, instructor, and classmates. Little is currently known about students’ concerns regarding privacy, confidentiality, and information safety and the potential impact these may have on engagement within an online learning environment. Existing literature and practice must be supplemented with awareness of the importance of student perceptions concerning privacy and confidentiality if online learning engagement is to be maximized. Our exploratory research shows that students do experience concerns, that these concerns can be impacted by the professional school status of the students in question, and that students take steps to create safety accordingly. As a result, student engagement within an online learning environment is different than its physical counterpart. Our findings and subsequent recommendations suggest more can be done to maximize the notion of learning safety and student online learning engagement.

This paper seeks to explore the challenges faced by tourism businesses and the methods used by the business owners to respond to these within rural areas of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada and nearby smaller islands. There has been little consideration of both the challenges faced by rural tourism businesses and the methods by which the owners respond to these.

Given this study's exploratory focus, a case study methodology is selected. Using purposeful sampling, owners of five rural tourism businesses on Vancouver Island and nearby islands are interviewed. The topics focus on the challenges that the owners face and their methods of response.

The primary challenges are concentrated in the areas of marketing, operations, and infrastructure. Owners have common responses which include cooperation in marketing efforts among area businesses and long hours invested to overcome operational and infrastructure challenges. The owners accept these challenges as a consequence of their decision to operate in a rural area.

The case studies are based in a small geographical location which could limit the findings' generalization to other rural locations. Further research needs to be done to extend the study's reach.

These results will be of interest to other rural businesses, governments and support organizations as these groups work together to support economic development in rural areas facing industrial restructuring.

This research contributes to the discussion of small tourism business issues in rural areas, a relatively unexplored research area, and supports efforts to support small business creation in relatively disadvantaged rural areas.

The chapters in this book focus on using an array of different Web 2.0 technologies and web-enabled learning platforms to create technology-rich learning environments. These types of social learning technologies can be used to build flexible and agile learning environments and foster collaborative learning activities for students. Whereas Web 1.0 is considered a content-centric paradigm, Web 2.0 is considered a social-centric paradigm. In other words, at the heart of Web 2.0 is social networking, social media, and a vast array of participatory applications and tools. This book examines the possibilities of Web 2.0 technologies in general and social technologies in particular, including blended (hybrid) learning technologies and applications. At least four factors have driven the rapid changes we have experienced in the way we teach and learn with these technologies: (1) these technologies are digital, making them highly versatile and integrative, (2) these technologies are globally ubiquitous, making them accessible to anyone and anywhere there is an Internet connection, (3) these technologies are generally low cost or free, making them accessible to anyone with a computer or mobile device, and (4) the development of more sophisticated learning theories, greatly increasing our understanding of how to best apply these technologies in an academic setting.

Catherine Althaus, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria in Canada. Her present research interests focus on public policy and public administration as well as bioethics, leadership in the public service, and the interface between politics and religion. She teaches online courses in the Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in Community Development programs.

This qualitative paper is about social reporting in response to an incident that involved the loss of human life. It examines Loblaw’s disclosures following the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 Bangladeshi workers.

This article draws on Suchman’s (1995) comprehensive legitimacy typology to interpret Loblaw’s disclosures about the collapse in both mass media coverage of the tragedy and the company’s quarterly, annual and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports.

Loblaw worked on many fronts to secure stakeholders’ support in the aftermath of the fatal incident. Through their social disclosures, Loblaw simultaneously managed exchange, dispositional, consequential, procedural, structural, personal and cognitive legitimacy, striving to demonstrate that, notwithstanding the incident, the company was still conforming to its social contract.

This research operationalizes all aspects of Suchman’s legitimacy typology in the context of social reporting. In particular, the paper further develops the concept of cognitive legitimacy. This should be of benefit to other CSR researchers.

The loss of human life during business operations is one of the most terrible events an organization can face. Corporate activities leading to loss of human life are obviously far from being socially acceptable. Stakeholders are likely to disapprove such activities and reconsider their support, which can threaten the survival of the organization. It is thus of utmost importance to understand the strategies used by corporate managers in their attempt to secure ongoing stakeholder support.

This paper innovates by focusing specifically on social disclosures about a negative event. In so doing, it also contributes to a small, but important, literature within CSR research that examines incidents resulting in the loss of human life. The paper adapts and applies Suchman’s legitimacy framework to interpret social reporting in response to a specific instance of loss of life, the Rana Plaza building collapse. Finally, this paper mobilizes the notion of cognitive dissonance to further develop Suchman’s notion of cognitive legitimacy.

An association — Geomail — has been formed consisting of private electronic mail system operators, designed to provide a full international service.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight trends affecting student writing and studying in the twenty‐first century and, as a consequence, the changing nature of literacy in this digital era.

The paper uses Thomas Friedman's concept of “flattener” technologies that are creating new levels of access and participation around the globe to emphasize changes that learners and schools need to use to become literate. Making use of a vignette followed by discussion of the research relevant to these developments, the features and distinguishing characteristics of these literacies are explored.

Six overarching recommendations for capitalizing on present and future innovations in technology and communication that provide new potential for twenty‐first century learning and future consciousness are made: competence; convergence; curriculum; customization; collaboration; and connectivism.

The paper provides an overview and insight into some of the many changes and challenges impacting on the world of education due to the large‐scale availability and use of digital text and digital media. The exploration of strategies to capitalize on the media rich environments in which our students live is compelling and evidence‐based.

China’s open‐market reform and rapid economic growth have generated a tremendous surge in activity and market investment by multinational corporations (MNCs). By 2000, 400 of the 500 most famous MNCs had invested in China. One distinctive feature of China’ s business environment, its authoritarian political system, requires MNCs to practise strategic public affairs to interact constantly with the different levels of Chinese government, respond to the policies and further influence business policy formation. This paper proposes a conceptual model of MNC‐government bargaining that is composed of international political economy, dependency theory and agency theory. It then examines (1) the international and domestic influences on MNC‐government bargaining in China and (2) the strategies MNCs employed to influence Chinese laws for foreign business in their interests. A case study of the Chinese ban on direct selling operations in 1998 and Amway’s strategies to remove the ban is presented. Results suggest that effective public affairs should engage in the following activities: (1) issues management, (2) constantly and systematically analysing the MNC’s bargaining power with the host government, (3) selecting public affairs strategies based on the analysis of MNC‐government bargaining, (4) exercising relationship management, and (5) being ethical in its practice.

Examines the dynamics of knowledge sharing using the multi‐person game‐theoretic framework. Proposes that an individual’s knowledge sharing tendency is driven by a set of contextualised concerns and interests not unlike the notion of payoff in game theory. Furthermore, the decision to share or withhold knowledge depends on that which yields a higher payoff. With this premise, submits two objectives. One is to investigate if an individual’s perceived payoff of sharing knowledge is contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. The other is to analyse the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing and determine if it can be characterised by an archetypical game in the game‐theoretic model. An empirical study was conducted among nearly 100 students in a local institute of higher education. The scope was confined to the students’ willingness to post asynchronous entries to an electronic discussion forum. Finds that the individual student’s perceived payoff of sharing knowledge was contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. Furthermore, the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing among them could be characterised by a multi‐person assurance game. In conclusion, discusses three implications for managers who aim to sustain asynchronous knowledge sharing in their organisations.