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Despite many efforts and organizational investments, results in terms of workers' engagement are still poor and questions regarding its antecedents continue to attract researchers' attention. Leveraging the literature on engagement and the recent research development on meaningfulness, our study aims to investigate the role of the perceived social impact of work as a source of meaningfulness, which may enhance workers' engagement. This project is based on a survey of 484 workers of 24 Italian social enterprises, a privileged research context in which social mission and market sustainability are joined together. Our results, developed through a multiple regression analysis, provide empirical support for the mediated positive effects of social meaningfulness of work on job satisfaction and individual performance through job engagement. They corroborate the fruitful possibility of combining apparent dichotomies, such as work and life domains, social and economic dimensions, individual and organization perspectives. They also demonstrate the appropriateness of the role of social issues as relevant sources of work meaningfulness for diverse kinds of workers. The empirical evidence contributes to a better understanding of the role of social significance in work relationships with relevant theoretical and managerial implications both for social enterprise domain and for for-profit organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure on firms to be socially responsible is continuously increasing, yet social initiatives are not without controversy. Based on the literature on people engagement and social meaningfulness, our research aims to verify the role of organizational social values and actions as drivers of workforce engagement. The research project is based on a survey of 268 workers of 22 Italian social enterprises. Using structural equation modelling, our results provide empirical evidence on the antecedents of engagement, distinguishing between job and organization engagement. They confirm the relevance of the social meaningfulness of work and adherence to the social values of the organization as pertinent and appropriate drivers of engagement. The empirical evidence contributes to a better understanding of the role of social significance in work relationships, considering different types of workers and different and independent sources of engagement. In addition, relevant managerial implications are derived in relation to the design of HRM practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing vulnerability of SMEs and the worrying reluctance of the younger generation to become protagonists of new entrepreneurial ventures highlight the weakness of conventional approaches to entrepreneurship education, which are unable to guide and engage future entrepreneurs and emerging forms of SMEs towards larger international dimensions. We combine a Deleuzian rhizomatic perspective with an open innovation approach to propose a critical way of reinterpreting the entrepreneurship education and assess the implications for learning. To exemplify the potential for learning, we draw on an illustrative case of a post-graduate entrepreneurship program in Italy. The program promotes the creation of collective knowledge to revive the business dynamism of an Italian region. Its five learning "ingredients" include multidisciplinary content, open team projects, a rhizomatic learning process, dedicated learning places and a fun climate. The final discussion offers stimuli on the role of academia as a vital player in the education system to foster social and economic development, and to facilitate and promote collective learning processes among different actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]