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Ecological security is not only an important aspect of national security, but also a red line to ensure the sustainability of towns' social economy. This paper takes the ecologically fragile towns of Xi'an in western China as the research object, and uses the PSR model to establish a town ecological security evaluation index system consisting of 21 indicators. Based on multi-source data, the ecological security status of 125 towns in the study area was evaluated. The results indicate that the average ecological security index of towns in 2020 was 0.568, which is generally in a critical ecological security state. Insufficient water resources, high population density, low waste disposal rate, and low vegetation coverage are the main factors threatening the ecological security of local towns. Based on the evaluation results, sustainable development suggestions were proposed to provide support for the ecological security and sustainable development of local towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palm oil business employs almost 20 million people, generates USD 21 billion in revenue, and plays a vital role in Indonesia's social economy. The Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) to Palm Oil Mills (POM) distribution system is one important aspect of fruit quality. Three steps are involved in getting Oil Palm FFB from the plantation to the POM. The first part of the procedure involves cutting FFB from the tree, the second stage involves gathering the fruit at a fruit collection point (FCP), and the third stage involves transporting the fruit to the palm oil mill (POM). As of now, the cost of the FFB transportation is still considerable, accounting for roughly 15% to 20% of the FFB pricing. The use of the Business Intelligence (BI) idea in the oil palm harvesting system is presented in this study as a foundation for creating web-based applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domain of human resources, the factors that encourage employees to transition to a specific sector are commonly known as "job incentives" or "career incentives." These encompass elements such as competitive salaries, appealing benefits packages, prospects for career progression, professional development initiatives, a positive work atmosphere, and meaningful tasks aligned with an employee's values and objectives. Saudi Arabia, in its ambitious 2030 Vision, aims to raise the nonprofit sector's contribution to the GDP from 3% to 5%. A key focus for achieving this goal is the religious tourism sector. This paper scrutinizes the incentives within the nonprofit realm, specifically within the religious tourism sector. To pinpoint the necessary incentives for attracting highly skilled personnel, a survey was conducted using Gallup's Employee Engagement Survey. Additionally, exit interviews were analyzed to comprehend the reasons behind employees leaving the sector. The findings revealed that certain factors significantly influence employee turnover. Addressing these factors expected to enhance employee retention and increase the sector's overall appeal. These factors include, among others, the work environment, job security, opportunities for career growth, and the perception of nonprofit sector employees. Study has shown the important challenges faced by the non-profit sector organizations and pointed out some valuable incentives needed for the organizations to help and guide the stakeholders for developing a more conducive work environment to provide best possible services to the pilgrims at holy places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to look into the function of BIM in project management in Iraq. Because of the global development in construction, the construction sector is regarded as a critical sector in today's economy. The construction industry is vital not only to the economy and social life of a community, but also to the requirements and inspiration of its culture. This research covers a Building Information Modeling analysis of a project in Iraq at all stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the practice of leading countries, digital transformation implies a sectoral principle of support for the introduction of new technologies. At the same time, programs and projects can be built both on the principle of implementing a single promising group of in several industries, where it is especially relevant, and, conversely, provide for the digital transformation of a particular industry through the forceful introduction of a multitude of technologically diverse solutions demanded in a given sector of the economy or social sphere. of a given sector of the economy or social sphere. Digital transformation affects a wide range of industries and organizations, from the most advanced in terms of digital adoption (e.g., financial services) to the more conservative real sector; this paper examines digital transformation in the agro-industrial complex (agriculture). The key task of digital transformation of agriculture is to extract value from the collected big data about the internal and external environment. The foundation for this is cloud platforms, big data solutions, predictive analytics technologies, and decision support systems decision support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To rationally reduce traffic noise emission from road network from the perspective of planning, a regional traffic flow distribution method combining time and noise integrated resistance function is proposed, and the method is applied in a typical region to verify its reasonability and practicability. Firstly, according to Greenshields model, the relationship among three traffic parameters (velocity, density and flow) is described, and combined with a line-source emission model of traffic noise, a univariate noise prediction model based on flow is established. Then, with the establishing of the traffic noise resistance function, an integrated resistance model considering traffic noise impact and travel time impact is proposed, which is used for traffic flow distribution while in the road network planning process. Finally, the network planning is realized utilizing the proposed method considering traffic noise. A network planning case in a typical region shows that the method can effectively reduce the noise emission of the regional network, which has practical value in traffic environment control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and territorial cooperation is an important component of funds dedicated to the Instrument for Preaccession Assistance II (IPA II). The participation of the state, private entities, community and third sector make cross border cooperation a strong tool for joint initiatives in various economic, social, environmental and political fields. Within IPA II, the Western Balkans CBC has been provided an added value in terms of funding local development in isolated, peripheral areas that have historically received little policy attention and investments from national governments. The focus of the research will be on CBC funds results regarding regional cooperation within WBC. The paper will analyze the cross-border cooperation differences between different municipalities based in financial assistance from EU, IPA II funds (2014-2020) as a region at the external border of EU identification of different degrees of involvement of border municipalities/settlements in cross-border cooperation in the Balkan region and its impact in promoting good neighbour's relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to financial resources for SSE entities remains a relevant issue in the spotlight, as despite the emergence of several initiatives and schemes to address this problem, the search for appropriate types of funding is still ongoing. Specifically, the focus of this article will be on the study of SIBs (Social Impact Bonds) which are an innovative financing mechanism that has been more recently developed. It will analyse a type of financing that is conditional on the achievement of results, as well as the actors involved and its role as an innovative system for social enterprises, which overcomes the numerous obstacles that social enterprises often have been encountering when accessing finance. In order to achieve this objective, the article is divided into five sections. The first section, that is the theoretical background, will provide a discussion of the main approaches to social enterprise, aiming to reach a common understanding of the concept, address the role of these social entities in the SDGs and their financing needs. Then, the second part of the study will offer a framework for understanding as SIBs can be a tool for social enterprises. Finally, conclusions will be drawn about the innovative way of financing social enterprise initiatives represented by Social Impact Bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Reinforcing the image of NPOs to promote signs of credibility and transparency towards society is a key research topic to help NPO managers and professionals support the survival of the sector. Accountability in the nonprofit sector is crucial (Brandtner, 2021; Tacon, Walters, & Cornforth, 2017) as a way, on the one hand, to strengthen trust and credibility and, on the other hand, to improve relationships and show transparency in its activities (Costa & Goulart da Silva, 2019). Therefore, it is especially important for NPO managers to implement internal controls or governance and transparency mechanisms and then demonstrate and disclose to stakeholders that the resources are used effectively and are entirely allocated to fulfil their mission. If these ethical initiatives are visible to stakeholders, they may provide added value to NPOs (Urionabarrenechea & Lage, 2019) by creating a more responsible framework that is characterized by increasingly inclusive and transparent organizational practices (Saxton & Guo, 2011). Considering that information disclosure related to NPOs is not regulated, this gap leads to the implementation of voluntary good governance initiatives. This article examines the relevance of information disclosure by NPOs through different good governance initiatives in several countries. Our study aims to cover this gap by seeking a deeper understanding of good governance initiatives for NPOs, given their importance. Methodology: This work is based on a literature review of a selection of papers. This process allow authors to discover prior results, understand the depth and details of the existing knowledge, and identify gaps for further reseach lines (Mohamed Shaffril, Samsuddin, & Abu Samah, 2021). The first phase in a literature review is to define the research question (RQ) that the study aims to answer. The following RQ was determined for this review: what good governance initiatives for NPOs are proposed in the literature?The second phase consists of identifying relevant papers according to the RQ. This step is very important. If the selected papers are irrelevant or inappropriate, the contribution of the whole process will be missing (Sangwa & Sangwan, 2018). Two key aspects must be established in advance at this step (Denyer & Tranfield, 2009; Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003): databases and search terms. Scopus and WoS were used to conduct the literature analysis. These are the largest databases used for searching the literature in different scientific fields (Guz & Rushchitsky, 2009; Joshi, 2016). The choice of search terms was based on keyword selection. The third phase consists of establishing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the search. Below, we describe the 3 criteria for including a paper in our final sample. (1) The search was limited to “articles” as a type of document written in the English language published until 2021, inclusive, whose titles, abstracts or keywords (TAK) met the search criteria. (2) The publications were selected from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. In addition, articles must be published in journals with impact indexes, specifically the Journal Citation Report (JCR) (2020 version). In the JCR index, journals are ranked and comprise the most prestigious literature (Alegre & Moleskis, 2021). According to the aforementioned criteria, the authors revised journals in the fields of the nonprofit sector, third sector, voluntary sector or ethics. The reviewed journals (alphabetically ordered) that meet these criteria are “Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility19”, “Journal of Business Ethics”, “Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly”, “Nonprofit Management & Leadership”, and “VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations”. This filtering process returned 647 papers featured in top-ranking journals. Limiting the analysed journals to those that specifically focus on the nonprofit field is an exclusion criterion that has been previously applied (see, for example, Cornforth, 2012; Garkisch, Heidingsfelder, & Beckmann, 2017; Maier, Meyer, & Steinbereithner, 2016). (3) The following criteria were used to evaluate the articles: First, titles, abstracts and keywords (TAK) were read to identify papers that were relevant according to the RQ previously described. Second, the authors read the entirety of these articles to gain a broader appreciation of the field of study and proceeded by selecting the studies that focused on good governance initiatives to help NPOs be accountable to their stakeholders. Results: In total, 25 papers about good governance initiatives were collected from topranking journals to comprise the basis of this study. Following a literature review, the self-regulation instruments NPOs currently use for achieving accountability to increase credibility towards society are identified and analysed. The results suggest that the sector uses self-regulation to show stakeholders its governance practices. Self-initiatives targeting continuous improvement distinguish NPOs that learn from their mistakes and their successes. However, there is disparity in their use and geographical distribution. Originality: This study provides an original analysis of 26 initiatives from 23 institutions in 18 countries worldwide. Practical Implications: Finally, this research presents a guide for managers to improve the services provided and the effectiveness of resource use. These good governance initiatives recognize the good work done by organizations managed with transparency and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Recent economic and social instability, which has been increased by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has prompted nonprofit organizations (NPOs), whose role in society has been widely questioned (Türkel et al. 2021), to be considered economically critical to help preserve “the welfare state” in all social strata. Given that the early identification of social needs with similar characteristics to manage them efficiently is their main mission, NPOs provides tools aimed at meeting such needs. Hence, NPOS are primarily focused on fulfilling that social purpose (Crettez et al. 2021). Accordingly, because NPOs do not have profitable objectives (Lee and Zhang 2020) and, therefore, cannot be effectively studied with traditional measurement tools, such as profitability or profit, the existence of alternative instruments that allow an evaluation of their management becomes important; likewise, evaluating whether NPOs have contributed to fulfil the social purposes for which they were created is crucial (Maguregui et al. 2015). Therefore, NPO reputation could be used as an alternative mechanism to reveal how an entity has been managed given that, among other aspects, it reflects the trustworthiness of financial reports (Kitching 2009). Furthermore, this research aims to redefine NPO reputation by investigating the basic elements that compose it to develop a complete definition that allows an evaluation of its influences and its impact on an NPO’s management. Since reputation is an intangible resource (Hume and Hume 2008; Kumi and Copestake 2021; Padanyi and Gainer 2003; Sarstedt and Schloderer 2010) which can help NPOs to achieve a competitive advantage (Buonomo et al. 2020), this paper also intends to provide an instrument to improve management in NPOs, through which an effective response to meet the demands of any stakeholders, both internal and external, can be carried out to foster lasting relationships with them; i.e., an instrument that considers NPO stakeholders main actors when determining NPO strategies (Ivašković 2019).Thus, this work provides a basis for understanding how reputation is formed in NPOs by delving into the elements that configure NPO reputation and providing a full definition, whose primary purpose is to help improve NPO management, thereby complying with the levels of efficiency societies require of this sector. Methodology: This work was carried out through the implementation of a common method in the social sciences, i.e., a systematic review of the relevant literature. This technique facilitates a manual establishment of the search criteria, a characteristic that makes it the most suitable method for our field of study (Ortega-Rodríguez et al. 2020). To properly apply this method, we have followed its 5-step structure (Denyer and Tranfield 2009; Kraus, S., Breier, M. y Dasí-Rodríguez 2020) as follows: (1) formulating the research question; (2) identification of the studies; (3) selection and evaluation of relevant studies; (4) analysis and synthesis; and (5) presenting research results. Step 1: Formulating the research question The main goal of this step is the identification of the research questions (RQs). Accordingly, we can formulate the following research questions: RQ1: What are the main characteristics of NPO reputation? RQ2: What are the factors in which an NPO´s reputation influence? RQ3: What does NPO reputation depend on? Step 2: Identification of the studies The importance of this step is based on the choice of an appropriate literature that allows us to correctly proceed through the successive steps (Sangwa and Sangwan 2018). In the specific case of this work, the two following stages are included. Stage 2.1: Identification of the databases We use two databases that have been used by extant research to create our starting list of studies, WOS and Scopus. Stage 2.2: Keywords and search strings The keywords were identified. On the one hand, Set 1 lists all the terms used to define the nonprofit, or third, sector; on the other hand, Set 2 comprises only reputation and intangible asset as its search terms. The search strings result from the combination of both sets. Step 3: Selection and evaluation of the relevant studies To select only relevant research, the search was limited to “articles”, as document type, that were written in English. Notably, the search was limited to studies published by 2020; that is, there was no initial time restriction. Due to overlaps in the two databases, we identified Scopus papers that had already been identified in WOS and eliminated them. Therefore, after excluding duplicates, we selected only the journals indexed in JCR. Phase 3B: Evaluation of the relevant studies. Here, we used reading titles, abstracts and keywords (TAKs) to exclude all the papers without any relation with the main purpose of our work from the final sample. Step 4: Analysis and synthesis In this phase, a complete reading of the 271 articles selected in the previous phase (Step 3) is carried out to specify those papers closely related to our object of study that would comprise our final sample. Finally, Step 5: Presenting research results. Results: Regarding the 52 papers that make up our final sample, NPO reputation is a complex intangible asset whose definition extends beyond what prior researchers have presented. In other words, NPO reputation is much more than society's perception of the activity carried out by an NPO. Moreover, among all the research contributions made to date, none has exhaustively defined NPO reputation. With reference to the current literature, the study of NPO reputation is clearly incipient and lacks development. Therefore, the research contributions analysed in this SLR verify that the understanding of NPO reputation is insufficient and, in particular, that there is no general and standardized definition that allows us to effectively assess NPO reputation. Thus, the primary objective of our research was this aspect, with the intention of bridging the information gaps in this field of study. Originality: The originality of this paper is based on the attempt to propose a definition of the reputation of nonprofit organizations since, as demonstrated by this systematic review of literature in the nonprofit field, there is no consensus on the definition of this intangible asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the partial results of a research study conducted within the project AI Assistant for Pupils and Teachers. The university, non-profit sector and organization established by the Ministry of Education are cooperating on this project. The aim of the project is to prepare an AI assistant for communication with teachers and pupils. The output of the project should be a system that communicates with pupils and teachers. AI assistant will offer them appropriate teaching materials based on their needs. The system will use not only pre-prepared materials (which is the case presented in this paper), but will be able to independently search and evaluate materials in open databases. We primarily focus on supporting the teaching and learning of mathematics and Czech language. In this paper, we focus on one of the partial researches. The aim of this research was to prepare and experimentally test the possibility of using a series of pre-prepared math problems of an increasing difficulty for individual (partly pupil-managed) practice of algebraic expressions. The topic of algebraic expressions was chosen because it is relatively well-structured and is therefore suitable for this method of processing. At the same time, and this is very important, the topics include the so-called critical topics, i.e. topics that cause problems for pupils and where pupils very often seek help. The topic of algebraic expressions is divided into several subchapters, each of which contains about ten steps, consisting of three tasks, one of basic, one of standard and one of higher difficulty, and supporting materials for mastering them. The pupil can decide what difficulty of the task they want to solve and what supporting materials they want to use. The developed application is available to pupils online in the web environment as well as in the form of an app for the mobile phone. The application has already been published and is in a test regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and weather play significant role in the urban areas function. They impact on the social and economy life, on the environment and infrastructure, on the biodiversity. That's why the occurrence of extreme or untypical events is a challenge. Droughts are part of these processes. They are prolonged events that can lead to serious harmful impacts. For this purpose of importance is the becoming of reliable knowledge about such behaviour that can serve as a base for the selection of appropriate prevention and mitigation measures. This is possible by the implementation of recent scientific studies in the area that refer best to local specifics. In help of professionals and decision makers in the area this paper focuses on the droughts phenomena in urban areas. It observes the problem as a part of the climateenvironmental nexus. In this context the droughts vulnerability is examined in an integrated way, considering the main aspects and scientific approaches for droughts diagnostics. To illustrate the process in the material are summarized the results of a droughts study for one Bulgarian town - Teteven, situated in the northern slopes of the central Balkan in the Beli Vit river valley. For this reason it is implemented an integrated set of drought indicators that can ensure in parallel the detecting of meteorological and hydrological droughts and to serve for droughts vulnerability evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Secretary of Tourism for the autonomous region of Valencia recently declared that the time has come to plan the end of the great dependencies, i.e., mass tourism from the traditional source markets that has been the historical trend in the Spanish tourism market for half a century. Certainly, the pandemic has been a serious shock for the tourism sector and therefore, the design and implementation of a paradigm shift is needed where the focus should be placed on people and on social responsibility and sustainability. This is the great challenge we face at the moment if we do not want to return to the episodes of tourism-phobia prior to the pandemic, or to the lack of workers due to the precariousness and low quality of employment. In December 2021, the European Commission presented the European Social Economy Action Plan stating that it contributes to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. It emphasises its relevance in terms of its contribution to the GDP of the countries where this type of economy is most developed. This article aims to verify that the social economy has a huge potential to empower young people and women; and in the tourism sector, it can foster the development of new enterprises which, in many cases, can in turn contribute to the local development of depopulated rural areas. In this way, the social economy plays an important role in the creation of quality jobs and also, social and labour inclusion. On the other hand, by enhancing the human factor, the tourist experience becomes emotional and therefore unforgettable, and consequently will be recommended later on in the country of origin. In focusing on local culture, quality and unique initiatives may be developed which, when implemented by the members of the community themselves, may thus become a model that clearly differentiates from impersonal mass tourism. As a result, the sustainable development goals and the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda are attached the importance they deserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved in 2015 and reflected in the 2030 Agenda, have meant a turning point in existing public initiatives of a social and environmental nature. Whether at the level of the European Union, the Spanish State, its autonomous communities or even in the case of numerous city councils, it is common to explicitly link the relationship between different initiatives and their potential contribution to achieving the SDGs. Companies have turned out to be a key factor in promoting more sustainable development and in managing social and environmental impacts. The world of cooperative organisations has not been exempted from the opportunities and obligations that meeting the SDGs brings. In this context, Florida Universitària, a founding member of the Laboratorio de los ODS de la Empresa Valenciana conduct a qualitative study related to Valencian social economy enterprises in order to determine: (i) the degree of knowledge of the SDGs and the level of depth about what they are and what they mean, (ii) which SDGs are most aligned with productive activity and how enterprises can contribute to their fulfilment, (iii) what are the main obstacles encountered by Valencian social economy enterprises in the implementation of the SDGs and (iv) which SDGs most enterprises comply with and which ones they do not. Results show that SDGs are part of the DNA of Valencian cooperatives, and they are working very hard to increase the level of fulfilment of these objectives, although it is a complex process, full of challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20-ties of the 21st century are dented by the COVID-19 period. The fall of the world economy, the frustrations of the inhabitants because of their health, and unclear state policies throughout continents require functional measures. The application of the principles of social economy enables creation of the working system of sustainable entrepreneurial activities with the help of state means, transforming small and middle-sized enterprises into a social economy. The knowledge on the system and organization structure of the social economy in the Slovak Republic enables dissemination and potential application in the international context in the current pandemic period characterized by COVID-19. The system of social economy is being defined by Slovak legal regulations and selected statistic indicators about the social economy subjects in the Slovak Republic. A part of it is also a structural classification of the organizational structure of the state administration of the social economy, classification of the kinds of social enterprises, as well as classification of the wider area of the social economy from the multiple points of view in the Slovak Republic. The research results can be used as an argument for implementing of social economy in national economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the UN has introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the EU is promoting the European Green Deal much more attention is drawn to sustainability management. The Social Economy consists mostly of nonprofits, who are lacking skills related to this new kind of management. These organisations need staff members with skills in sustainability too. It is necessary to include these topics in the university education of future managers in Social Economy. The main goal of eco3 is to fill this gap and elaborate an educational package with 15 ECTS for Social Economy study programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a time of extraordinary technological advancement that has generated new ways of living in society and new ways of transmitting knowledge. Nevertheless, society is far from generating widespread well-being, which is why social economy initiatives are vital in minimizing situations such as inequality, poverty, migration, etc. One of the great challenges of the social economy is to secure the necessary funding for the organizations and institutions in the sector. About a decade ago a new stream of economics emerged - the impact economy. This is an exploratory study on the relevance that the new investment mechanism - impact investment - can play in financing the social economy. In recent years, new views on the economy have created innovative instruments with the aim of maximizing the quality of life and the well-being of citizens and promoting the increasingly threatened environmental sustainability. This is where the impact economy - a mechanism designed to capture value through the combination of financial, social and environmental returns - falls into place. Funding sources are as relevant as the complexity and new challenges that the tertiary sector faces today and are essential to bridge the funding gap to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) by 2030 and help the world combat irreversible consequences as reported by the OECD and the World Bank. Our study allowed to conclude that impact investment can be an alternative source of funds for organizations in the tertiary sector; it can effectively create a highly efficient impact thus benefiting a larger number of projects and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, allow users to create a public profile and interact with other users. One of its features is having a business page wherein users or business minded people advertise and sell their products online. Living in the fast phase environment and advancing technology, the role of social media in the social economy is seen to increase. SMEs are facing strong expectations for their role to be key players when economies recover from the present global recession. Previous researches include the use of social media as a marketing strategy for businesses however, the standard design for business platforms is yet to be realized. Such in the case of Facebook, it is observed that the features, use, and settings of its business page are not being maximized by the business owners. Nonetheless, it is the intent of this study to standardize business platforms in social networking sites. Focusing on Facebook's platform, the researchers were able to classify the categories that small and medium online businesses sell as well as assess its significant factors and failure points that may affect customer's decision making using the Facebook page interface. Lastly, to meet the user requirements for the proposed business platform design, the study used Quality Function Development and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on dynamic pricing has been growing during the last four decades due to its use in practice by a variety of companies as well as the several model variants that can be considered. In this work, we consider the particular pricing problem where a firm wants to sell one item to a single buyer in order to maximize expected revenues. The firm commits to a price function over an infinite horizon. The buyer has a private value for the item and purchases at the time when his utility is maximized. In our model, the buyer is more impatient than the seller and we study how important is to observe the buyer time arrival in terms of the seller's expected revenue. When the seller can observe the arrival of the buyer, she can make the price function contingent on the buyer's arrival time. On the contrary, when the seller cannot observe the arrival, her price function is fixed at time zero for the whole horizon. The value of observability is defined as the worst case ratio between the expected revenue of the seller when she observes the buyer's arrival and that when she does not. Our main result is to prove that in a very general setting, the value of observability is at most 4.911. To obtain this result we fully characterize the observable setting and use this solution to construct a random and periodic price function for the unobservable case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurship in Russia is at the initial stage of its development. As a rule, social enterprises are separate initiatives that have received methodological and organizational support through state programs and financial assistance from private and public funds. Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new mechanism for Russia to solve social problems of certain groups of the population by including them in economic relations. First, young people can be considered as potential initiators of such innovations and social entrepreneurship projects. Secondly, the resource characteristics of the younger generation can help existing projects find their target audience and get information support in social networks, where young people form their own field of communication. The purpose of this article is to study the experience of attracting young people to participate in events to promote social inclusive workshops in a major Russian city. Key research questions: can youth participation form networks of partners, potential and actual consumers of social enterprise products? What is the social effect of such participation on young people and social enterprises? The study was conducted in the non-profit organization "Open city" in Ekaterinburg. The case study method was used to assess youth participation. The following methods were used in the case study: analysis of internal documents of NGOs and open information resources, included monitoring, in-depth interviews with employees of the organization. The report analyzes the project "Ekaterinburg is an Open city", where during the month active citizens came up with fundraising events together with employees of social inclusive workshops and initiative youth. The participation of young people in forming networks of social entrepreneurship's partners is a serious step towards the formation of an effective information field for the non-profit sector of Ekaterinburg. Philanthropy becomes fashionable and popular in certain target audiences. Purposeful work with young influencers through delegating responsibility to young student and community leaders only strengthens the effect of social entrepreneurship projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental management of Dayak Ngaju tribe, especially in Mantangai Sub-district is a local community strategy for maintaining their current lives. The ethnoecological studies in Mantangai Sub-district, Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan Province has been conducted during July 2018. The objective of the study is to record and classify the landscape unit based on the local knowledge perspectives. Collecting data was conducted using semi-structured interviews, direct observation, and literature study. The results show that local community divided into six units of landscapes as a place to fulfill the daily needs of the Dayak Ngaju communities. The unit landscapes are batang danum (river), lewu (villages), parakayu (protected forest, customary forest, and village forest), kabun gita (rubber plantation), tana (fields of vegetables and rice plants), and bahu rambung (old fields or field that have not been used for several years). Differences in community perspectives of land use are due to changes in the environment, cultural conditions, and social economy. It can create a landscapes composition and adaptation strategies that are also different to complete their daily needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coffee is one of the leading commodities in Bali, one of which is Robusta coffee. This study aimed to determine the structuring and interaction of institutions in the development of Robusta coffee agroindustry systems in Bali Province. This study used Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) techniques using expert judgment in the form of questionnaires, interviews and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The elements analyzed in the ISM technique in this study were (1) the sector of society affected, (2) needs in development, (3) main obstacle, (4) possible changes, (5) program objectives, (6) benchmarks in development, (7) activities needed, (8) impact of development and (9) institutions involved. Based on the results of structuring and interaction on institutional development of Robusta coffee in Bali the key elements as follows: (1) Elements of the affected community sector were Subak Abian and Private Companies, (2) Elements of need for development were support for guidance, counseling, mentoring and HR motivation; guarantee of price and market access, (3) The main obstacle elements were less integrated institutional management and price uncertainty, (4) The possible element of change was the development of partnerships; increased interest and motivation to become coffee farmers; (5) The objectives of the program were to improve the welfare of farmers and improve the quality of coffee products and their derivatives. (6) Elements of the measurement of development were improving the quality of human resources and increasing the quality of coffee; (7) Elements of activities needed were mentoring business institutions; fostering and motivating integrated institutions, (8) Elements of the impact of development were the increasing number of partner entrepreneurs; increasing HR motivation and skills, (9) Elements of the institutions involved were Subak Abian and private companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The civil society in Slovakia, characterised by enforcement of its own interests even toward the state interests, commenced its formation since 1990. In the space of civil society in the spirit of ethics, humanism and social solidarity, various initiatives are formed to satisfy old and new social needs. New innovative tools to address societal challenges arising from the welfare state crisis, globalization, unemployment, poverty, population aging are currently being sought. In Slovakia a new scientific discipline is being born - social economics and new instrument of social politics in the form of social entrepreneurship. In the field of social economy it seems that activities and organizations have emerged that are similar to examples from Western Europe, but they are characterized by different dynamics and functionality. In this paper we point out the specifics of the development of the social economy in Slovakia. We analyze the social economy entities in the context of the historical development of the third sector, pointing out the differences and common features of the social economy and the non-profit sector. We are currently in a situation where practice precedes theory and there is lack research in this field. In order to develop the concept of social economy, it is necessary to strengthen the dissemination of good practice, public information and the introduction of comprehensive support for social enterprises. It is necessary to support and develop not only working integration social enterprises but also other types of entrepreneurship, that are active in providing goods and services to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and in the field of environmental protection. We identified weaknesses in the social economy sector and offered recommendations for practice in this field for further progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social economy nowadays embraces a great plurality of actors, i.e. cooperatives, social enterprises, credit cooperatives, mutual insurance companies, insurance cooperatives, various NGOs, addressed to solving developmental, social, cultural, educational, environmental and other challenges the contemporary society is faced with. The paper reflects on the role of cooperatives in addressing those challenges. Cooperatives, as people-centred enterprises owned, controlled and managed by and for their members, have significant impacts on redirecting economic processes, solving social challenges, improving the quality of life in the local community and environmental protection in many countries all over the world. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the state, trends and challenges regarding development of cooperatives, in the context of social economy, in Croatia. The research was realised in two phases during 2018, using on-line questionnaires as main research instruments. The first phase was related to specific characteristics of cooperatives operating in Croatia and challenges they are faced with while the second part was related to students' perceptions and attitudes regarding cooperatives as business models. This paper presents the result of the first research phase. The research has revealed various internal and external barriers which hinder further development of cooperatives in Croatia. The research results contribute to deeper understating of challenges and barriers cooperative are face with in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate and discuss the applications of marketing in the nonprofit sector, among international nonprofit organizations. The paper will focus on the role of Facebook in nonprofit marketing, this study aims to investigate the connection between Facebook engagement and real world behavior - in this case, donation and volunteer activity. The goals of this investigation were accomplished through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research backed by a thorough literature review. The content of three nonprofit organizations' Facebook pages was analyzed, and a survey was administered to the followers of these organizations. Findings revealed that a follower's perceptions of the content shared by the nonprofit organization, as well as his/her relationship with that nonprofit organization, positively influences that follower's engagement on Facebook in the form of likes, comments and shares. It was also revealed that engagement via Facebook is related to a follower's realworld donation and volunteer behavior. To achieve success via Facebook and garner donors and volunteers, international nonprofit organizations must therefore focus on sharing interesting and engaging content as well as building relationships with their followers through Relationship Marketing techniques and online interactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the sustained and rapid development of China's social economy, the total demand for coal has also increased, and the exploitation of coal has caused certain impacts and pollution on resources and the environment. At the same time, coal enterprises are increasingly aware that in order to develop coal mining technology, coal enterprises must meet new challenges in the future by strengthening management, introducing advanced foreign mining technology, and adopting new management theories and methods. This paper starts with the status quo of coal mining technology, analyzes the overview and characteristics of coal mining technology development, and conducts in-depth research on the status quo and strategy of coal mining technology development direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racially biased policing has been a central concern to a wide variety of social change organizations in both France and the United States. While French and American organizations have deployed a strikingly similar repertoire of strategies and tactics to combat this social problem, the kinds of organizations that implement specific tactics differs significantly in the two countries This paper argues that analyzing the vast and varied work of social change organizations in terms of organizational fields is uniquely helpful for understanding how organizations are constrained and enabled by their field positions. Organizations vary in their field position according to resources in the form of material and social capital. The comparative model illuminates the significant impact of inter-field and intra-field relations. This study draws on two and a half years of field work in Paris, France and the San Francisco Bay Area, include ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews with 76 individuals representing 52 different social change organizations, and the analysis of hundreds of pages of textual and digital data. In France, where the nonprofit sector is comparatively weak--more dependent upon the state, and less able to engage legal institutions--organizations are required to pool resources. As such, organizations engage in an exchange of resources, particularly economic and social capital, across the organizational field. Additionally, organizations of different forms and in different field clusters engage in overlapping strategies and tactics, signaling looser boundaries between organizational forms. In the United States, where there is a relatively strong nonprofit sector, collaboration and resource exchanges are less imperative. Instead, the more rigid boundaries translate to a division of organizational labor in terms of organizational activities. In addition, the organizations that are best poised to lead the fight against racially biased policing are those that possess significant amounts of both economic and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specialized knowledge and knowhow underlie the division of knowledge for the technology sectors of advanced economies, yet we know surprisingly little about the emergence and structural properties of how such knowledge is organized. I address this challenging task with a longitudinal study of face-to-face meetings and email exchanges among a large online-and-offline tech startup community. I trace the emergence of New York City's regional knowledge economy from an undifferentiated group of technology entrepreneurs and professionals in 2005 to a differentiated regional knowledge economy by 2015. These new sources of data enable us to see with greater clarity the network morphology of the division of knowledge in a high technology economy, as it undergoes both an increasing specialization among actors already in the system and also an influx of new people with different knowledge and interests. I then examine overlapping networks of membership in specialized meetup groups to measure and analyze the network morphogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which recent declines in religiosity in the United States have had any spillover effects on civic life. Using data on volunteering from 2002 to 2015, we examine both national trends and trends for large metropolitan areas. We make a distinction between volunteering for religious and secular causes as well as between volunteering rates and volunteering hours. We report three sets of findings. First, we map how the importance of faith-based organizations in the civic sector varies substantially across metropolitan areas, with some areas "specializing" in religious volunteering, others in secular volunteering, and still others scoring consistently along both dimensions. Second, we observe significant declines in the total supply of voluntary labor. The decline is larger for secular volunteering, because although secular and religious volunteering rates have declined in parallel, the decline in the latter has been partly offset by a recent surge in the average number of volunteering hours among religious volunteers. Third, we find higher rates of civic decline in areas where volunteering used to be more common, implying civic convergence across local areas. More specifically, our evidence points to greater civic decline in areas that used to rely more heavily on religious volunteers. Altogether, our findings offer some hints that declining religiosity has real civic impacts, but at the same time also emphasize the resilience of civic participation through religious organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Quebec welfare state expanded towards the end of the 1990s, precisely when other countries were shrinking state benefits. Against what existing theories would predict, this expansion took place at a moment when labor's power had weakened, the ruling Left party had scaled back its progressive commitments, and employers opposed the proposed reforms. Why did the Quebec welfare state expand in a broader context of retrenchment? We identify three main mechanisms to explain this outcome. First, laborallied progressive movements in the province filled the gap left by unions' retreat from direct actions and mass mobilization. Second, employers remained relatively weak and state-dependent, leading them to accept the government's agenda as long as it did not differ significantly from their priorities of deficit and tax reduction. Third, the idea of the social economy served as a "floating signifier" in the province's public policy debates of the 1990s, providing a framework within which unions, employers and the government could operate while assigning it different definitions and aims. After assessing the influence of these three mechanisms on Quebec welfare state expansion, we reflect on the theoretical implications of our argument for studies of social mobilization and policy development more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on some more general trends in marketing communication of nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic. It is based on some public opinion surveys regarding the effectiveness of marketing communication in the nonprofit organization sector, specific knowledge and awareness of the program of the nonprofit sector and willingness to be personally engaged in this area, analyses of communication practice of the nonprofit sector. The goal is to find the way to a more rational and long-term grounds on which to improve the current situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme floods as severe and unusual events are associated to wide range negative consequences such as: extreme floodplain flooding; crop, household, infrastructure and economy damages; social disturbance, etc. Their negative effects in most cases tend to disaster behavior, thus of especial interest is the problem with possible mitigation and prevention measures obtaining. Parts of them are Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM) that successfully can complement available grey infrastructure. In help of experts in the aria this material observes floods phenomenon, considering its physical behavior with regard to the cause, connected outcomes and possible measures that can be obtained, including nature based retention measures. As practical illustration one of the recent severe flood in Bulgaria – on the Skat river, that seriously affected the Mizia town in 2014 is presented. The event was examined considering connected hydrometeorological and topographical conditions, observing its severity and obtained for mitigation purposes measures. Presented discussion aims to clarify the role of NWRM, with accent on some problems associated to their practical implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises take rather small part of all legal entities, although they play an important role of social economy of any country. The enterprises involve in different activities and active social life the most vulnerable part of the society, make opportunities for the disadvantaged to be involved in the process of the creation of the economic value. According to their status, social enterprises have corporate income tax exemptions and may apply for the state support in Lithuania. These tools help to reduce the operating ineffectiveness and improvement of financial condition of social enterprises. The latest political discussions initiated several governmental decisions, which reduced the level of state support and exemptions of corporate income tax for social enterprises under opinion, that such enterprises may misuse the status of social enterprises and accordingly the other tools of state incentives. Therefore, such amendments may change the position of social enterprises and raise the need to evaluate their impact on the financial condition of social enterprises. The purpose of the research is to evaluate the impact of state support and corporate income exemptions for social enterprises on the financial condition of social enterprises. The object of the research involves data of balances sheets and income statements of social enterprises, the information on the state support for the period of 2013 – 2017. The legislation analysis, the inductive and deductive methods, the methods of systematisation, comparison and summary of information were used for the research. The research results show, that the reduction of corporate income tax exemptions would not make a significant impact on the financial condition for most social enterprises, as they would be able to apply corporate tax exemptions for small enterprises. Although the reduction of the state support may limit opportunities to develop business of social enterprises and to reduce the employment of disadvantaged population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today an impact of government on citizens' daily life is bigger than ever before. The extent to which people support governmental actions is related with their support of the whole political system. The scope of government varies across different states as well as people's attitudes towards it also vary considerably. The scope of government, according Borre and Scarbrough (1998), is referred to both the range of government activity and the degree to which governments engage in activities, such as spending on services, taxing, regulating citizens and regulating their behaviour, providing resources for defence, improving the environment and sometimes doing nothing what concerns societal problems. Depending on the role of government in economy and social sphere we can distinguish how small or big the government is. The ISSP Role of Government module data provides a wide range of variables indicating people's attitudes towards different elements of governments' actions. Recent research, e. g. a study of Pew Research - The Generation Gap in American Politics (March, 2018) - shows the important difference in generational attitudes towards the scope of government. According to this study two younger USA generations, Millennials and Gen Xers, stand apart from the two older cohorts, Baby Boomers and Silents - especially Millennials (those, who were born in 1981 and later) have increasingly liberal outlook. Thus, the main question of this article - does the same generational divide might be observed in other countries and what are the main differences in generational attitudes towards the scope of government from the crossnational perspective?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide use of hydraulic system in industrial equipment, the energy-saving design of hydraulic system is of great significance to social economy. Based on the analysis of energy consumption of hydraulic system, this paper analyzes the selection basis of pump, and compares the influence of constant pressure variable pump, load sensitive pump and multi-pump driving power control on the system, which provides some reference experience for the follow-up study of power energy saving of hydraulic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The website is a popular type of information system that has been used by many organisations including the nonprofit. Thus, the website is an important communication medium that widely used to deliver information to their stakeholders in many sectors. The main purpose of this study is to validate an instrument based on website quality construct from the Delone and McLean Model. The CFA validation included three constructs namely information, system and service quality. The study collected 269 valid responses from all the ten NPO website users. The finding indicated that four items were deleted from 12 items each in information and system quality. While nine items were deleted from 17 items in service quality. The Cronbach's Alpha value for the pilot test was from 0.917 to 0.945. While the Cronbach's Alpha value for the real data collection was from 0.884 to 0.899. The initial amount of items was 41, however after the CFA validation, the items settled at 24 for 3 variables. It can be concluded that in general, the items in this study, were valid and reliable to estimate all three constructs. Therefore the modified CFA model was able to represent in the second level (measurement model) of specifying and validating the constructs in SEM analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the potential of Russian students to engage them in social activities in the university environment. Youth movement as an organized practice is quite familiar for Russian universities. The youth organization Komsomol (Young Communist League) was widespread across the Soviet Union. In recent years, Russian government with new power supports different forms of student engagement using a non-profit sector. The main problem which we consider in this article is the variety of forms of students' social activity. In our opinion, some collective forms of social activity could become an important condition which is essential for the development of the intellectual capital of universities. Certain kinds of students' activities as an engagement develop personal and professional potential of youth, create a field for the development of socio-productive and personalprofessional relationships in universities. The university sphere is not only an intellectually capacious sector, but also the center of the social activity. In this paper we analyze results of national representative online survey of students (2015; N=930, accidental sample). We polled students of all federal universities and leading universities from 14 Russian regions. All respondents are members of thematic communities in different social networks, which unites active young people, young men and women who took part in various mass youth programs and projects. Key research question was: What structures of social interaction or social relations inside the universities affect the development of scientific activity of students? The results of factor analysis let the authors study the experience of social activity of students; in other words, their engagement in activity of different non-commercial organizations. We have found that those students who were engaged in activity of university's internal community organizations are more inclined to scientific work. Such socially active students most likely won't leave home university and continue their educational or scientific activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether a communin' engagement organization is effective depends upon its ability to aiticulate its intact, o: the extent to which its outcomes can be attributed to its activities or outputs. This ability to effectively articulate its impact is predicated upon the collection and analysis of data associate with the organization's output. A smaller affiliate of a national non-profit undertook an initiative to improve its ability to aiticulate its impact-specifically its means for collecting data on its activities. The data will be used to measure the affiliate's outcomes or the effects of the affiliate's activities or its outputs. It will then attempt to hold static die effect of other mfhieneers to draw conclusions about the affiliate's impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a methodology for assessing sustainability performance by using financial reports of organisations. In this process, we applied Talcott Parsons' AGIL paradigm, which is based on system theory and states that the continuity of a social system requires the balance performance between all four components of the system: adaptation (A), goal attainment (G), integration (I) and latent pattern maintenance (L) or values [1]. In her doctoral thesis, Roostalu proved that the AGIL paradigm constitutes a general sustainability model [2]. Based on that, we developed an original model for assessing sustainability performance. Additionally, we experimented this model on the 2015 profit and loss accounts of 70 Estonian state-owned foundations by using several expenditure accounts as sustainability indicators, determining the levels of each sustainability dimension. Our model indicates that there have been positive results in adaptation (A) and values (L), but the levels of integration (I) and goals (G) remain low. Foundations are organisations that collaborate with the state in order to achieve goals of public interest. Our results show that there is a need to deepen the systemic and holistic approach to the management of sustainable development in the public sector. Moreover, these results draw attention to the importance of the theoretical heritage of Talcott Parsons for sustainability researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ridesharing markets are complex: drivers are strategic, rider demand and driver availability are stochastic, and complex city-scale phenomena like weather induce large scale correlation across space and time. At the same time, past work has focused on a subset of these challenges. We propose a model of ridesharing networks with strategic drivers, spatiotemporal dynamics, and stochasticity. Supporting both computational tractability and better modeling flexibility than classical fluid limits, we use a two-level stochastic model that allows correlated shocks caused by weather or large public events. Using this model, we propose a novel pricing mechanism: stochastic spatiotemporal pricing (SSP). We show that the SSP mechanism is asymptotically incentive-compatible and that all (approximate) equilibria of the resulting game are asymptotically welfare-maximizing when the market is large enough. The SSP mechanism iteratively recomputes prices based on realized demand and supply, and in this sense prices dynamically. We show that this is critical: while a static variant of the SSP mechanism (whose prices vary with the market-level stochastic scenario but not individual rider and driver decisions) has a sequence of asymptotically welfare-optimal approximate equilibria, we demonstrate that it also has other equilibria producing extremely low social welfare. Thus, we argue that dynamic pricing is important for ensuring robustness in stochastic ride-sharing networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hukou system is a dynamic but enduring system that shapes migration and perpetuates China's infamous urban-rural divide. Scholars argue that reforms to the hukou system are simply window dressing, leading to minor adjustments that do little to alter the core dualistic structure that characterizes Chinese society and economy. This is because policy has been localized, allowing large wealthy cities like Beijing and Shanghai protect their generous local social welfare programs by maintaining restrictive hukou policies, while small cities have nothing to lose, encouraging them to initiate hukou reform and welcome migrants. This study extends brings China's second-tier cities into the analysis. In terms of size, second-tier cities are located in the middle of the spectrum between the extremes of large global cities and small cities, but in terms of importance, they are home to a majority of China's population and an increasing number of migrants. This study shows how second tier cities move beyond the all or nothing approach to hukou reform that is adopted by large global and small cities. It presents a comparative case study of local migratory regimes in four cities: one mega-metropolis (Beijing), two second-tier cities (Nanjing and Wuhan) and one small city (Tongling), and reveals that local hukou policies and migratory regimes are determined not only by the wealth of a city but also by the local political economy and the ways in which cities are connected and integrated into the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the strategies to be adopted to promote nonprofit education and networking through strategic business practices and by implementing nonprofit curricula and classes. It mentions that students are educated to be nonprofit leaders and managers through curriculum of service learning. It also mentions that Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA) programs boost nonprofit education.

Question of tourism as an important factor of local and national economies, particularly in countries in which the tertiary sector is a major segment of employment, very serious. This is related to the inturismuseasing pressure on the natural environment, which is under pressure development projects and inturismuseasing attendance. One of the unseen, but recently an important tool to control the negative effects of the tourist information centres. Their irreplaceable role in the orientation of the visitor destination and role in stimulating tourism is important. The quality of the services of these centres in recent years, undergo an elaborate system of certification. This benefit and contribute to the development of their region. The study presents preliminary comparison of locality The Jizerske hory Mountains in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, the Social Economy is responsible for about 10% of the European business sector, with a share of about 6% in total employment (about 11 million people), revealing an industry that will be called to give a greater contribution to the current problems of unemployment and social cohesion in Europe due to the ongoing social and economic transformation. However, research on the phenomena of the Social Economy still lacks in many respects, concerning, for example, its role in the development of local, regional and national competitiveness. There is a lack of methodologies, tools and indicators appropriate to the social economy. This could be caused by the complexity and diversity of the organizations, on one hand, which is a barrier to their comparability, and on the other hand, to its late and recent recognition on the production of public services. Changes on public policies, the economic and financial crisis, the spread of unemployment and poverty, brings to the light the importance of these organizations, which are ceasing to be residual in economic terms, and are becoming, alongside the State and the Market, a mainstay of the economy. This article is a case study of a Social Economic Organization, where we will examine, in the light of the literature on strategic management, and innovation, its organizational change, which was critical to ensure its survival. Through this case study we intend to increase the understanding and the knowledge on the main motivations, barriers and facilitating factors leading to the improvement of the quality of the services, and the efficiency of the management of the Social Economy Organizations, which contribute to its competitiveness and sustainability. The case study highlights a number of best practices in the design of structured innovation processes, which were supported by the Portuguese Program Q3-Qualifying the Third Sector, which may help similar organizations to improve their innovation and organizational processes, which are essential to increase their competitiveness and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to assess innovation in Kenyan public sector organisations. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis were utilised. Middle managers and non-managerial employees of two public sector organisations (PSOs) participated in focus group discussions and completed self-administered questionnaires respectively. Sixteen managers (2 groups of 8 each) were interviewed in the focus groups and these data were analysed by extracting common themes. Of the 400 questionnaires distributed among employees, 230 were returned, but only 181 were usable. The measuring instrument consisted of a total of 102 5-point Likert type items and a brief biographical scale. A theoretical model of the relationships among drivers, barriers and innovation outcomes in PSOs was developed from literature, and the model was analysed by means of structural equation modelling utilising the AMOS programme. Firstly the main drivers, barriers and innovation outcomes in the public sector organisations were identified. Secondly the findings revealed that, there is little innovation in the two public sector organisations investigated. Thirdly, results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses showed contradictions between managers and employees on the factors perceived to be drivers of innovation in the public sector organisations, which were not only inconsistent within the present study, but also differed from previous studies. Despite this discrepancy, the present study contributes to the public sector innovation by developing a model that could further be refined in future studies to enhance the understanding of innovation in the public sector organisations. The present paper contributes to the body of knowledge through an extension of the literature in the field of public sector organisations and also by opening avenues for scholarly debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the research paper "Social Innovation Development: A Framework Proposition" by Ana Clarissa Santos and Claudia Cristina Bitencourt is presented.