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Recent work in children’s geographies and geographies of education has presented the argument that when conceptualising the various roles that adults occupy in children’s lives, it is equally important to conceptualise adultism. In this paper we argue that this existing work critiques adultism’s logics but does not adequately conceptualise adultism’s structural and scalar spatialities. We reconceptualise adultism as a structural and scalar phenomenon by examining our case study of a community music programme designed to reconnect children with their ‘learning identities’. We borrow the spatial metaphor of ‘chains’ from human geography’s postcapitalist literature to highlight how adultism structurally pervades this space of resistance, underscoring the more broadly applicable point that practices of resistance that fail to address adultism’s co-creative relationships with other structures of domination can end-up reasserting adultist relations. However, towards the end of the paper we argue that this reconceptualisation of adultism does not mean community music (or other critical pedagogies) should be abandoned, rather illustrating how the organisation in our case study innovate in order to address adultism’s structural and scalar facets.

Considering the impacts of the most recent global economic crisis in 2008/2009, this paper explores how firm size, type of business activity and approach to internationalisation influence SMEs’ survival. Based on the literature in the field, we developed three hypotheses regarding determinants of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) survival. We tested these hypotheses in a 7-year quantitative study and a survey of 344 SMEs in Poland – the seventh largest market in the European Union. Our findings reveal that, in the context of crisis, internationalisation acts as a stimulus for SMEs and influences their long-term sustainability, with businesses operating in foreign markets being more likely to survive after a global crisis. However, neither business size nor the type of business activity appears to have an impact on SMEs’ survival in a post-global economic crisis environment. Our paper extends knowledge about factors influencing a firm’s post-crisis survival and proposes a new framework for understanding characteristics of SMEs and their propensity to survive in a post-crisis context. In our conclusions, we discuss implications for SME entrepreneurs showing that, in order to enhance chances of survival, even small and medium enterprises should consider expanding business activities beyond their national markets.

Although frequently perceived as a ‘woolly’ policy concept and a means to reduce public service delivery costs, co-production can lead to increased quality and efficiency of services. In this paper, we explore the contribution of a community empowerment policy to co-production processes. Analysing empirical findings from a mixed-method, longitudinal study through the lens of Myers et al.’s (2017) Theory of Change, the paper develops a model of a successful co-production process. We show that changes in working practices and shifts in power can create friction between co-producing actors. By critiquing specific policies, we inform future co-production research, policy, and practice.

Peer reviewed: True, INTRODUCTION: This research investigates how community-led organisations' (CLOs') use of assets-based approaches improves health and well-being, and how that might be different in different contexts. Assets-based approaches involve 'doing with' rather than 'doing to' and bring people in communities together to achieve positive change using their own knowledge, skills and experience. Some studies have shown that such approaches can have a positive effect on health and well-being. However, research is limited, and we know little about which approaches lead to which outcomes and how different contexts might affect success. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Using a realist approach, we will work with 15 CLOs based in disadvantaged communities in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A realist synthesis of review papers, and a policy analysis in different contexts, precedes qualitative interviews and workshops with stakeholders, to find out how CLOs' programmes work and identify existing data. We will explore participants' experiences through: a Q methodology study; participatory photography workshops; qualitative interviews and measure outcomes using a longitudinal survey, with 225 CLO participants, to assess impact for people who connect with the CLOs. An economic analysis will estimate costs and benefits to participants, for different contexts and mechanisms. A 'Lived Experience Panel' of people connected with our CLOs as participants or volunteers, will ensure the appropriateness of the research, interpretation and reporting of findings. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This project, research tools and consent processes have been approved by the Glasgow Caledonian University School of Health and Life Sciences Ethics Committee, and affirmed by Ethics Committees at Bournemouth University, Queen's University Belfast and the University of East London. Common Health Assets does not involve any National Health Service sites, staff or patients.Findings will be presented through social media, project website, blogs, policy briefings, journal articles, conferences and visually in short digital stories, and photographic exhibitions.

Using Giddens’s structuration theory and empirical data from a study with social enterprise stakeholders, the article explores how social entrepreneurs and the structure co-create one another. We show that the development of the contemporary significance of social entrepreneurialism lies in a combination of complex context-specific structural forces and the activities of agents who initiate, demand, and impose change. Social entrepreneurs intentionally tackle social challenges, but their actions bring unintentional results, such as the transfer of state responsibilities onto communities. Direct outputs of their activities introduce indirect outcomes, bringing wider changes in culture and policy. The evolving nature of entrepreneurship and a number of factors that interplay in time and space, and enable and constrain social entrepreneurs, confirm the applicability of Giddens’s theory in the field of social entrepreneurship. The originality of this article derives from revealing mechanisms that enable social entrepreneurs to emerge and reasons for structural change. We also build a “co-creation model of structure and agency” that can be used to “engineer” the process of social entrepreneurship.

BACKGROUND Co-creation is increasingly seen as a way to democratize research and bridge the implementation gap between research and practice. Despite promises of increased effectiveness, relevance, and uptake of health interventions, progress is hindered by the lack of comprehensive and consolidated knowledge about co-creation. Assembling this knowledge into a database is a crucial step toward making co-creation a more robust, trustworthy, and evidence-based methodology. However, there are two considerable challenges to achieving this. First, there is a lack of clarity and standardization of the terminology about co-creation. Second, the rapid increase in scientific publishing means that obtaining comprehensive knowledge requires dealing with a vast body of literature, which is beyond human capacity. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to develop a curated database consolidating literature published about co-creation in diverse fields. The objectives were to pull together relevant literature for stakeholders interested in co-creation and its use, and to better understand the co-creation landscape and the potential causes of fragmentation. METHODS To comprehensively include relevant literature, this study developed a novel methodology by combining attributes of systematic review methodology (eg, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) with artificial intelligence technology. We set a broad definition of co-creation that captured the essence of existing definitions, and was inclusive of fields beyond public health, while still accommodating the variation in terminology. We then relied on artificial intelligence to effectively filter out irrelevant information. We also implemented a bibliometric analysis and a quality control procedure to assess the content and accuracy of the database. RESULTS The final version of the database includes 13,501 papers, which are indexed in Zenodo and accessible in an open-access downloadable format. The quality assessment showed that 20.35% (140/688) of the database likely contains irrelevant material, and that it captured 90.62% (58/64) of the relevant literature. Participatory, and forms of the term co-creation, occurred most frequently in the title and abstracts of included literature. Furthermore, the analysis of authorship, citations, and the source landscape, indicates that there is little collaboration within and between fields using co-creation. CONCLUSIONS This study produced a high-quality curated open-access database consolidating the literature about co-creation. In doing so, the study demonstrates that it is possible to consolidate knowledge about diffuse concepts using a combination of human and artificial intelligence. Through the bibliometric analysis, this study also visualizes the current co-creation landscape and the potential causes of fragmentation. The database lifts the main barrier that most researchers and practitioners will face in seeking evidence about co-creation, namely, the fragmentation of knowledge and the ensuing dilemma of having to deal with a vast amount of information. This database makes it possible to perform rapid literature reviews about co-creation.

Democracies are under pressure and public administrations must evolve to accommodate new forms of public participation. Participation processes may reproduce or disrupt existing power inequalities. Through a multi-method empirical study of “Participation Requests,” a new legislative policy tool to open up public services in Scotland, this article addresses an empirical gap on governance-driven democratic innovations (DIs). We use Young’s distinction of external and internal inclusion and find Participation Requests replicate the pitfalls of traditional forms of associative democracy. We contend that DIs should be co-produced between institutions and communities to bring a participatory and deliberative corrective to temper bureaucratic logics.

We examine the principles, purpose and practice of Community Wealth Building (CWB). Our case study, located in the UK, involves a Local Authority (LA), local community groups and local people, and the implementation of a CWB initiative by the LA. Action research enabled us to scrutinise the LA approach to the CWB initiative in terms of community engagement and consultation. We identified power and control tensions in relationships between the LA and different community groups (including local development trusts) that undermine the theoretical principles of CWB. Examination of these issues through a Bourdieuvian lens reveals the role played by power relations and highlights the need for ‘practical reflexivity’ in any community engagement process especially where institutions are at risk of misinterpreting how CWB might be accomplished in practice. Our study contributes a reflexivity model of CWB for purpose and practice, grounded in ethics, fairness and inclusion, and is of significance to LA initiatives claiming a CWB mission, vision and strategy.

Abstract Recent policy focus is on the ‘non-obvious’ role of community-based organisations in tackling causes of poor health, such as social exclusion. Men’s Sheds are a type of community-based organisation offering health and wellbeing benefits to men, despite this not being the explicit reason they exist. A qualitative study was conducted in Scotland to identify sustainability challenges that impact on the ability of Sheds to become a formal healthcare service. Findings showed that a reliance on ageing and retired volunteers to undertake operational tasks and generate income to fund activities affected the ability of Sheds to sustain and develop. Further, members preferred their Sheds to remain informal and flexible to fit their specific needs. Although Sheds are recognised for their health and wellbeing benefits to men, policymakers must recognise that formalising their activities might detract from the Shed’s primary aims. This paper summarises specific policy implications and recommendations, taking into consideration tensions between the expectations placed on Sheds to expand into formal healthcare delivery, and the needs of Shed users. Highlights: Men’s Shed are known for their ability to contribute to men’s health and wellbeing. The potential of Shed to take on a formal healthcare role is questionable because of a reliance on ageing and retired volunteers and a preference to remain informal. Policymakers must recognise that although Sheds might be well placed to offer formal health care this may detract from their primary aims.

While policies in support of social and commercial entrepreneurship are widely used to foster economic growth and increase prosperity, little is known about the effectiveness of various interventions. Despite the diversity of approaches, some places remain more conducive to developing entrepreneurship than others. Scotland is an interesting context in which to study entrepreneurial support and particularly business support to social enterprises. Despite the wealth of support available in this country, practitioners still face numerous challenges at various stages of entrepreneurial development. Drawing on the analysis of qualitative data emerging from a study exploring social enterprise practitioners’ views on business support provision, and considering pre-start-up, start-up and established stages of social enterprise development, this paper shows that, currently, support is poorly-coordinated, inadequate and sometimes repetitive. Our study reveals conflict between service providers and a mismatch between social enterprise policy aspirations and practical implementation. We conclude that the implementation of social enterprise policies lacks a holistic approach and is based on ad-hoc support, making it inefficient and wasteful. Finally, we highlight that the amount of business support provided does not equate to effectiveness and call for ongoing scrutiny and monitoring of policy implementation.

The global aging demographic is putting pressure on state-delivered health and social care services. As the austerity agenda in the UK cuts state-funded service provision for older people despite increasing demand, social enterprise has become a politically and economically attractive model for the sustainable delivery of some public services. Yet little is known about the impact of social enterprise on the health and wellbeing of older people. In this paper we address this gap in understanding and consider social enterprise activities as complex public health-promoting interventions. Our study aimed to understand what impact social enterprise activities had on the health and wellbeing of participants aged over 50, and also how that impact was created. To achieve this, we conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample (n = 43) of staff, volunteers, clients and carers aged over 50 who were involved in activities delivered by three social enterprises. Using a thematic analysis to explore manifest and latent themes, two antecedents of subjective younger age emerged explaining how benefit was created, namely downward social comparison and identity. The social enterprise activities we studied benefited participants' health and wellbeing, impacting positively on participants' sense of purpose, social support, connectedness and inclusion. These health and wellbeing benefits can be considered as outcomes of complex public health interventions for older people, and we relate these outcomes to beneficial conditions within the intermediary social determinants of health. We conclude by discussing the future impact of social enterprise activities and current UK policy on the structural determinants of health.

In this paper, we argue that social enterprise could represent a means of tackling rural challenges of providing sustainable economic development, addressing the withdrawal of public services and promoting community cohesion. The paper draws upon a review of existing academic as well as policy literature and develops a conceptual framework that helps to understand how to unlock the potential contribution of social enterprises to rural development. Drawing on an exploratory study conducted in two rural areas of Scotland we use interview data from social enterprise stakeholders to populate the conceptual framework and its rural (geographic), policy and social enterprise domains. Our study suggests that social enterprises can potentially enable an integrated approach to addressing local issues at the local level. They can create locally responsive services that fit the rural context. However, unlocking the potential of rural social enterprise may require moving beyond traditional policy silo approaches that treat economic development, community cohesion and public services as separate and disconnected since national policy-making frameworks have not always translated into practice at the rural level. Additionally, policy treatment of social enterprise needs to move beyond efforts to ‘scale up’ and achieve economies of scale. Collaborations between groups of social enterprises, and between social enterprises and public authorities can lead to economies of scope, particularly where strong trust-based relations within communities harness self-help and the co-production of services. With appropriate guidance and support, many rural challenges and needs could be transformed into opportunities for social enterprise development. In highlighting the opportunities and challenges faced by rural social enterprises, the paper suggests potential research gaps that, if filled, could contribute towards recognising and unlocking their full potential., Highlights • Rural social enterprise conceptual framework combines rural, policy and social enterprise domains. • Social enterprises recognise the interconnectedness between different rural needs and potential solutions. • Rural challenges could be transformed into opportunities for social enterprise and community development. • National social enterprise policies are not well-translated into practice at the rural level. • Future success or rural social enterprises depends on breaking down traditional policy silo.

Social isolation and loneliness has been classed as a major public health concern due to its negative physical and mental health implications, and living in a remote or rural area is a prominent contributing risk factor. Community-led social enterprise models are recognised in government policy as a potential preventative measure for social isolation and loneliness, yet there is a lack of understanding of their application in rural contexts. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the role of social enterprise in addressing social isolation and loneliness in rural communities, and to explore the pathways in which social enterprise activity may act upon the health and wellbeing of social enterprise beneficiaries. We also discuss the capacity of rural community members to deliver and sustain such services. The study used in-depth interviews over a three-year period with 35 stakeholders from seven social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, including board members, staff, volunteers and service users. Findings showed that social enterprises are successfully providing activities that counteract factors contributing to social isolation and feelings of loneliness, leading to wider health and wellbeing benefits for individuals. However, the sustainability and continuity of social enterprises are questionable due to the burden on smaller populations, limited expertise and knowledge of running social enterprises, and effects on the personal lives of social enterprise volunteers and staff. This study supports suggestions that social enterprises can be generators of health and wellbeing through their varied remit of activities that impact on the social determinants of health. However, it also shows that relying on social enterprise as a particular solution to social isolation and loneliness is precarious due to complexities associated with rurality. Therefore, rural policy and practice must move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to tackling social isolation and loneliness, recognise the need for local level tailored interventions and, through harnessing the potential or rural social enterprises, enable flexible service provision that correlates with rural context., Highlights • Rural social enterprise activity is impacting on factors that contribute to social isolation and loneliness. • Rural social enterprises provide services that generate opportunities to gain social support and form social relationships. • As a result, rural social enterprises have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of social enterprise stakeholders. • Social enterprise service provision also has negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of staff and volunteers.

Although men have a lower life expectancy than women, and are more susceptible to illness, they have been found to be less likely to engage in health‐seeking behaviour. Men's Sheds, as a gendered intervention, has been identified as an effective way to engage men in meaningful activity and gain social support from others. However, links between sheds and health and well‐being are not well‐documented, and evidence is lacking of the potential causal pathways to health generation. This study aims to develop a plausible empirically based causal theory of how Men's Sheds influence the health and well‐being of their participants and to set out future research directions to test this theory. Drawing on a scoping review of academic, peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 1990 and 2018, potential causal linkages between shed activity and health and well‐being outcomes are synthesised into a logic model framework. Sixteen relevant peer‐reviewed journal were identified from the academic literature. The data from the articles are predominantly self‐reported, and characterised by small sample sizes and/ or low response rates. Further, information is lacking on the demographics of Men's Shed participants and the contexts in which they exist. Most notably, while there is some evidence on the potential mental health and social well‐being impacts of shed activities, physical health is less documented. The study shows that there is a lack of reliable and systematic evidence of the potential causal pathways between Men's Shed activities and health and well‐being outcomes. In order to address research gaps, further research is required to test and develop the proposed theory and logic model.

Governments move away from their roles as providers and take on roles as facilitators and enablers. Such transformations provide opportunities for individuals to play an active role in improving th...

With men more susceptible than women to illness and mortality, and less likely to access primary healthcare services, there have been calls for more male friendly spaces within communities to engage ‘hard to reach’ men in physical health improvement. Research has shown that Men’s Shed (Shed) activity can provide localised support for the mental health and social wellbeing of men within communities, yet less is known about Sheds’ impacts on physical health. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 62 Sheds users, this study conceptualises proposed pathways from which Shed activity can lead to positive physical health outcomes. Findings showed that in attending a community Men’s Shed and taking part in activities users reported (i) increased mobility and decreased sedentary behavior, (ii) increased ability to overcome physical illness or injury, (iii) improved diet, (iv) decreased alcohol use, and (v) improved physical health knowledge. These findings support wider recommendations for community-based male friendly approaches to physical health improvement, and stress the importance of health and care service delivery beyond boundaries of ‘standard’ NHS settings, especially when targeting those viewed as ‘hard to reach’. While initiatives like Sheds do not offer a replacement of primary healthcare services, they have the potential to fit within existing health and social care practices as an alternative local health-engagement space for men.

Although increasingly prominent in research, policy and practice, little is known about social innovation in a rural context. To address this knowledge gap, our paper explores how rurality might affect the social innovation process. Drawing on 68 interviews carried out with beneficiaries, service providers and external stakeholders of a rural social enterprise initiative in Scotland, the paper adopts a realist evaluation theory (Pawson and Tilley, 1997) approach combined with Calo et al.’s (2019) social innovation analytical framework to identify Context-Mechanism-Outcome configurations for rural social innovation. The findings highlight that specific characteristics of rural places can act as stimuli of social innovation. Positive outcomes of a social innovation can potentially be rooted in rural peculiarity and its problematic context. Push factors, born out of necessity, lead to reactive social innovation and pull factors, derived through harnessing perceived opportunities in the environment, lead to proactive social innovation. Importantly, push factors do not undermine the establishment of social innovation – indeed, they can actually promote social innovation and strengthen its validity. The paper also shows that outcomes of the social innovation process might not be specific to rural areas. Instead, the pathway to the desired outcomes is conditioned by rural factors, shaping the contexts and mechanisms of rural social innovation. As different rural locations might have different resources to address local challenges, social innovation processes vary from one case to another, although the challenges being addressed might be similar. As such, rural social innovation policies should not be ‘over prescribed’. Context creates both challenges and solutions and influences the type and form of mechanisms used to achieve a desirable social innovation outcome.

Background Men’s health is a globally underrepresented area of research and policy. With men facing numerous healthcare barriers, there are calls for more ‘male friendly’ approaches to health improvement that take into consideration differing male behaviours and attitudes towards health. Men’s Sheds are community-based organisations delivering practical and social activities that encourage positive health behaviours. While Sheds have been recognised for their health and wellbeing benefits to men, research has yet to explore the impacts of Sheds on male health improvement and their potential role as a preventative gendered public health measure. Methods The study used in-depth interviews with 62 Shed members from five Sheds to investigate the impacts of Shed activity on the health improvement behaviours and attitudes of Shed users. Findings from the qualitative study were used to propose a set of pathways in which Sheds activity led to positive health engagement. Results The proposed pathways suggest that there are many different and interlinked ways in which Shed activities can impact on the health behaviours and attitudes of Shed users. Through participation in various practical and social activities in an inclusive environment, Shed users reported increases in their health seeking behaviours, improved perspectives on and management of their personal health, and an increased ability to overcome illness and recover. Conclusions Where male friendly health provision has been lacking, this study suggests how Men’s Shed activities can provide positive male health outcomes, often in unexpected and non-obvious ways. In particular, the proposed visual pathways are important to inform policymakers and practitioners of the ways in that Sheds may contribute to engaging men in health improvement practices and increase their health knowledge. This study also provides a structure from which further studies can measure and evaluate Shed health impacts.

In this work, we present an account of our experiences with a group of graduate students studying social entrepreneurship at the master’s level. They participated in a prominent international business plan competition that challenges students to come up with a solution to a significant real-world problem. We facilitated the process of their involvement with the support of a visiting colleague to identify what the students thought was a workable solution. Our students learned about the nature, scale, and complexity of so-called “wicked problems” and potential solutions. We consider that practice-based cocurricular activities are not an easy option for faculty and that students need extensive support. Although students can gain significant learning from such experiences, we consider that learning outcomes are best enhanced through students working closely with those with a deep, contextualized familiarity of context to coproduce integrated solutions. Subscribe to JNEL

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) - funded by Scottish Government and the European Social Fund - adopts a ‘public venture capital’ model to support socially innovative organisations. This article critically explores the use of public venture capital programmes to fund and grow the social economy through the case study of Heavy Sound Community Interest Company. We conclude that, while SIF funding helped Heavy Sound to scale-up an effective intervention in the short term, further significant scaling might undermine the project’s success and long-term sustainability was not assured. We call for further research into the long-term consequences of public venture capital programmes coming to an end, including coordinated evaluation of the SIF.

In recent years, music‐based interventions have been utilised as a tool for improving public health, reducing inequalities and promoting well‐being of young people. Although some researchers have begun to draw links between music‐related interventions and positive health outcomes, there is little understanding as to how such effects are produced. Realist evaluations—understanding what works, for whom and under what circumstances—are a particularly apt means by which we can open this ‘black box’. In this paper, we use a realist evaluation to assess a community‐based music initiative designed and implemented to support the well‐being of disadvantaged young people in Scotland. In order to gain perspectives on the range of contextual characteristics, mechanisms and outcomes, we collected quantitative and qualitative data in the form of pre‐ and post‐questionnaires, as well as conducting interviews with beneficiaries and stakeholders. Our findings show that the intervention achieved a positive impact on the self‐confidence, well‐being and engagement of disadvantaged young people. This impact was achieved via an approach personally tailored to the individual needs of the young people; and an organisational environment characterised by trust, whereby young people felt safe to express themselves.

In the transition from welfare to ‘enabling’ states, governments move away from their previous roles as providers of services. Individuals and communities as collectives of individuals are encouraged to play a more active role in improving their own wellbeing and resilience, thus shifting from dependence on the state to self-reliance. This proposed transformation is highly complex and poorly understood. We question whether government interventions and policies aimed at strengthening community empowerment can lead to an enabling state. By examining externally funded community projects in six rural Scottish villages, we investigate whether these development initiatives helped to improve socio-economic aspects related to community resilience. We used uni/bivariate and multivariate analysis with data from 345 structured interviews. Our results show that those communities where projects were completed had a higher average social resilience than the communities where projects remained incomplete. Social resilience factors, including social ties and networks, were predictors of completing community projects. Our results indicate that some communities are harder to activate and require external state support which addresses local needs so that these communities play a more active civic role. If states seek ‘resilient communities’, interventions must be co-designed with citizens to create conditions that will engage and enable people to take more control of aspects of their future, including those communities with a history of minimal civic participation.

Abstract This article explores a process meant to empower disadvantaged communities that have not previously engaged in government-instigated civic projects. Drawing on a large exploratory study of an empowerment project in seven Scottish rural communities, findings include that empowering communities should harness community development techniques that use both external actors and sources of support (i.e. exogenous practices), and those that utilise assets from within the community (i.e. endogenous practices). The paper presents the Engagement-Participation-Empowerment Model showing stages in transferring power from external actors to local communities. The paper highlights that the process of community empowerment starts with engagement and follows with participation – both representing a precondition of community empowerment. The paper indicates that there are limits to which community members are capable of embracing current community empowerment policies and showing that even targeted ‘well-tailored’ community empowerment programmes might fail. Implications of the study for further research and policy are identified.

Community Orientated and Opportunity Learning (COOL) Music was a 12-month collaborative project between researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University and practitioners at the Edinburgh-based social enterprise Heavy Sound. The project began in October 2017 and involved 16 sessions of participatory music making with 32 ‘hard-to-reach’ young people (aged 12–17) aimed at increasing confidence and self-esteem and improving social skills. Using COOL Music as a case study, this article explores some of the challenges faced by community-based arts organisations tasked with delivering such interventions, contrasting COOL Music’s small-scale, targeted, community-based approach with prevailing top-down music interventions in Scotland. We argue that such programmes are particularly suitable in engaging those at the margins of society, reaching them on their own terms through music that resonates with their own lived experience. However, we acknowledge the short-term and transitory nature of such projects may prove problematic for some hard-to-reach groups who require more stability in their lives and may also lead to staff fatigue and burnout. We call for further research in these areas, and greater policy attention to be paid to the sustainability of such projects.

Purpose This paper aims to explore how nascent social businesses move beyond the incubation phase and it develops understanding of how early-stage social businesses access finance to achieve growth. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory and inductive study is based on four focus group discussions with early-stage social entrepreneurs, “successful” social entrepreneurs who had achieved growth, and social impact investors. Findings Social capital allows a social business founder to access financial capital to “prove their concept”, or to directly attract investment from family and friends for start-up costs. To gain funding, social entrepreneurs present the desired image of the heroic change-maker. Interestingly, creating the right impression is equally important in securing financial capital as the “hard-work” itself. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted in London, which, like many other “global” cities, has a unique business environment. The study is exploratory in nature. Further work in this area is required to draw more definitive conclusions. Practical implications Financial products offered to social businesses are often dispersed and inappropriate. The study indicates that access to “soft loans” and grants is critical in the early stages of social business growth and that social entrepreneurs use both formal and informal funding sources to develop their businesses. Where a person is not connected to wealthy acquaintances either through family, or through social networks, they may often struggle to access finance in a world where the network’s resources appear to be as important as the entrepreneur’s resourcefulness. This has particular implications for the demographic make-up of “successful social entrepreneurs” operating social businesses, as these may be drawn from the most privileged and/or well-connected members of a group which already appears skewed towards white middle-class males. Social implications This study highlights that current support structures favour relatively privileged social entrepreneurs rather than encompassing and empowering those disadvantaged, social minority groups and those in the greatest need. This is important because social business is often portrayed, possibly incorrectly, as a mechanism for addressing poverty through empowerment of disadvantaged groups. Originality/value Research in social business development has largely neglected the social and cultural dynamics that embed start-ups. This paper tackles this gap and contributes to building knowledge in the area of early-stage social business development.

This article focuses on hard-to-reach communities with weak histories of engagement and it explores whether facilitated community interventions can empower and develop community resilience. Drawing on data from 6 communities, the article indicates a need for tailored and context-specific support that matches local needs. Implementation of community projects is not linear and the delivery of interventions in hard-to-reach communities is associated with the risk of failure. Developing community resilience among communities that do not engage requires long-term interventions, on-going input, and a collaborative approach to working with communities to support equal and harmonized development.

The economic importance of the private sector, such as the contribution of businesses to Gross Domestic Product or to employment creation, is well recognised in research and policy. In the context of significant economic, social and environmental changes such as the economic downturn, public spending cuts, an ageing population and climate change, the broader social and environmental contributions of the private sector to local resilience have begun to be recognised by researchers and policy-makers. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the nature of, and motivations for, these different contributions. This paper discusses the findings of a case study in South Australia which aimed to enhance our understanding of the role of private sector enterprises in local development and resilience. In particular, this article explores What, How and Why questions: What are the economic and social contributions of rural businesses to local resilience?, How are these contributions made? and Why do business owners make these contributions? The findings reveal that rural businesses contribute to local resilience in both direct and indirect ways. Direct contributions include, for example, the creation of local employment and local product and service delivery. Indirect contributions can be understood as the knock-on effect or added value of primary business activities. For example, the provision of employment opportunities helps to reduce the risk of out-migration and depopulation. With reference to the concept of embeddedness, the study demonstrates the importance of the rural context in shaping the behaviour of rural business owners and encouraging them to operate in economically, socially and environmentally responsible ways. However, this is not a passive relationship; rural business owners have the motivation and resources to respond to specific local challenges, opportunities and characteristics, and to proactively and skilfully turn them into entrepreneurial opportunities. As such, they become part of the adaptation process, acting as agents of change in supporting rural resilience. This adaptation process contributes to enhanced community resilience which enables the modification of existing structures and the seeking of solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.

This article considers whether, and if so how, rural communities can be supported, through a facilitated process, to create social enterprises within the field of health and care. Using results from the thematic analysis of four community case studies involved in a facilitated action- research process, the article identifies community capabilities and entrepreneurial skills needed to create such rural community-based service providers. The identification of similarities and differences in how the development process took place in four communities allows us to present a development model of our facilitated process. The article contributes to understanding about rural community social enterprises for service provision and the processes associated with their creation.

This article explores an understanding of the entrepreneurial behavior of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Poland, one of the emerging markets of the European Union, during the recent period of economic slowdown. It considers the role of accessibility to external financial resources in shaping decisions undertaken by such enterprises. The hypothesis is that, in a period of economic slowdown, SMEs that have difficulty in accessing external sources of financing adopt different strategies than those that have free access to those resources. The findings indicate that access to the external sources of financing is a statistically significant factor determining decisions of SMEs in relation to employment reduction, price reductions on goods/services, suspension of previously planned investments, and an increase in the level of salaries. Consequently, the study is important as it considers factors that impact the success and survival of SMEs in the emerging market; it is also unique, as it investigates these aspects in the recent period of the global economic downturn. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper explores the role of private sector enterprises in building the resilience of rural Scotland. In addition, the paper seeks to identify changes in rural enterprise activities and their impact on rural life. The paper is based on quantitative secondary data analysis and two qualitative case studies. These demonstrate how rural enterprises contribute to economic and social development in rural communities and the wider resilience of rural locations. Analysis of the secondary data highlights an increasing contribution by private sector enterprises to overall employment in rural Scotland. The data verify the importance of SMEs and, in particular, micro businesses in rural job creation. They also show the role of rural businesses in increasing the diversification of the local economy and therefore in building wider rural community resilience. The results identify changing employment patterns in rural areas (such as an increasing level of self-employment, part-time and home working and multiple job holding) which might be associated with the capacity to adapt to dynamic changes in the socio-economic environment. Finally, qualitative findings help to further understand how private sector enterprises contribute to the social and environmental resilience of rural Scotland by identifying the role they play in enhancing the quality of life of those living in rural locations. Consequently, the paper makes a substantial and original contribution to existing knowledge and debate on resilience. It uses current data on the characteristics of rural private sector enterprises to identify their economic, social and environmental importance in building the resilience of rural places and their communities.

Enhancing inclusion and self-reliance at community level is gaining ground in policy terms, due - in part - to the need to increase the efficiency of public spend, associated with the global financial crisis. Within Scotland, this shift is manifested through multiple policy and community interventions seeking to enhance resilience of communities. Measuring community resilience remains challenging as there is a lack of practical tools and assessment methods to capture aspects of 'change'. The research presented here is based on the 'Capacity for Change' programme, which, through community engagement and empowerment, seeks to enhance the capacity of rural places and develop inclusive communities. The paper presents (i) an evaluation model for measuring community resilience and (ii) empirical findings that derive from deploying the model in a real-life scenario. Based on 155 face-to-face interviews with inhabitants from rural communities, resilience is revealed as being multi-scalar and interdependent, indicating the importance of 'unpacking' resilience by exploring different levels of its social and economic components. The findings indicate the significance of inter-connectivity of local and regional, and those less and more resilient areas. In addition, it shows that locations with more diversified services and resources are reported by their residents as being more resilient.

Recent legislative and other policy-related developments seek to enhance local agenda-setting through empowered communities. However, community development is separated from community empowerment, thus implicitly supporting a more uncritical perspective of empowerment processes. In this article we: (1) focus on communities who do not engage; (2) identify in-community sub-groups and differences as the norm rather than exception; (3) recognise the backwards and forwards motion of community development processes; (4) identify the fluidity of in-community interests and powers; and (5) recognise differences between individual and community-level aspirations. We use evidence from a development project which targets communities that do not engage. Based on interviews with the project manager, project officer, and 155 community members, we conclude that: demoting capacity-building betrays an intrinsic and naïve belief in self-fulfilling processes of community empowerment, rather than acknowledgement of complexities; there is a need, therefore, to remain sceptical in order that analyses are sensitive to complexities of empowerment.

Scottish Government-commissioned Research Programme ‘Vibrant Rural Communities’: ‘Governance and Decision-Making for Community Empowerment’ (2011–2016)