Entrepreneurship scholarship faces challenges related to diverse populations, striving to balance inclusivity with the recognition of unique entrepreneurial identities. Applying optimal distinctiveness theory, we explore the relationship between belongingness and uniqueness in entrepreneurship research. Catalyzed by Bakker and McMullen’s 2023 article on inclusivity in entrepreneurship, we utilized natural language processing to examine responses about inclusive entrepreneurship from 29 scholars dedicated to marginalized populations. Findings suggest that employing varied research methods and integrating structural and epistemological considerations can enhance our understanding of entrepreneurial heterogeneity. We advocate for entrepreneurship research that values individual experiences while promoting inclusive practices, highlighting the need for evolving scholarly paradigms to reflect entrepreneurial differences.

Purpose – The motivation for this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of some of the important and trending topics in the sport industry. Besides this, to consider the changing landscape of ownership, strategies and organisation of several types of sports in the contemporary environment, there is a need for deeper contextual knowledge of how different sport/s, leagues, clubs, associations, teams etc. own, organise and strategise at local to national to regional to international contexts.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper introduces the special issue on the sport industry that welcomes four interesting contributions of focusing on the important themes related to the sport industry. They include (1) digital transformation and needed capabilities, (2) fan engagement in a digital way using social media, (3) network convergence of business, entertainment and geo-politics through sports ownership and finally (4) the relevance and relation of social capital in the organisational strategy of sports organisations.

Findings – Four generic insights related to the themes and emerging trends in marketisation, ownership and digitalisation strategies in the sport industry are introduced in this paper. The first insight is that sports digitalisation and politicisation significantly impact the strategising, organising and networking activities of sports owners to foster value capture. Secondly, owners’ performance duality of marketisation of their sports clubs and vested business interests unravels the paradoxes of idealism and profit-maximisation. Thirdly, individual sports stars position themselves as an influential platform of value creation through on-field performance, social engagement and self-interests. Finally, the fourth insight is that the dual aims of sporting on-field success and profit making of large capital-funded sports clubs endanger the autonomy and governance of sports bodies/associations and an equitable sporting competition environment.

Originality/value – This paper provides an overview and reflections on the contributions of the papers in this special issue. The papers give different perspectives on how sport has been influenced by the development in society (1) with increasing digitalisation influencing organising of sport clubs and strategies for engaging fans, and (2) the influence of marketisation and politics in ownership strategies. As such, four insightful reflections are developed based on the originality of the contributions and the related extant literature presented on the themes of marketisation, ownership and digitalisation of the sport industry.

Purpose - Research and experience show that evidence-based practice (EBP), i.e. using the best available knowledge in daily professional work, is difficult to achieve in social services. The purpose of this study is to understand the development of organizational EBP learning processes in daily work through workplace education for staff and managers of supported homes for people with cognitive disabilities. The authors examine how the EBP model and new knowledge are understood and made actionable in the workplace, applying theories of organizational learning.

Design/methodology/approach - The authors used empirical material collected from an EBP workplace education pilot in Sweden, as well as documents on national EBP implementation in Swedish social services. Before the pilot, a focus group interview was conducted with regional senior managers. Participating managers and staff were individually interviewed two to three years after the pilot.

Findings - The study illustrates how knowledge-based action emerged from education where EBP was interpreted, understood, reflected on, and tested, supported by codified EBP tools in the work context. The participants, when supervised, and when observing and questioning their own behaviors in practice, contributed to double-loop learning (DLL) processes. Codification of EBP knowledge into useful tools and socialization processes during education and workplace meetings was crucial in developing individual and group DLL and knowledge-based actions.

Originality/value - The bottom-up approach to EBP development and the adaptive contextual learning at the workplace gave new insights into organizational learning in social service workplaces.

Entrepreneurship is by many recognized as a solution to environmental and social challenges of today’s society. However, it has also been criticized since it may maintain the capitalistic demands of growth and efficiency in an unsustainable way. In this paper we like to challenge the current conception of entrepreneurship that aim for societal change by tracing what, how, where and with whom such entrepreneurship is performed. Further, we take inspiration from the idea of diverse economy by Gibson-Graham and introduce the concept of alternative entrepreneurship to explore how it takes shape, change its contours and both challenges and propels contemporary capitalism. In this chapter we present three ethnographic cases unfolding diverse entrepreneurial activities: 1) the case of Oria, who contributes to social justice through fair trade; 2) the case of artisan food producers who contribute to biological diversity and a rural livelihood; and 3) the case of the DiE project//NEEM NGO, that contributes to social inclusion through entrepreneurial empowerment and the development of a micro credit program. We find that the alternative entrepreneurs are not constrained by organizational forms or by a limited number of economic and non-economic activities as to target societal challenges. The alternative entrepreneurs move between different organizational forms such as non-profit and for profit, as well as, undertaking business and voluntary practices to achieve societal change. Finally, we conclude that the ethnographic tracing of alternative entrepreneurship, allowing previously unsighted activities become visible, also creatively destroy the overly-narrow conception of entrepreneurship. 

Purpose – The aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses,which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth constraints of artisanal logic.The study answers the research question of, how and when do the artisanal entrepreneurs respond to tensionsbetween the small-scale craftsmanship logic and the business growth logic?

Design/methodology/approach – This study consists of two cases of artisanal food entrepreneurs situatedin rural regions of Sweden. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations and secondarysources. The analysis consists of two steps: a narrative analysis and a categorization of institutional logicsusing Pache and Santos (2013) framework.

Findings – Our findings show that the artisanal food entrepreneurs used several types of response to thetensions between the two institutional logics. As businesses grew, business growth logic increasinglypenetrated the companies’ operations. They responded by combining and blending the two logics and avoidedgrowing too large themselves by collaborating with suppliers and local farmers. In addition, other activitiesneeded to be compartmentalized and hidden since these activities could threaten their business images andtheir own criteria for small-scale food artisans.

Originality/value – Much work on how different institutional logics affect businesses have been on astructural level. This study answers the call on that more research is needed on an individual level by studyinghow individuals interpret logics and use them in their business activities

The Swedish animal welfare debate has for years focused on the meat industry, which sees animals not as sentient creatures but as production factors and commodities to be economically exploited. Although animal rights organizations have tried to change the meat industry and consumer behaviour, meat consumption is increasing. This could be explained as ‘affected ignorance’ generated by what one already knows but does not want to hear about. This paper discusses how various actors, such as meat industry companies, food retailers, and social movement organizations, frame animal welfare in the media debate with the use of discourses, which are important for producing or discouraging affected ignorance. The paper examines a discursive battle in which actors draw on various discourses over time but also hijack opponents’ discourses. This use of discourses seems to blur the debate and confuse people and they will continue to eat meat from factory-farmed animals.

Entrepreneurship nowadays take on new and alternative guises in society; often with the ambition to make the world more resilient in one way or another. We take an interest in this expansion of alternative entrepreneurshipand ask how we can trace the different alternative grassroots forms of entrepreneurship that are initiated for the betterment of society in the Swedish society. 

In this paper we will draw upon three ethnographic cases that are alternative in the sense that a typical prefix is added to describe what they do (solidary, preservative, bridging) and that they seek to turn something (a mission, setting or activity) more entrepreneurial. Further we will develop descriptions of the three cases and engage in an analysis of alternative entrepreneurship by posing the following questions: 

• What is alternative in these cases? 
• How do these forms of entrepreneurship respond to shortcomings in conventional entrepreneurship? 
• What kind of resilience can be discerned?
• What alternative form does this take? 
• How is resilience organized?
• What is the common denominator for these cases?

The focus on entrepreneurship has been seen as a positive economic activity (Tedmanson, Verduijn, Essers & Gartner, 2012), not only bringing about innovations in the business and at the market but also as a way to develop societies (e.g. Berglund, Johannisson & Schwartz, 2012). However, entrepreneurship education in business schools is still mainly related to more conventional forms of entrepreneurship, with a focus on starting a company based on the innovation of a new product or service (Fiet, 2000; Gartner & Vesper, 1994; Gorman, Hanlon & King, 1997; Henry, Hill & Leitch, 2005). Accordingly, students learn how to start a company, find a customer demand and make their company profitable and successful on the market. Not on our course. We aim to give the students a broader awareness of the societal issues that today’s society is facing, frequently caused by the traditional economical reasoning, such as growth and more efficient production processes. The issues that are targeted are pollution, poor working conditions and overconsumption, but also other societal issues more related to integration, and mental health.

Since 2010 a large-scale project on implementing Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) in the social services has been governed by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in partnership with The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). The overall idea of the partnership is to support implementation of EBP in the social services (i.e. elderly care, support and care of the disabled and, child, family and individual social support) via regional supportive structures for local knowledge development. The evidence based model is used as the guiding idea of this national initiative initially adapted and translated from the ideas of evidence based medicine and built upon the triangular model of knowledge sources; A. best available knowledge from research or best practice B. the individual service users’ needs and aims and C. the actual individual situation and contextual factors. All together these three sources should make up the professional knowledge base used by the social service worker. 

Implementing the general idea of EBP according to the triangular model of knowledge sources is in this paper seen as chains of translations (Czarniawska and Sevón, 1996; Sahlin and Wedlin, 2008) but also as technologies of government (Miller and Rose, 2008). What happens when the EBP-model meets the reality and context of every-day life of the social worker? Which challenges for developing more knowledge based ways of working are experienced in the local social service organizations? 

The empirical material is based on focus group interviews with social care managers in the county of Västmanland in Sweden in late 2014 on main challenges in implementing knowledge based ways of working in social services. Findings indicate the pre-understanding of EBP being scaring, complicated and scarcely accessible for real work situations, especially in the care of elderly or disabled persons. 

In this paper we investigate how small- scale food producers handle the tension between small-scale craftsmanship production and the traditional business growth logic. We use qualitative case method and investigate two farms. Our result shows that growth occurs more in forms of collaborations rather than within an organization.